optimism

today, before some things and after others, I cut all the grass out from between the fruit bushes and gave them some mulch and something to nourish them a bit. And then I did a bit of tidying up ready for the BIG skip arriving tomorrow. It will go in this space and will take away the contents of the building on the right, the cellar and enough of some of the other buildings that we can actually open the doors....but somethings are being left for another day. We've owned this place for seven and a half years and we've spent nearly all that time rebuilding it and throwing things away* - today, for the first time, I've had the feeling that we're actually getting somewhere. We've taken some pretty big steps before this and the place is very, very different to when we bought it (for example, we bought a ten roomed house and seem to have reduced it to five....) but this is the first time when I've thought that, once this step is over, we'll be on to the nice bits rather than the bits that make your muscles and your bank account cry just thinking about it. We'll also have run out of money but that's a minor point - we'll just win the lottery (without playing it) or something....

*we've also worked and both of us grown ups have done a masters degree, the children have done lots of growing and learning, I've grown lots of vegetables and we've picked lots of apples and goodness only knows how many times we've been to the toilet. (this is the bit for the pedantic people ;-)