Doing The Post-Christmas/Pre-New Year Limbo Dance...

The 'tween days have a truly surreal feel this year. 

The snow has melted away to nothing, to be replaced by overcast pale grey skies and an all-enveloping mist.

Just the weather to be curled up in front of a log fire reading A Study In Scarlet...
It is strangely difficult to do ordinary things, as it feels so extraordinary at the moment. I have no wish or need to hit the Sales, and it is hardly the weather for walking, so I am indoors wishing we had the energy or inclination to carry on working on the sitting room (so I can curl up in front of the fire and re-acquaint myself with the lean, ascetic gentleman), but I suspect that time is a little way off yet!
This period between Yule and the beginning of 2011 will feel like treading water, I suspect.

Joke of the Season:
"I was tempted by the Cheryl Cole Calendar, but I think I'll go with the Gregorian as usual."

Any old Iron?

This is no ancient and venerable chimney of course, but we were alert to the possibility of falling Witch Bottles - old customs live on in the most unexpected of places! Being hit on the head by an old Whisky bottle filled with bits of red flannel, nail clippings and bent pins, all generously topped up with urine, can put a serious crimp in your DIY plans!

What we did find however, was a bent iron nail driven into the back of the fireplace attached to which was a length of wire. It must have served some practical purpose during the life of the fireplace, but in deference to the house-builders of the 1930s (and a healthy respect for deliberately bent iron pins of all sizes!) Dave decided to leave it in situ!

Any Old Iron?

Having swept the chimney, we began to line it with mortar to stabilse the surface, filling in gaps with part bricks and generally strengthening the structure.

Once the space had been lined, Dave set to work adding insulation (soundproofing) and a backboard of plasterboard, which is awaiting a final skim of plaster.

What we have at present is a nice little display area for our beeswax tealight shells, but you can make out the new and improved backdrop-

The next steps will be to insulate the flue, while allowing ventilation (we have a cunning plan!) and add a detachable tray above the opening to collect the odd bit of soot which will probably continue to fall, especially if we get any more earth tremors!

Further Adventures In The Hole with Potential, Or "Carry On Up The Chimney"

The fireplace is well on the way to being finished, and before being swept and lined served as a perfect place to display my birthday flowers.

At this point, as you can see, the hole still needed to be widened out.
Work on this commenced in mid-November...

 

 

Oh, the joy of power tools...!

The final push...

Then we had the fun of trying to sweep the chimney with  a remarkable home-made brush on a long bamboo cane. The brush itself had to be attached to a length of line just in case it got stuck...!

The view up the flue!

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Away In a Manger, No Room For A Tree...

As our sitting room is still a bit of a building site we haven't been able to put our Christmas tree up this year, although dave has managed to assemble some makeshift tables to hold the myriad cards we have received this year.
However, our dear neighbour Valerie gave us some beautiful holly boughs which I arranged in vases with cotton wool snow and micro glitter, dressed up with some tiny gold baubles. At least our windowsills look suitably festive!

The holly is absolutely laden with berries - I wonder if it would be possible to plant some in pots and grow a couple of bushes ourselves? It is one of those mysterious and sacred plants that suits itself, so it may not be that easy!

Another project for the Feastive season was to make some wax shells to hold tealights. This was very exciting as it involved balloons filled with water, melting beeswax in a double boiler, some leaves collected from Arrowthwaite woods in Arctic conditions and a certain amount of bad language...!
The  first step was to grate the beeswax, which was in a 700g block. As the weather has been so cold it had become like rock, and took quite a lot of brute force - luckily I have a husband who comes in very handy for this sort of thing, and he succesfully beat it into submission eventually!
Once grated and melted, the water-filled balloons were dipped, and dipped, and dipped. Lastly, the leaves were applied.
They looked really good with tealights burning in them, and I love the natural effect and the sweet smell of the beeswax.

This picture of them in The Hole With Potential doesn't really do them justice, but you get the general idea!

All Over Bar The Washing-Up...

Well, actually, the washing up's done...
A very quiet Christmas has been and gone, and very nice it was too!
We have both got a virus which has left us with asthmaticky coughs and slight temperatures (saves on heating!) so it was grand to just take things easy and suit ourselves, although we did have a nice traditional Christmas Lunch, and we managed to make some sausage rolls and mince pies so were quite pleased with ourselves at the end of the day!
The continuing saga of the fireplace aka The Hole with Potential meant that our sitting room is still a fantasy, and our Christmas has been celebrated in the kitchen, which currently doubles as a dining area, or lolling on the bed watching DVDs as we don't currently have 'live' television available due to the ongoing work in the sitting room.
But it has all been very lovely, and largely home-made, and we were surprisingly organised before the festive season arrived and got everything packed and posted in good time, leaving us time to relax and enjoy the weather(!) and pick up a virus or two!
Hopefully some updates and pictures will follow soon!