My dearest friend, Sue, lost her 2 year battle with lung cancer yesterday morning.

Thanks for all the good wishes ... they have been passed on to her family.

As for me .... I'm taking time out to meditate in the woods for a few days, it helps center me in times of trouble.

I've just had some devastating news from my best friend's husband. She isn't expected to live beyond this weekend after suffering from lung cancer. Her infected lung has been filling with fluid and has been draining into her good lung so she effectively drowning slowly. She's too weak to undergo an operation to drain the lung so this is it.
I won't be around for a while, I'm needed elsewhere.

Please say a prayer for my friend Sue who has never smoked or done anything bad in her entire life. She doesn't deserve to go like this and her family don't deserve to lose such a lovely, kind, adorable person so say a prayer for her husband, children and grandchildren as well.

This sucks :(

Just had a phone call and my workshop is being delivered and erected tomorrow ... woohoo! This means that in the next few weeks I can get it all kitted out with office, art and craft stuff and start working from home again ... yeeha! I'm not going to make millions but I'm going to enjoy what I'm doing.

I've been getting frustrated with decorating and doing repairs all the time so I've paid a bit of attention to my garden.
I've planted trees ~ an apple, a pear, a cherry, a plum and a conker tree. I've planted tomatoes, runner beans, strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants and hops.
I've also got loads of planters full of flowers.
Made the mistake of buying some of my plants online from Garden Bargains ~ over half arrived dead and they won't give a refund :(
Still waiting for my workshop to arrive. I ordered it and paid the deposit at the end of April and they said that it would be built between the 6th and 10th May. That has been revised to the end of the month now ~ another bad internet purchase! In the meantime I'm clocking up hefty storage fees :(
I've had a major successful find on ebay. Got myself a lovely second hand kitchen with oak doors for a fraction of the price of a new one. Just got to take the old one out and fit it now ~ any volunteers? lol
The house is coming along ... nothing fancy, just comfortable.
I've got nice neighbours and the view at the back is amazing. I get visited by horses and a small deer every day. Life is good.

The new boiler has gone in so we're all safe now. Just got to repair and redecorate after the engineer cut out a wall
, a cupboard and floor boards!.... and that's just in my bedroom. You want to see the mess he's made of my kitchen :(
Sun's shining and I'm still breathing tho so all the mess can be dealt with soon enough. Right now ? ...... I need a cold beer and an hour in the garden!!

Couldn't understand why I've been getting so many headaches and feeling really lethargic over the last two weeks. My gas boiler had broken down so I had an engineer come out to fix it. He did lots of tests on it and informed me that it had been leaking carbon monoxide ... how long for is anybody's guess. Everyone in the house could have died, including the pets! Needless to say, I'm having a new boiler installed next Tuesday. In the meantime, this one has been condemned. I'm just thankful that I leave all my windows open!!
Makes me wonder what the old lady who used to live here died of though!!

Well I finally moved on the 15th of March but all did not go as planned. I had two big asthma attacks while trying to finish the packing on moving day and had to be attended by paramedics twice. Obviously this slowed down the whole process and we still hadn't finished at 4 pm when the new owner of my house marched in announcing that it was her house now and we had to get out. (We hadn't completed on my new house at this time .... in fact it was an hour later when it all went through!) Her removal men took the remainder of our belongings and literally threw them into the garage, while my son and partner frantically tried to get it all into our van, bearing in mind that it was freezing cold and bucketing down with rain that day.

I was told to get into a shed and take my dogs with me as she wasn't a dog person! I was wearing a t shirt and sweat pants as it had been hot cleaning the house through earlier. I'd even repainted a couple of scuffed walls that morning so that it was nice and fresh for her to move into. Had steam cleaned all the carpets, washed all the curtains, re-grouted the tiles in the bathroom and cleaned the cooker to within an inch of it's life ... you would have thought it was a new one. And that was after preparing a casserole for her so that she didn't have to worry about cooking that night! No wonder I had two asthma attacks!

Anyway, a couple of hours later, after shivering my ass off in the shed with the dogs, I decided that enough was enough and I bundled them into the car and headed off to the new house, leaving my son and partner to finish loading the van. All three dogs puked, pee'd and pooped in the back of the car so it was a smelly trip!

Upon arriving at the house I discovered that we had no heating or water! So, no fire to huddle up to and no hot drink ... not even a flushing loo :( By this time I was ridiculously cold. I took down one of the old velvet curtains the previous owner had left and wrapped that around me and got the dogs to snuggle up against me. I couldn't stop shivering. By the time my partner and son finally arrived I was having yet another asthma attack ... brought on by the cold. The paramedics were called again and this time I was rushed off to hospital as I had hypothermia.
Meanwhile, back at my old house, the new owner was getting her removal men to set up her electrical equipment, her sound system, even had them screwing the legs on her sofa! They put up shelves for her and placed every item of furniture exactly where she wanted it. When it was their finish time they still hadn't finished unloading all her stuff, all of which could have been put into the 3 large, empty sheds and empty garage. But no, that wasn't good enough for her so she had them put the remainder into storage, to be delivered on another day of her choice. She's now trying to sting me for her removal bill because her guys didn't finish on time and she's blaming us!

I'm back home now and busily painting and decorating my new house. I've got running water and heating at last. There's a lot to do and most of my furniture and craft stuff is in storage until I've finished decorating and had a workshop built. I've got no proper kitchen and I'm getting by using an old two ring baby belling for cooking but it's all good fun. I believe that good things come to those that wait :) My chest is still bad but I'm going at a steady pace so it's all good.

See you soon xx

Just to let you know I won't be around for a couple of weeks. I'm frantically packing up here so that I'm ready to move on Friday 15th. Then I'll be decorating and sorting things out so won't have time to stop by and say hi.
Will be thinking of you guys. Save some gossip for me and see you all again soon. xx

I've just this minute exchanged contracts on my house!! Woohoo!! I've been waiting sooooo long, it doesn't feel real.

I'll be moving house on the 15th March ... still in Cornwall, just a different town, on the other side of the coast.

Suppose I'd better get those boxes out of the garage and start packing again ... lol

Some people have asked how I managed to get my black eye. Well, I'm sorry to say that I was punched. I accidentally bumped into someone in the street and before I knew it the guy spun around and planted me on the eye. I have no idea who he was, all I know is that he was late teens and with a bunch of friends. I literally just bumped arms with him and he reacted like that.

Anyhoos, I'm ok apart from the obvious.

Still waiting to move but hopefully it'll happen before the end of March. The chain seems to be synchronising nicely at the moment and I'm expecting to get a confirmed date in the next few days.