we have gutters, and they're all full of sparrow nests - no sign of the decline in numbers round here. I must've counted about 3 dozen for the survey before they shifted around too much and I lost track! Starlings too, which are supposed to be on the decline all over. Our garden gets really noisy with those greedy little souls. Only the cheeky sparrow and one aggressive robin could confront those bullying starlings, so our single solitary greenfinch hasn't been seen since last summer I think, and the bluetit is very cautious too. Plenty of seagulls, but they don't land in our garden.

Part of me would love to do up a place from scratch Zillah, but the large, realistic chunk knows that I'd probably never even clean it properly, let alone fix things. I've lived in a flat too long I think. Our patio door curtains fell down last August and although I finally bought replacements they're not likely to go up, unless I decide that they will help sell the house! So good luck to you if it's something you'd love doing - just remember that you'll need four solid walls, a non-leaky roof and decent windows and doors before the cold comes, because it's not going to be comfortable up there in Winter if you don't have the shell in one piece.

I'm a bit hit and miss wth housework again this week. I had a phonecall on Monday morning asking if they could bring the new office furniture that afternoon (and since I didn't know when I might get it if I said no, and I have a meeting with the bank manager and the accountant next week and I'd like them to have somewhere to sit other than my dining table) I said yes. There then followed a great deal of frenetic activity as myself and my ops mgr rushed to clear up, empty off desks and get them moved into the new larger office across the hall. We didn't have time to carefully map out all the cables either so that was all yanked out and mostly moved across en masse. It took me till lunchtime on Tuesday before I had internet, fax, credit card machine and phone capability, so the last two days I've been playing catch-up at work and haven't had the chance to stay home for half an hour extra in the morning to love my home. Needless to say DH has been away since... can't remember, Saturday I think, and was supposed to be coming back today but can't because one of our staff (the mgr no less) got himself suspended from that big fancy shop (H). Good job our employment lawyers are in the next room because I think I may need to spend some serious time with them tomorrow! It's been one hell of a week and I still have Friday to survive. Next week's not looking good either with the meeting with the bank manager (accountant's no problem since she's one of my oldest friends!) and then the arrival of a massive container-load of stuff on Wednesday. DH won't even be around to help so we'll be drafting the two unfortunate Singaporeans who are arriving on Wednesday morning! Crap, crap, crap!

But hey, we've still managed to eat well all week so what do I care! I snuck out on Wednesday night to do my Friday night grocery shop too (no (organic) milk in the store the previous Friday) so I've freed up Friday judo to have some quiet time while the kids are out. Maybe. Still need to spend some time on Easter stuff, and I'm supposed to be doing a major school appeal in te middle of this. If it wasn't for my dad niggling I'd have given up on that by now because once we move she'll almost have to go to that school (the only alternative choice has even better academic results but a dubious reputation in some quarters - pushing kids too hard amongst other things). And then DH turned round on Sunday night and says we've only got 4 days to get ourselves registered under a lovely green EU directive coming into force (WEEE for those in the know). Done part of it, but I'm gonna be at least a day late for the rest (deadline for data submission was today), but I suspect I'm not alone. This is something we knew about and looked into months ago, but it was a long way away then and had already been pushed back a few times so we let it slide.

I'd ALMOST rather take on that wrecked cottage at the moment - it's touch and go!

there's no little screaming 'smiley'. Shame. But I don't charge to !!

Kerri.

ps. I started this post about 3hrs ago!