Professionally Presented!

And here is the same room - wow!
Apologies for not blogging but I have a bad chest infection and when not doing what I have to do am moaning in a corner.
We had some rain which we havent had for ages and the garden has just shot up a foot, the weeds three foot and the grass seems even higher. Only Sith can be seen wending his way through, the other two cats cannot.
Carpets are being fitted on Friday to the two upstairs bedrooms. Vinyl laid in the 'back ' bathroom and a new bath to order and fit. Life goes on whether I feel I am part of it or not!

Kitchen

Yesterday we had the professional photographer who took pictures for the sale brochure. His pictures were far better! But then he had lighting, with umberellas (?!) and wide angled lens. The sitting room, dining room, two of the bedrooms and the corridor and the staircase were all given the 25 Beautiful Homes treatment and ended up looking quite awesome.
Next week its the external shots.
Meanwhile we are full of paying guests - a houseful of Canadians looking for ancestors - have extended their stay with us, a couple arriving to savour the Highland Dancing extravaganza in a nearby village.
Juggling bed and breakfast,more than a full time job in itself, House Doctoring, arranging for new floor coverings, and now to make the outside resemble the Chelsea Flower Show.

Phew!

What a week! Two of four daughters came and sorted and sorted. Somehow I seem to have more than when we started... We also had Mike's brother, from South Africa, for a few days. Plus paying guests. Also the estate agents doing a floor plan of the house.
I had this moment to watch the sun set and the hens taking themselves off to bed.

Downsizing!

Still looking for our next - and probably last - home. This is Cairness House at Lonmay and not on our list of viewings. However it is open to the public and well worth a visit. Hopefully in a few months time we can do the tourist trail instead of providing others with the information.
The clearance continues here with bags of books and videos disappearing out the door. I have two daughters who have promised to be ruthless and finally get rid of the Barbies.

Summer?

Beautiful weather. The swallows are back. Sith proved this by bringing me a corpse. When did that cat learn to fly?

Cait Sith is his full name and is Gaelic for Fairy Cat. When he was a skinny wee kitten it was appropriate, now he more resembles the Kellas Cat, which is a very large black cat result of mating a feral cat with a wild cat. We also call him the Beast of Buchan.

Free range hens - pitfalls.

Our six now down to five, as one got run over yesterday. Although the house is set well back from the road, we have had the odd fatality. The hens usually run when they hear a vehicle, but some drivers really speed round the corner, and if there is something coming the other way, they end up clipping a hen on the way past.
Our search for another house is for one further away from a road, one tomorrow we are viewing is just that and has a large paddock.
It is quite a struggle maintaining Greenbrae for guests, tarting up, de-clutering and viewiing somewhere to eventually live.

Breakfast.

Here the table(s) set for six guests we have had for the weekend.
Looking forward to not doing this any more!
Permutations of breakfasts from six people gives me a headache. This morning we did tattie scones and poached eggs, full Scottishes, Scrambled eggs. Full Scottish is sausages, bacon, egg, tomato, black pudding, white pudding , haggis, beans and mushrooms!

Face lift.

The front of the house has to be painted. Mike has made a start. The red round the windows will become white also. For upstairs we need scaffolding and a roof ladder - scary! All to be done for the end of this month when the photographer from the estate agents comes to present Greenbrae looking its best.
Many years ago a mad Polish owner painted bitumen on to the tiles. This has flaked off over those years, but we still have to try and make that look better. Sheesh. Hope all this hard labour is worth it in the end.