Holly

Holly has agreed to be the living 'creature' for today!!!!!!!!!!! This is actually from last night. This is firework mode. She has been worse this year than she's ever been. This is her cuddle t shirt which usually manages to calm her enough to sit with one of us. But she's been twirling round not knowing what to do with herself. When the huge fireworks go off- she bolts and tries to find the smallest dark space she can. She's discovered that she can commando crawl under Amy's bed. She finds it more difficult to get back out again. She has also started sleeping on our bed. This has undone 12 years of great training. She has never been an upstairs dog. She does excitedly dash upstairs sometimes- but she's always known to stay downstairs.

In some ways it's lovely to see her happy face as soon as you wake up. BUT she sleeps horizontally on my side of the bed- so I can't lie down! She also hogs the covers!!!! I do want to keep her sleeping downstairs as we have enough hair everywhere downstairs! But she has been so distressed for the past couple of weeks that we can't get her downstairs. Hopefully everyone has run out of fireworks- so she'll have a peaceful evening tonight.

Guy's grandma used to live in a beautiuful house in a Village Trust area. It was also a doctors surgery- as his grandpa was the local gp when they first lived there. If I could have won the lottery when they sold up to go into a sheltered retirement appartment complex I would have bought it in an instant. It's my idea of a dream home. It has a seperate garage block that they did want to turn into a sort of 'granny flat'- but the village trust refused permission. They aren't allowed to chop trees or anything without permission. It had tiered gardens going down old weathered steps. At the bottom they'd had tennis courts when they played. His aunt had a 'deb' party in the cellar and it had servants bath area in the attic which had really cute staircase leading up to them. It was like a home in the Narnia books- an ideal place for little children to explore. You could imagine it having the magical wardrobe in one of the spare room. It has a huge sweeping staircase which you can just imagine a bride coming down.It had a huge hallway and at Christmas she had a huge Christmas tree in the open stair space. Our children were invited over occasionally when the Portugese cousins were over and it was lovely to watch them run around the grounds as if they were in a park. We also have lovely photos of them around a piano at Christmas.

To be honest an invitation from 'GRANDMA' used to worry me sick. She did formal dinners with hundreds of knives and forks and things I'd never eaten before. Grandma was very 'upper class' and I was a bit overawed by her. She's also hyper critical of her 'favourites' partners- so it was a bit scary thinking you were being judged and found wanting. Guy did used to be one of her faves- but we were always judged favourably- at least to our faces. I think hand written thank you letters and pressies went a long way there.

The people who bought it own several houses on the street which are retirement/care homes. They bought his grandma's to live in. It's now up for sale again- and it has an open viewing between 12-2pm today. I would LOVE to go and see what they've done to it. Previously it was a bit of a time warp- which in some ways was part of it's attraction! But it could be a stunning house. BUT it's far enough away that I can't really risk going. If my sil was going to get there for 12 I would have tagged along. But if we were still there at 2 I'd be in a panic  I wasn't going to get back for Em. There was also a huge fire in the area this morning that has closed roads. So although it's where I would love to be today- I won't be going. Tina is going and I did have an invitation to tag along. I hope she lets us know what it was like.

My dad had an eye appointment this week- he's now partially sighted. The consultant said that the damage done to one eye with the laser treatment he had to have for his eye condition has scarred the eye- so nothing can be done there. But his 'better' eye has a cataract that he could remove. He thinks he could improve his sight which would make reading easier- but there is also the risk it could turn him completely blind. His brother was blind in his later years. It's a big decision and I think with his other health issues the risk of going blind might be too great to risk. He trips and falls a lot now- and if he couldn't see at all that would be a worse problem. He has another leg ulcer from a fall not healing- so he can't have his knee replacement until that heals. I just wish I could take all his health problems away so that they could enjoy getting out and about- or just stopping in and enjoying his reading.

Guy's also going to the doctors about his knee today. Something fell on it at work and he thought he'd bruised it- but it's not healing or easing. So he is going to get it checked. Hope that's something easilyt treatable.

Update- the doctor thinks Guy's knee is a muscular problem and he could do with a week off to rest it completely. But he can't rule out a fracture- so he's going to pop to A&E for an xray. He asked for a half day off- and we popped to see his grandmas house only to find out it's  not until next week!!!!!! But we could see some work they'd done in the garden- and the lady kindly gave us a brochure- which is amazing. Unfortunately it won't photograph well- but just adding a couple of photos so you have an idea why it's my dream home. It's grade 2 listed apparently. It now has a full snooker table in the appointed games room/bar- which was the cellar.

Shows the 'coach house' which is apparently what the garage is called- was built after the main house. It even names the architect!

Bad photo of the 'drawing room' which is where the piano used to be. Looks a lot brighter than grandma's day!

It has a 30ftx17ft log cabin in the garden (almost the ground floor area of my house!). The top area has been decked and it also has summer houses etc. The log cabin can be my craft room!!!!. Only now it would require a lottery win to buy it!!!!!!! Must buy a ticket this weekend! Good job we've still got Guy's car from the company- so we didn't look too out of place in the drive! We both wore our posh black coats! He looks quite posh in his!