I really don’t know where all the time goes. The six week holidays have flown by in a whirling dervish of full family Whitby visits, kid’s birthday parties, kids’ flying visits to Congleton (thanks B&G) and Stuff Doer’s lone weekends at the cottage making it safe for us to visit. There have also been numerous trips to the woods tree felling and beam hewing. Phew, worn out just thinking about it.

Well, first trip after the Stuff Doer had made the house safe-ish. We arrive and Stuff Doer tells us to be really careful in the bathroom and, under no circumstances, should we step off the chipboard. Kids and myself pay a quick visit to the local auction rooms (more on that later). We call at the cottage to pick up the stuff needed for a quick visit to the beach. I nip up to the loo. I have forgotten just how considerate my Stuff Doer is. Whilst we were away he’s left us a reminder of how unsafe the bathroom floor is, a perfect size 9 foot shaped hole!

Our longed for duck egg linseed oil paint has arrived, hand mixed and exactly when they said it would. The colour is an exact match to the swatch I had sent them and we’ll let you know how we get on later.

Don’t feel too sorry for us though, we made sure the kids had a decent holiday. I may make three trips a day to the hardware shop (you try carrying six foot of beading across a narrow swing bridge packed with holiday makers and Morris dancers) but we made sure we had a few days off too. We had a walk to Sandsend, although we didn’t quite manage to outrun the storm on the way back. We were treated to a stunning Red Arrows display, along with a Sea King and a Spitfire. We also had fantastic fireworks, all courtesy of Whitby Regatta. It was Folk Week too (hence the Morris dancers) which made the one night out we had rather special.

Plenty to do and see during folk week and the regata

We bit the bullet and became members of English Heritage, hopefully saving us money in the long run (especially with the amount of trips daughter two makes up to the Abbey). We had two great family days out there, with all of us enjoying the jousting displays and especially the Dracula dramatisation.

The main aim now for the cottage is to make it water tight and get the heating sorted (which entails putting in the new beam so the pipes can go under the bathroom floor) before the North Yorkshire winter finally closes in.

Here’s hoping for a good long Indian Summer!