It is indeed a treasure trove EMW, but such a large one I still have a lot of sorting to do. I washed the two good quality doona covers this morning and took them into quilting to dry on the line there (along with my sheets), but no takers for them, so they will go to the local op shop I think. They are very pretty, but a bit too pretty from my perspective. There are a couple of others in the bag, but they will be used for rags as they are very unattractive and one has been chewed my mice, by the looks of it.

I have washed all the china that came with the lot, and it is now looking rather more appealing. The enamel casserole dish also looks much better (though still room for improvement). It had lots of black marks on the exterior, most of which have come off in the wash except those in crevices and hard to get at spots. I suspect they will all come off once I get the dishwasher installed and it can be run through that. Internally, there is a bit of a stain on the base, but then, there is on the bottom of my Le Creuset pot too - I suspect from too long on a high heat rather than anything sinister.

After all the driving, shopping and lifting of furniture yesterday, and the fact I woke up at 4:30 this morning, I am feeling a little weary at present, so while I am still pottering around getting stuff into boxes and such so I can pop it in the shipping container, and looking at the caravan table and thinking I really should clear it off and fold it up so the shelves can come out of the main passageway through the kitchen ... fact of the matter is it will all wait till tomorrow as I am not long out of bed I think. And a nice clean bed to boot as I changed the sheets, changed the doona cover and will be climbing into slightly damp, clean pyjamas (must get a second pair of summer PJs, lol).

As I mentioned, I was awake very early this morning, so I rearranged the hose and watered the entire garden fairly thorougly as some of the plants were looking a little flat after the recent warmer weather. Did two loads of washing while this was going on, and organised the chicken a bit better. Last evening as I was down the back with the dog, I kept hearing cheep, cheep, cheep, thump, and on investigation discovered he was flying up to the wire in the shed. Not really a problem except if he did it on the other wall, there is a gap quite wide enough for him to escape through and into the yard at large. So I popped back up the house for the scissors and went back down to clip his wing (again) and so far, so good. I will, however, need to get that sliding bolt onto the guineapig cage so he can come out of the shed and be totally enclosed in a run even if it is quite small for what is turning into a surprisingly large bird for his age.

Tonight's excitement was Alison's dog breaking away from his leash and charging around my back yard (to Shadow's considerable distress) until he was re-caught. All's well that ends well, and he is back in custody and safe once more.