This is the gloriously tasteless kitchen in our new house. It’s painted in a strange combination of warm and cold colours with the added bonus of ‘tiles on a roll’. We think in an attempt to update the kitchen units, they had jali fronts attached, though all this has really achieved is to make the cabinets ‘dust catchers’.

At the far end of the kitchen is a dresser unit, which has become the temporary home to many of my paperback books. I kind of like the inclusion of my precious books in the kitchen, which is my precious space in the house. It’s also become home to my little ‘kitchen-fi’, newly out of a box, with Crowded House and Stevie Wonder keeping me company today. I can sing away to my heart’s content here and there is no-one but DM, a couple of gorgeous Border Collies, a wabbit, three hens and a bunch of wild birds to hear me and be mortified. DM already knows my shortcomings in the vocal department extremely well. I can sing and dance my way around the kitchen to my heart’s content because they all either love me enough to forgive my little foibles or, if not, they want to be fed by me!

The window on the right of the picture looks out over a small patch of garden that is going to become home to my herbs. It’s a good spot because it’s close to the kitchen and is outside the dogs’ territory so they won’t get trampled or worse!!! My herb garden at Sandhurst was moved to make way for the patio and because it went so far away from the house, I was dissuaded from using the herbs because of the trek to pick them. I won’t make that mistake again. The space is home to my lonely wabbit at the moment. It’s also my wild bird-feeding place and they’re already making themselves at home.

There is a freshly baked loaf on the top of the toaster – I’ve not yet got my cooling trays back from Pickfords who didn’t come today so the toaster allows air to circulate underneath the loaf while it is cooling.

Archie is snoozing on the floor.

The monster fridge-freezer caused Pickfords to bodge our kitchen door in an aborted attempt to bring it in through a doorway that’s too small so they’re going to have to pay for the repairs!

Anyway, the reason for this pic as my pic of the day today is that the kitchen looks lovely and clean. The reason? Well, that angel of mercy, Christine has spent another long day steam cleaning every surface in here – it’s the third day she’s given up on our behalf, completely selflessly. She deserves a medal. I intend to make sure that she feels that we are appreciative of her generosity of spirit.

All that’s left now is to bring in the only ‘good bits’ from the mountains of stuff left behind by our predecessor – a couple of really nice rocking chairs that are currently in what is going to become our office. They’re going to occupy the space where the tripod is set up so we can sit and look at the view while supping a coffee.

We’re planning to ‘do’ the kitchen as one of the first rooms we tackle so this lot will only be our environment for eighteen months or two years…..it takes a long time to save up for a good kitchen, as I know from Sandhurst. What I also know from Sandhurst is that even though it’s the most expensive room to refurbish, leaving it until last is a mistake. I don’t think I got value from the wonderful job that Tony and his boys did on my kitchen, not because of them but because we moved on too quickly. It almost breaks my heart to think that someone else is now enjoying that fabulous space. DM says it’s probably what made selling the house so easy so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much but I still wish I’d had more time to enjoy it.

Last year, the dreadful saga of my Nan's 'eviction' was continuing while I was trying to enjoy the last precious moments of Lara's visit.

PS - I now believe my family's amazingly good memory is in me too - I thought to myself 'I think that Teac pic was April 2004 - sure enough, when I looked back, that was exactly where it was.