Good God, what the hell happened to the rest of October, I can’t believe it is November already. Charlie came down and totally rebuilt my bathroom, I have a new shower, which I can’t use for another day, a new bath because the old one was not well, a new basin because the old one was broken, a new and safe set of stairs down into the bathroom as the old ones were going to kill me at some point, and the same loo, but in a different place, oh and a new floor of beautiful stone tiles, it looks amazing and is nearly finished. We then, that would be Michele and I – and yes she is out of hospital and no we have no idea what was actually wrong – had a cleaning session. I have this habit of having a major clear out on occasion, and this seemed like the ideal chance, so all the drawers in the various bits of furniture had a clear out – I found my wedding cards, so they all went in the bin as did a fair number of very old drugs (legal I hasten to add) that were somewhat out of date to say the very least.

I have done all the clothing drawers a couple of weeks ago, now all I have to do is find the time to get a couple of pieces of wood, fill various holes in the wall, clean and stain the new stairs and paint the room, oh and when I can afford it new curtains as the ones in there are awful!

The leaves on many of the trees are going fast now, with only the oaks still green, they are always the last to go. It is still amazingly mild for the time of year which is good for us and the birds, we are finally getting some rain, but not a lot, however the pond is looking fractionally better. We have only one more compartment left to do in the insulation of the Hawk Walk we are saving it for Simon when he comes back from India on Sunday!! Richard gave me a lesson in electrics last night, so we are wiring up the tubular heaters that are going to go under the perches, should get it done and dusted by the end of the month I hope.

Tom is making the last of the food drawers so when I feed round at Christmas it will all be done and clean and tidy!! And we have ordered the walk in deep freeze, I found a good company that are doing one at a reasonable price and we have help with the cost, we only need to completely re do the freezer shed and it can go in. It will be lovely to have a clean fresh freezer and a clean and fresh and insulated room for it. We are moving ever forwards!

The birds are well and most are flying to a good standard, the three new kites are all catching properly now, we ground Pioneer on Monday, Mark wants her to have a rest and I want her to have some time with her siblings which will be good for her, then Cremorne will come out in January and hopefully we will not chase her round the country again! Rinkhals did a rehearsal for an Owl Evening and was stunningly good, all the other owls are working well and Holly and I rehearsed two of them for our first wedding soon and that went fine too. The only problem I have is with the various staff being off I have had little or no time for anything including riding Mollie, I hope that will change.