Pulling 'em up...

 

...my big girl knickers, that is 😉

Thankfully I'm not feeling quite so downhearted and gloomy as I did in my previous post.  Perhaps having the odd spell of better weather has helped, who knows 😕  It does feel as if this winter has gone on for a very long time, though ~ and we're still having some pretty cold and wet bouts of weather.  On the "up" side, though, we have recently had a smattering of warmish sunny spells which has definitely lifted my spirits ~ hopefully better days are on the way 🤞

Combined with the seemingly never-ending winter, we had the "delights" of a rat getting into the house walls.  Thankfully it didn't actually get into the body of the house but it was just horrible knowing it was there; mice are bad enough but rats really creep me out *shudder*  Trying to put things into perspective, though, we haven't had any vermin problems for a good five years.  Adrian discovered the spot where he thought it had got in and took steps to block its access.  Unfortunately the bloody thing was inside at the time and couldn't get out.....so it ate the bait up in the roof space and died inside.  Of course we didn't realise this until the unmistakeable smell of decomposition started to appear ~ and we had no idea of where it had died, and frankly even if we had we wouldn't have been able to get to it without ripping up the walls.  This happened before we went south in March and although the smell has lessened quite considerably, it is still noticeable at times.  For some reason ~ and considering we discovered we had mice when we moved into St Abbs ~ this rat episode got to me way more than the previous rodent issues we've had.

We've also had a major issue with a long section of one of the garden walls, such that has required it to be rebuilt.  I will be sharing that little episode in an upcoming post 😏  Suffice to say it has taken a huge chunk out of our living room refurbishment pot, which means we'll be saving for a fair bit longer before we can make any progress there *sigh*

Basically I think I've simply found myself in a perfect storm of what would, individually, be irritating but not really overwhelming little issues.  One thing coming along after another, though, along with my looming 65th birthday next month has just knocked me back a tad.  Mind you the latter has made me pause and take stock of my life, so there may well be a few changes afoot ~ watch this space😉