Countdown -8

Sunday

Yesterday was quite an eventful day - Terry discovered a mouse's nest in our garage with three really cute babies in it. Unfortunately, he had to kill them and then we had to put fresh bait down. We have had a problem with mice in our area since the local dairy was pulled down and new houses built on the land. The mice must like our garage - warm and cosy with plenty of material for making nests and a supply of food as Sally feeds the birds and stores the seed etc in the garage. We have now put all the bird feed in sturdy plastic sealed containers, hopefully removing their food source. Let's hope the bait works.

Helen phoned from America. She is staying with our niece, Sarah , in Breckenridge, CO. It was great to hear from her and find out that all is well. Sarah told us that she, her husband Carl, and their daughter, Brianna have booked flights to come to the UK on 5th May. We don't get home till the 8th May, so it looks like we will have a quick turnaround - will take our English caravan (Trailer) down to Coventry where my nephew, David, Sarah's brother lives, a couple of days after we get back, before Sarah flies to France on 14th May to stay with her dad, who lives in the Dordogne. We haven't seen Sarah for two years and I can't wait to see them all. She is like our other daughter and I love her to bits. David and Claire are expecting their second baby at the end of April, so can't wait to meet her/him, too.

We are still slowly working our way through all the things that have to be done for our next visit. We now have tickets booked for Palatka, a great Bluegrass festival (our first weekend ); a site reserved for Waldo, also a Bluegrass festival( the second weekend); new travel insurance taken out for Sally(her old one changed their medical screening and refused to cover her pre-existing medical conditions); email sent to our mail forwarding service to get our mail sent to Jim and Connie's ( fairly vital it gets there as our new tags (car and trailer road tax) will be in it); shopping for the food stuffs we want to take (eg.cup-a-soups as we couldn't find them in the States etc) and many other bits and pieces. We are trying to get the whole house ready for our cleaner to do a thorough Spring Clean while we are away. Our apple tree needs pruning, so I've arranged that and my neighbour to come in to check the house while we are away. Our neighbours are great and keep an eye out for us, coming in periodically to open/close curtains, sort out mail and check the automatic timers on the lights are working.

We will need the first month in Florida to recover from getting ready!!!!!