2020, as everyone knows, was a pretty unbelievable year, all round. If someone had told me the following, in January 2020, I'd have thought they were daft: that we'd have to have official travel permits to drive to the supermarket that wearing a mask would become the...
Ah, Christmas Eve. Snuggled up on the sofa, the woodburner roaring away, lights twinkling, candles flickering, the scent of mulled wine filling the room as we wrap gifts and eat chocolates and watch festive films. That's what it's all about, isn't it? It's certainly...
Almost four years to the day, since we bought our first renovation project in Istria, we have the next one within our sights. I think we have always known that the stone house was never going to be the house. We have been so happy in it and we've worked so hard to...
We've never had a garden big enough to accommodate our cars. In every house we've lived in, parking has always been outside, on the street. Apart from having to usually fight for parking space outside our house in West Didsbury, we've never really considered parking....
If you're a follower of what we're up to, you might know that we have a very unusual feature in our front garden. We are right next to an abandoned house and one of its walls forms one of our garden walls. Now, this might sound alarming - and I have to say if we were...
So, our long, hot - but very strange - summer, has drawn to a close. As in previous years since we've been here, I'm sure we'll still have days which are warm and sunny, but the intense heat of the sun has gone. Days are obviously getting shorter and there's a chill...
It was back in May that we finally bought a shed and started the job of building it. We made the initial mistake of thinking we'd bought just a shed, like the B&Q one we used to have in our garden back in West Didsbury, which was functional, but a bit on the cheap...
I've been sorting through hundreds and hundreds of online photos, from when we first viewed what was to become our home in Istria to now. To a couple of days ago, when weather stopped DIY play in the garden. We've been sorting because, as we have now decided to sell...
For the first time this year, we made the trip to Pula. Normally, we'd by now, be making fairly regular trips to the airport to pick up and drop off visitors, but this is no normal year. Our first trip, done with a bit of trepidation, was to Bauhaus and Pevex, our...
The garden area at the front of the house has not really been renovated, as such. It's certainly been tidied up and areas of it do look a whole lot better, but apart from the addition of garden furniture and potted plants, that's about it. But, as we'll be going...