It was a beautiful day yesterday, mild, sunny, warm and completely unlike winter! Christmas was fun, I had Christmas lunch with Alice and James, then Boxing Day supper with John Crooks and family and then supper with Sally and David and friends on the 27^th – positively leading the high life!! I had some lovely presents too.

Holly came over to collect a parcel – she has been internet shopping – again!! So we took the dogs for a walk and had lunch. I bought half a Stilton and a whole medium sized brie from Waitrose, I have to say that the Stilton was very good, and nearly gone and the brie was poor. I try not to keep cheese in the fridge, I usually open the packaging as I don’t think that plastic does it any good and put it in the larder, which is cool with a new damp J Cloth over it. The brie was awful, it was rubbery, never ripened and was so disappointing that I binned it, which I really do not like to do. I have come to the conclusion that if you want cheese you need to go to a proper cheese shop!

The freezer is behaving itself, which is very good to know, and Simon has been looking after the birds, he put all the falcons out for a bath yesterday and they all leapt in, and Casper was drenched. It’s nice not to have to worry about freezing weather!

Today I painted black stain and blue gloss paint for most of the day, I wanted to finish the outside of the doors on the tractor shed, so they are now done and I started on the outside of the stables which badly need a new coat of paint, plus it being our 45 birthday next year I want everything to look smart. After lunch and a walk with the dogs - you can't get away without a walk at this time of the year, I put the top coat on the trailer, or started to. The blue is brighter than I wanted so I mixed in some of the grey undercoat, but I think it will look OK, I want to get it finished tomorrow, as it is supposed to get colder next week and then the paint takes forever to dry. It was windy as hell but that made the black stain dry all the quicker.

David Kenworthy and his brother arrived in the morning and started on thinning the trees in the wood, it is going to look very good when it is done and I had a brainwave about the soil that we have spare out of the compartments in the Hawk Walk. Where the dog graves are the ground is very unlevel, it sinks over time over the graves and it is not possible to keep it looking smart, so I am going to use some of the soil to level the whole area and then plant it with woodland plants for the dogs. Aster will be coming home soon so I need to get it smart for him.

So tomorrow which I think is Friday (its very confusing as to what day of the week it is, I never know these days!) I should finish off the trailer and get some more of the stables done depending on the wind, and maybe over the weekend start on the outside of the freezer shed. There is also a part of me that wants to paint the walls of the compost heap............... hummmmmmmm, not sure about that, but I think it would work if I choose the right colour........