The end is in sight.

We are having our hall, stairs and landing redecorated and have been living in what resembles the back room of a badly organised charity shop for a couple of weeks.   The chair hides goodness knows how many carrier bags of books from the shelves under the stairs.   I have spent this afternoon dusting them all and putting them back.  In the far corner is a pile of coats from the pegs round the corner at the bottom of the stairs. (see pic below, now full of tools)   I had no idea our hall housed so much stuff.  

The decorator's glory hole.  I must say, he is a very tidy worker and cleans up after himself as he goes.   But then he is my son-in-law so probably feels obliged to do so!

 There is still some final gloss painting to be done so our sad front door should soon be looking very much smarter.  Note the thick layer of dust on the little table.  Even though Bob very kindly kept all doors closed while he was sanding down the woodwork, it seeped into everywhere.  I didn't clear it up straight away as I knew there would be more to come, so wrote his name in it, all over the house!

It has taken a bit longer than anticipated as he had to fit our job around other work, but we don't mind as it is so nice to have work being done by someone we know and like.   You think to yourself  'it's only the hall and stairs', completely forgetting how many doors and door frames that includes, not to mention bannisters, etc.   There is far more work than the average room.  We should be home and dry by the end of the week and I'm sure I'll put my hand on the bannister rail before it's dry.

We went to a grandson's wedding on Saturday which was held in a beautiful old Cotswold hotel.  It was so nice to meet up with people we don't see very often, and to meet others we are just getting to know, not to mention the joy of so many of our own family coming together.  It was a truly lovely occasion.  Needless to say I forgot to take my camera!   Just about everyone else seemed to be snapping away so I'm bound to end up with one or two photos eventually.

We have been enjoying such lovely weather for some time now and I feel like a child again walking through crisp fallen leaves and trying not to scuffle!

As soon as the hall is back to normal I must turn my attention to the garden.  There is so much I want to do out there before the weather gets too cold and wet.  I am determined to get it in hand before winter sets in - it will make it more manageable next year.   What is it the naughty athletes take to help them come first?  I could do with some to help me get the garden into shape.

In search of tranquility!

We have our little friend with us for the weekend, and there is so much noise and tension in the living room that we have come up for a little peace and quiet.   Husband is watching the rugby and will not be a happy man with the halftime score.  Maybe we'll get a miracle in the second half.

The weather has been glorious this week and there is still so much colour in the garden.   I usually find it difficult to get it to carry through to autumn but this year has been lovely.  The next four pics are down to free packets of seed given with gardening magazines which I bought last spring.  There were several other plants who have already done their stuff and died off.

I must grow zinnias again - I had no idea they were so easy.

The cosmos look as if they could keep going until Christmas but I daresay a frost will see them off.

These nasturtiums were supposed to be the bushy variety but several of them have wandered a good 7 or 8 feet from where they were planted.  I am hoping they will have seeded themselves for next year as they brighten up the end of the garden.

It's a good job this is a crab apple tree.  If those were full size fruits I think the branches would have snapped under their weight.  I shall leave them for the birds as we are supposed to have a hard winter this year.

The bees love this clematis and there were dozens of them among the flowers.  I love the silky tassels too.

A gift from the birds which will provide more food for them later.  A seed must have dropped from the holder above where this little sunflower has germinated.

I have finished the last few pages of my 1920s book.  Clarice Cliff pottery above and ladies of fashion below.

The one on the left looks a bit deformed and as if she has bad feet!    In my defence I must tell you I was trying to copy them from images not much bigger than a postage stamp and find it extremely difficult to draw figures but I was determined to have a go.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I have added the chair, picture and dressing table to this double page.

And finished this one with the mirror and little cabinet and lamp.  I must keep drawing so that I improve.  For this book I had to draw everything on paper with much rubbing out until I got it to an acceptable state, then I traced it onto the fabric page and added colour with pencils.  How nice to have the skill and confidence of going straight onto the page without all that messing about first.

Make the most of tomorrow's fine weather,  I believe it will be all change on Monday and for next week in general.