Oh how glorious the weather has been today. It's been the first 'good' weekend in the cottage - I'm not going to let the drizzle we woke up to yesterday morning dampen my views of the weekend.

Today has seen us go through a whole range of different phases. We started the day by mapping out our plans for the future of our home in Cornwall. It's such an honour to be here in this 'land of milk and honey' - quite literally. For those who don't know, Cornwall is one of our premier dairy farming areas so milk is a mainstay of the economy, along with its by-products.

We have also made much progress in the garden - I didn't expect to be able to mow grass with a mower rather than a strimmer so quickly but after last weekend's efforts, we were able to set the new lawnmower (birthday pressie from Mum and Dad) on its highest cut and mow the bit of neglected wasteland that is laughingly called a garden - I'm fully expecting to see some green grass next time we are there. It's a really amazing difference given the length of the neglect - we found out today that the garden has been completely un-tended for more than 20 years.

Our neighbour has 'given' us a bit of communal land that we share and he says he's happy for us to fence it in and tend it so we gain a bit of extra space - hurrah.

We've also been out to see friends and had a pub lunch with them. This was good in as much as they are a wonderful family who are so supportive of our move but bad in as much as I managed to do my back in while walking the dogs round their field. I've been in agony ever since and that's not good because I have a big do on Wednesday night that I must be fit for. I am very rarely ill - an odd chest infection in winter but thankfully little else troubles my health so to be so sore is a bit of a shock to my system.

This photo was taken from the top of Alan and Dee's field, looking down on the village of Herodsfoot. I know it's a crappy picture but it is the only one I've taken today and it was taken about five minutes after realising I'd hurt my back so I was concentrating on that rather than my photography skills........ah well, as always I live to fight another day.