The lights are on...

but nobody's home.

Always a sad day when the Gin Palace is emptied of its soft furnishings and little knick knacks and put to bed for the winter.  

I am taking comfort from the fact that each spring, when the official re-opening takes place, it always seems as though only two minutes has passed since the closed it down.  When we closed it last year we never could have imagined what lay ahead for the world and probably wouldn't have believed it if we had.  Here's hoping when next spring comes and it's time to breathe life into the Gin Palace again, civid restrictions are at an end.

Lola was having great fun chasing leaves round the garden.  It's a thankless task raking them up at the moment as the wind scatters them as quickly as they are raked, not helped by the fact we've run out of bin bags, so that job will be re-tackled another day.

This morning it was D's job to take the beef stew out of the freezer for tonight's dinner, which he duly did.  When it was time to make dinner I couldn't find it.  I checked all the obvious places - the counter tops, the top of the Aga, the kitchen table, the utility room, but to no avail.  I called him through to ask where he'd put it .  After puzzling over it for a few seconds, he looked very sheepish and opened the freezer....and yes there it was right at the front of the freezer shelf!  The stew had been at the back of the freezer so he'd he had to remove the chilli, the bolognese and curry to get to it.  He'd then put them back into the freezer....along with the stew!   

Honestly, we are getting worse!  lol