It's official. Autumn is here!

I hate to love Autumn.

Late morning walk through the park with the beau to go and get breakfast. Gorgeous autumnal start to the day!

We have been staying at my dearest mama's house for the last few days. The renovation project is a mere few streets away from her house. So we thought exchanging an hour long drive both ways - EVERYDAY - for a casual 5 minute stroll to the house was far more kind to the mind (it was driving my beau insane!) and also my mummy likes the company and we get to spend some quality time together - win, win situation I think.

It was whilst getting into bed the other night that my body touched the linen and I yelped in shock at just how COLD the bedding was. I had to call out to my beau to make his visit to the loo very quick so he could come and warm the bed up for me, I call him my hot water bottle. He is forever warm, whilst ice must complete my circulation. The last time I yelped at him to do this was about 6 months ago when winter's chill still lingered in the London air. It dawned on me at that moment as my feet clung to his warm calves that Autumn was officially here!

Pear tree on the street where the renovation house is. At the beginning of autumn.

Is it me or is there something very magical about Autumn? I would go as far as saying that it is my absolute favourite season. I mean spring is such an easy one to go for; what with all the new life, flowers, sunny sweet warmth on the skin, caring about your wardrobe, shaving your legs, summer lovin', etc... Yes it is easy to love spring and summer, but what about the golden goodness of autumn?

Magnificent sunsets that ripple through the clouds like sand dunes (original photo to support this statement was lost with the camera that got stolen, what an amazing sunset that was, the sky was literally orange and all the clouds looked like orange meringue! It took my breathe away...this is still beautiful though).

Walk with my family ahead, through Greenwich park.

Crispy crunchy fallen leaves under your feet, that tempt you to kick them with liberating abandon like a child!

Fallen conkers escaping from their soft, spiky cocoon - with super glossy skin, looking like mama has been polishing the furniture on Saturday.

Conkers (from horse-chestnut tree) in Greenwich.

Other goldeny, browny, red moments to look forward to include: my birthday (yay Librans!), halloween, Guy Fawkes and Lord knows I wish we had another excuse to squeeze in one more celebration before the advent season, like our friends across the pond with Thanksgiving. No matter, I think I'm going to bake a pumpkin pie anyway.

The icing on the cake are the amazing sunset walks with my beloveds taking in the fresh air, watching the sunset beyond the city skyscrapers from atop a hill. Using those ethereal last hours of the day nostalga-sizing (totally made that word up!) about the summer just gone. All the while clutching a cardigan in hand, just in case winters chill comes to give me a goose bumpily kiss! Oh well even if that is the case it's a brilliant excuse to wrap myself tighter around my beau's arms, as we take in the last days of warmth and marvel at nature at her absolute best! 

Sunset at the top of hill in Greenwich park, by the Observatory.

Why would anyone do that?!

Firstly, let me start off by saying that I have about 5 posts sitting in drafts. I was being a bit too lazy to edit the accompanying pics, and more importantly was waiting to upload pics from my beau's camera which show more "professional" snaps of the house's progress, as part of documenting the renovation process.

However, I can wave a very tearful goodbye to those pics as our car got broken into and the camera which my beau had forgotten in the boot of the car as well as the laptop with sole copies of most of our snaps in the last couple of years were stolen. I am very saddened and have been forcing back the tears, that our engagement pics in Venice - including the moment when my beau proposed - that were still on the camera have been taken away from us. My sister-in-law reminded me that despite the crapiness of it all, they hadn't stolen the engagement...I guess with time I'll be able to find some solace in that. I dread to think of the pictures that were on the laptop and how many memories beyond the engagement we have actually lost - excuse me whilst I hold back more tears...

We took about 10 pics of some of the trip on the little snappy snaps camera, but not the actual proposal and the rest of the holiday (of which there were plentiful). Here is one of the pics, to show an example of the hundreds that have now long gone, that captured just how special it all was:

With that too were some of the pics that showed the house in it's very run down state - with walls knocked down, rubble everywhere and the garden as it was before! A lot has happened recently, including walls going back up and being replastered, which unfortunately would have been in the stolen camera. My beau used his professional camera not only for our benefit to see the before and after shots at the end of the transformation, but also so I could have some beautiful shots for this blog. I do have a snappy snaps camera as well as my phone, which I also use to take pics of the progress, but in the last 2 weeks I hadn't taken any pics, which is were the big camera stepped in.

People can be such a disappointment sometimes. Where are the morals in our society when some think it's ok to do this to one another or worse still know that their actions will hurt/destroy another and continue anyway? I hope that I do not maliciously inflict sadness in someone's world and that my mama taught me enough that even subconsciously I know how to carry myself as a useful member of society.

Anyway, I promise I will take LOADS more pics, so you don't miss out beyond this minor blip in the grand scheme and I will upload over the next couple of days all that I have saved in my drafts.

Lesson number 2: make sure you back up EVERYTHING on your camera and laptop!

For now, here are a couple of pics of the kitchen diner during the demolishing phase about 2 weeks ago:

This 1st pic is from the kitchen diner entrance facing what was once two rooms in the downstairs flat - their kitchen and their bathroom at the back. The walls between the two have been demolished!

 This 2nd pic shows the same room but standing towards the back of the room, facing the entrance into the room. Yonder you can see the stairs and daylight glowing from the main door to the house.

The biggest pile of rubble you can see is where an old chimney breast used to be! A major annoyance that chimney breast - party walls (legalese with the neighbour next door), shared flues, thin walls, etc.... Oiiii - I'll divulge the detail another time!

Until next time amigas - keep all your valuables safe!

Renovating a house - madness or stroke of genius?

We've had the house since summer - it took a while to find a builder. Is this a mad thing to do during these more economically shy times? Or is this an opportunity for my beau and me to showcase our genius when it comes to renovating properties? I don't know the answer, but I'm hoping it's the latter!

Oh well, love conquers all - no? Well that, and making sense of the floor layout (it was laid out as two flats, now becoming one home), reinstalling all utilities, throwing away all the rubble (eeek - who knew that skips were so extortionate?!), then finally the fun stuff - decorating! After that we are going to sell the property for a bajillion pounds, having spent virtually £0 and become bajillionaires...erm, simple...!

The builder has said the work is going to take 5-7 weeks to complete - give me a valium when come Christmas I'm hyperventilating at the fact that he has only managed to remove one tile from the bathroom and we are bankrupt!

Jokes aside, we found the property for an amazing price. I truly think if we organise ourselves, approach this from a sensible and business point of view, we should hopefully come out of this smiling and having learnt some valuable lessons. Lesson number 1: wear a GOOD mask and goggles - dust is evil!