Moorings at Plymouth

   Well, as I said in my last, we are temporarily installed at Goosewell, near Plymouth, to look after Alyson during her illness. The funny thing is, we are living in Alyson's house, which is, in fact, our house, which we left 12 years ago to move to France. I shall only be here til Friday, God willing as I am due to catch the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo, as unfortunately, Brittany Ferries don,t run a Plymouth connection in January.
  It is rather an odd feeling to be living again in our old home.  When Alyson is in residence, I don't feel it is our house. After all, when you let a property, you don't expect to live in it! And Al has decorated it differently to what it was, especially as the former commercial tenants left it in a mess. Not that Al doesn't make us very welcome, I hasten to add. But at the moment, we are sole residents, apart from an indignant cat and the feeling is a little different, strange even.
  This is an interesting house, in fact. It is the end of a terrace of four cottages, in a tiny street of four similar blocks. They were built as farm labourers cottages at the turn of the nineteen hundreds and offered a lounge diner and kitchen downstairs, three bedrooms upstairs.No toilet or bathroom, of course, but a wash-house and outside loo at the other end of the small rear yard. across the private access road to the terrace, is a long but narrow garden, which the occupant no doubt used to grow their veg. Of course, the cottages have evolved over the 200 years which have passed. Previous owners added a single-storey kitchen and bathroom which we in turn altered to add another storey which gave us a large double bedfoom and shower-room and toilet upstairs, so the house is much more comfortable, though still retaining its cottage feeling.
   STOP PRESS-- Alyson is out of the hospital and back home. She was released yesterday and we drove her home in vile weather conditions, with strong winds and heavy rain. She is still far from well, tired and still a bit confused, but we hope the fact of being in her own home will help her recovery.
  Bye for now, putting on the coffee...