Wow, not even a whole month since I last wrote, obviously I'm not occupied enough. Am feeling quite proud of myself of late actually, have managed to drastically reduce our weekly shopping bill. Bit of a challenge at times, but getting used to a few adjustments and not going out for more food during the week, if we run out of something, then that's it until the next shop, we have to find something else to eat instead. Half the contents of my larder have now disappeared as I raid the back of the cupboard to use up stuff heading for its use by date (and even after it...) and create some interesting meals. Although Adrian and I ended up with a curry to rival the heat of a volcano recently (a friend gave it to me, I was expecting mild but tasty, ended up with hot and a numb tongue, so don't know if it was tasty or not).

Also, I've started doing up a few things around the place, and trying to do so with other things we have - ie not spending any money. Current projects on the go include four garden benches, the metal and wood kind, already here when we moved in, but quite tatty, so I'm sanding them back and then using either paint or stain that we have (both in that nice 'french blue' colour as I call it) left over. Unfortunately, I did a bit more work on a couple of them today, in the freezing cold. The paint was too thick to work so I had to give up on that. The stain was fine, but I checked it this evening and its kind of gone all milky looking. Its ok, but not like one I did before when it wasn't so cold. Also on the go is an indoor table that I'm hoping will become an outdoor table, (we need a new one and can't afford it and we have a couple of indoor tables in the garage gathering dust). I'm using up some outdoor paint to try to weatherproof it, then I'm going to mosaic the top with some tiles we've got about the place. Hoping to cadge some grout off my dad for this! There's lots more painting jobs about the place for me, and lots of paint hanging around (most of it shades of blue, so hopefully the garden won't be too technicolour), but I think I'll have to wait until the weather warms up a bit. I wouldn't mind so much if we had a bit of snow, but none whatsoever this year! And the UK is covered in the stuff. Isabella and I are most upset!

Oh yes, I also recovered some old chair cushions this week, mum lent them to us, but they're a bit old (probably as old as my mum we think) so I covered them, with some material we already had of course, and they look a bit smarter now, mainly because the kids haven't sat on them much yet. A week of meals and no doubt they'll be as mucky as the cushions inside. Just looking for a few more things to do now, it gives me a great sense of satisfaction to make something without spending and money on it. Must have been living in the country a bit too long.

Adrian and Dad have been busy installing the satellite for the gites. Both dishes are up, they're sorting out the wiring and stuff now, in between the really cold snaps. The gites are also freezing on account of no heating in four of them. Next they'll be getting on with the pool, hopefully there'll be some major improvements there.