Another surface to collect tea-stained mugs and dust

What's Stephen doing with our fireplace?

He's screwing it into the wall so it doesn't fall over when people lean on it. Wonderful.

Pre-snow tidy.

With shed gone, me and my dad had left a big old mess in the garden. I didn't really care, but Hannah gets annoyed about these things. As usual, I put my dad to work while I pretended to busy myself with important stuff and taking the occasional photo.

 We reassembled the incinerator used by the previous occupant for the disposal of human remains, and got our flame on!

 Rotten wood and the remnants of corpse go up a treat!

 From what I can make out, it was totally legal, innit. (5th bullet-point down - WE considered it essential, and no one complained, so technically it wasn't a nuisance - take that local government!).

Our neighbours must love us. It was too cold for people to have their washing out, so we didn't stink out all their clothes though. I did leave the bedroom window open, so the curtains and all our clothes are still a bit bonfirey. That'll learn me.

 Apparently, there's a patio underneath the weeds and rubbish!

 Bonfire, still.

 This is where barbecues will happen. And maybe Pimms drinking in Summer. It's also where I'll probably lounge to get my Vitamin Ds.

 Here, you can see that the sun is setting and there are some pleasant shadow/light motifs.

 Swept the path a bit.

 This is our house.

I've been doing things too!

With all this news of Jon and Stephen's hard work I decided I was feeling a bit left out. So to prove I have been doing things too, albeit on a smaller scale, I thought I better give you an update on the bedroom.

For my 30th birthday my Mum gave me this beautiful patchwork quilt she made in the 70s - notice the purple. I love this because each patch has a story. I spent a morning with my Mum and her sister Ruth one day, when the quilt was on my Mum's bed, going through all the patches and hearing about the dresses they came from. My Mum and Ruth used to be a bit of a pair when they were younger so every dress had an attached story (and sometime boy)! 

Other new additions come in the form of another one of the lovely rugs from Jenny and Stephen. And two new bedside tables, also from J&S. We had been thinking about using shelves as bedside tables to free up floor space but these are so lovely I think we'll keep them.

Jon also bought himself a new light. There's no bulb in it yet but it looks good none the less.

On reflection Jon carried the tables up and put them in place. And he fixed his light on. And he helped me put the quilt on the bed. So really this post hasn't shown me doing any work at all. Apart from turning 30 and getting a present.