Sadie

It was a stumbling, tentative introduction, followed by not insignificant problems which, at one point, seemed insurmountable. But I am delighted to report that after a fraught and indeed high stress week, Andy has finally got it together with Sadie and I hope you will join me in welcoming her into our household. Sadie is the Sprinter, the Mercedes long wheel base Sprinter that Andy, oops, I mean 'we' will be transforming into a spacious and comfortable campervan. He fell for her a week ago but picked up on a mechanical problem when test driving her, which turned out to be the rear differential and that has resulted in the rear axle assembly being replaced. All this at the expense of the garage who were selling the van and who failed to spot the problem when they accepted the vehicle in part-ex - they will be quite considerably out of pocket on the deal! Their loss, our gain. Andy and Sadie will be returning home next week and then the transformation shall commence!

I, in the meantime have being doing Stuff'. This morning, the Stuff was getting the elderflower champagne started using HFW's recipe which is here. From this...to this...and hopefully, in a week to some bottles and a short while after that into my tummy. If only I could transmit the scent of elderflowers through this blog ... simply wonderful.

This afternoon, I drove the 1 1/4 hours over to Lac de Montbel to do the lake circuit on the mountain bikes with Pat. I can't remember how many kms it was but it was great fun - good technical singletrack in parts and wonderfully dry all the way around. We had a blast! However, this finally caught up with us in the home strait and we got a little bit wet - great fun!Tonight, the storms have passed and clear blue skies have returned. We shall see what tomorrow brings.