What ho peeps! Hope everyone ok! Gorgeous weather here. May is my favourite month of the year.
Like Bowerbird can't keep up and loads happening so just diving in and out to say 'hellllooooooo' to all of you lovely folk! Hope you are all thriving (well as much as humanly poss in circs!)
There is quite a bit of work 'work' happening here as dh is battling heroically to keep the business on track. He did a massive Webinar for US clients yesterday for which there was quite a lot of prep. I had to tackle his head and facial hair beforehand and was tempted to get out the dog/horse clippers! (Trace or a blanket clip clip anyone? 
) Made do with nail scissors in the end!
On the home front after weeks of dithering and avoidance, and some very dark thoughts when dh said he couldn't help me for even 30 mins a day (but to be fair he is very , very busy and helps for the odd hour here and there at weekends with the heavy stuff and does a lot of dog-walking and cooking, with the moral support from this thread, I am finally, finally, getting stuck in to decluttering the house properly bit by bit and taking back control from my cleaner , who obviously hasn't been here now for over six weeks.
I was very down about it because there is so much to do for one person: the house is approx 500m squared over five floors, is old and unrenovated and very difficult in many ways with 92 stairs, 3 metre high ceilings, and it doesn't have much storage and for various complicated reasons, we have been "camping" here for 20 years approx or so and all the renovations we did then need redoing, the whole place needs remodelling (very difficult and expensive challenge owing to said faded architecture) and there are holes in the floors and walls and tumbling plaster. (It does have a sort of faded elegance though - in summer- but it is very hard to keep clean.) And before my op last year...it had started to run away with me ...as I wasn't phyically able to tackle lots of it and I hate cleaning ... .
Anyway, anyway, because it is too much for one person, there were bits my cleaner traditionally did, and bits I did. And let's just say, that in my cleaner's areas, I have discovered her way of tidying up was to shove random items in to our office archive cardboard boxes - and I mean as random as one slipper, an old sleeping bag, some cookery books and a bag of pipe cleaners - and shove them in a stack. 
And there are literally stacks of them! 
So I have been slowly working my way through every box, every drawer, every shelf, and undoing all of her weird work.
My trusty weapons are Clutterbug vids on You Tube (thank you Toostressy!) and a handy folding camping table which means I have something to declutter and sort on to other than the floor! (My knees are crumped currently.) It works quite well! Loads and loads and loads to do though! I will probably still be at it at this time next year!
Anyway, following Clutterbug's 30- day decluttering challenge but over a much longer period of time because there also seems to be shed loads of washing to do all of he time despite all of us wearing the same few casual clothes how is this possible and masses of cooking and general "maintenance" cleaning, with us and the furries at home all of the time ...but at least Project Undo Twenty Years of Avoidant Behaviour is under way! 
It will probably take months to get rid of all the stuff I have decluttered too which is sitting in my former "rabbit room" but heigh ho!
Don't mention the ironing! (Fortnightly ironing lady has obviously been absent for a while.) It has allstacked up! I have learned my lesson and am now ironing and folding everything that comes off the drying rack more or less straightaway every day and am trying to make inroads in to the backlog bit by bit.
Sorry I don't seem to be capable of posting without a huge long ramble! Yesterday, in addition to work work, I was tackling under the kitchen sink (haven't finished but have ordered new storage) , I hoovered and dusted all of downstairs, washed two loads of white towels, did one dog walk, made a butternut squash, red pepper and chilli soup and a huge warm salad for supper out of cauliflower florets, green beans, chick peas, red pepper, and a can of tuna with a parsley and coriander dressing. Tonight we are having breaded fish out of the freezer with new pots and peas. Tomorrow it's pizza dough in the bread machine which will eventually be a mushroom, black olive, mozzarella and ham pizza. Making tomato sauce today. Diet not going particularly well
DD is totally better but still very stressed as we still don't know what is happening about exams in a month's time! . She will be finding out today though as her entire class has been asked to log in with their titulaire at 1.30 pm! (Eek. Wibble. Have all fingers and toes crossed for her, while mentally preparing for fallout.)
Dogs are really suffering under lockdown as they really need to be off lead and digging and tracking in the fields to burn off excess energy and remain sane! Two town walks a day are no longer cutting it. 
The eldest has taken to humping every cushion in the house 
and the youngest has developed kleptomania. Every night there is something new and surprising in her basket! (Last night it was a dice, a yoghurt pot, a sock and a hair brush.)
Person I look up to: the 71 year old potato and cattle farmer who looks after dhorse. Worked on the land all his life. Bulging biceps and hands like hams. A veritable work horse himself, he is hugely knowledgable and an impressive handler handler of anything equine. He does everything with slow and steady finesse. Makes incredibly difficult things look easy. Always calm. He is hugely, hugely skilled and hard working. He also speaks two languages consecutively, can handle and ride any sort of horse, from my semi-shire to flighty thoroughbreds, hacks out every day, has a shrewd twinkle in his eye, is kind and strong, and commands huge respect in his local community. He doesn't say much but what he does say is usually incredibly apt and prescient. He's the sort of person who brings out the best in everyone, because they want to gain his respect ifyswim.
Last but definitely not least, easy to say but so sorry that you can't sleep out of worry Fluffiest. I hope things turn out to be better than you had fearXX
Yes have been to Haworth! DD is obsessed with Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre is her favourite book of all time. She must have read it about 20 times!
Must get on! Tally hooooooo to all! 😷 🍒👋