Thursday, 8 October 2026
Catching up on Shopping Posts, and Back to Riverford
Tuesday, 6 October 2026
Thank You
Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments on my last blog post. We are both slowly coming to terms with being a completely animal free household, something that we have never experienced before.
When I met Alan twenty two years ago I had two cats, having only just gone down from having four and just about recovering from that. He had a Border Collie dog called Sophie, that actually lived with his ex-wife while he travelled backwards and forwards to Berkshire for his job. When we moved in together and then married, we moved to quite a few places in England and Wales always with a steady stream of pets as our constant companions.
Over the course of the last two or so years we have lost all three of our last, very beautiful furry family, it's been hard but we have managed to adapt and we will again. Hopefully one day in the not too distant future we will adopt a dog but we are going to be leaving it for a while.
Ginger has been our final cat, which for me is a hard thing to say. I have had a pet cat since my first birthday when I was bought a beautiful jet black cat by my Nana, which in my young mind was blue, so he was called Bluey, He remained with me until just after my first marriage, when sadly he died at the grand old age of almost 18. But if I was going to end my cat adventures on any cat it would have to be Ginger, he was the most laid back and charismatic of all my feline friends, so what a happy memory to hold forever.
Thank you for all your support on the last post, it meant the world to both of us. 💖
Sue xx
Monday, 5 October 2026
Remembering Ginger
2012
2014 - Walking side by side with Suky
2014 - A Ginger rose between two Russell-y thorns.
2014 - Snoozing with Suky
2015 - Making good use of a new gatepost.
2017 - Joining in with Christmas fun for the blog and our family Christmas cards.
2018 - With Mavis
2019 - In the paddock with Mavis, Suky, Jasmine the lamb and Bella.
Saturday, 3 October 2026
The Books That I Read in September
I really enjoyed this book and whizzed very quickly through it, even though I was busy. It was a well paced story about a woman being brave and finding herself again after being controlled by her husband for far too long. It was a good story.
Donated
Holly the Café - Boat Cakes and Bakes by Joanna Gould
Sadly, this book is now only available as a pdf download, but following the link shows you a few of the pages from it.
I bought my copy a few years ago when Joanna and Victor were living on their narrowboat Zero and working on Holly, their café boat, firstly the renovation of her and then making a living selling coffee and cakes every weekend from her side hatch. Of course they were also making money from YouTube to fill the coffers a little bit more..
The book has some lovely sumptuous recipes, all very easy to follow, I just don't make that sort of fancy cake anymore, sticking instead to the few basics that I know off by heart. It's funny how life changes in so many ways isn't it.
Donated
So overall that was another month of good reading, there was one book that I just skimmed through and wouldn't recommend at all so I'm not even showing it here ... why on earth did I buy it, it was far too boring and technical for me.
Life is too short for bad books.
Sue xx
Thursday, 1 October 2026
Made Happy by a Sink
The porcelain tiles laid over all the floors in the bungalow look amazing and will help the underfloor heating radiate so well through the Winter months. Alan still has the living room and dining room areas of our main room to grout and then he will be finished, it's been a tough job.
We also had another delivery this week, one that you can see in this very short YouTube video that I filmed last weekend.
https://youtu.be/3Ai1PNOplAc?si=4Xyg4gMZRe8xPiHs
It's nice to see so much progress.
Sue xx











