I lay listening to the rain for a while, then went down to my cold and cheerless kitchen.  Being without an Aga, however temporarily, is dismal.

But it’s been checked over and okayed for a year and is up and running again.  And my accountant has been to take me through my tax returns (three of them, darlings) and told me how much I have to pay, which is frankly dismaying.  When you’re self-employed, for some obscure reason, you pay in arrears but also half in advance, that then is allowed for the next year and last year was the first time it was a whacking big bill so it’s even worse.  I don’t know, all I can say is, spend the taxes wisely because most of them feel as if they’re on my shoulders right now.

Time to think about the next blog party, darlings.  I’m pretty free at present, but I’ll look in my diary and come up with suggested dates.  If there’s any time that especially good or impossible for you, please let me know and I’ll take it into account.  May to July is the usual time – not past mid-July, as that’s when school holidays start, which doesn’t suit a few of you.  Hope you can come and so does Tim – he’s only been to one blog party so far, so is quite wild with excitement.