It never rains but…

…when it does it is torrential here!

Doesn’t everything always happen at once – we are feeling a bit overloaded at the moment and probably due to the relentless stress of the past few months I have finally succumbed to a nasty flu-like virus and lost my voice as well so this week I have been off work and off everything including blogging.

Since my last post we have been busy both here in this house and at the cottage.  The insurance claim for the cottage is advancing very slowly – our unaffected contents are about to be packed up on Monday – only 9 weeks after the flood!!   When we go up to the cottage to tend the garden we are having to stay in a bed and breakfast – down by the harbour in the village and ironically looking across to our cottage!  Our only means of heating a kettle of water to make ourselves a cuppa is on a camping stove in the garage as the electricity is still turned off in the cottage – not sure what we will do when the weather turns cooler as the garage is not a warm place against the cold winter winds.

At the moment we are concentrating on putting the garden back together.  It took me the whole of one day to clear out the debris swept down with the flood waters which collected in the privet hedging – the pebbles covering the little border under the Fatsia had all disappeared and been washed away under the privet – so I had to grovel about for hours picking out pebbles to be able to put them back in place.  But now it look as before.

The 8 foot privet hedge by the log store that was badly damaged and laying on its side has been cut down to two feet and hoisted back into place – now we can only wait and pray for its’ revival.

It is going to be a slow job.

Having a major flood in your life does make you think about your possessions in a new light.  When they go to pack up our unaffected contents for storage on Monday they will also be removing the damaged ones so we will be saying goodbye to a houseful of items all hit by the flood water – this will include everything from wardrobes, beds, duvets, chairs, tables, settee, cooking dishes and smaller items – books, ornaments and garden machinery.  All will go in a skip – we will never see them again – some we cannot replace if we wanted to.  It is like a sudden bereavement a loss on a grand scale.  And then when all our possessions are taken away the contractors will go in and remove all the fabric of the house – our lovely painted boarding, kitchen units, bathroom suite, floorboards, skirting boards and doors.  It is like building a house in reverse!

I cannot get precious about my possessions anymore – in fact I have decided I do not want to have things in case I lose them again.  With this in mind we have been undertaking a major clear out here at home and pairing down to the absolute essentials.  I may even become one of those people able to live with only 100 items.

On the good side our bathroom refurb is advancing – we have a bath installed and a shiny new chrome towel rail.  The tiled floor is being put down now as we speak then it will be ready for grout.   Once this is done the basin and toilet will go in and we can get the electrician back to put in the fan and lights.  It is looking so different to what we had before – I can’t wait until it is finished now.

 So that is my update for the moment…back soon x