A strange smell in the house! ( or don't try this at home)

We lingered long over our dinner last night, discussing the options for trying to kickstart our house sale, finishing the last glass of wine before going into the kitchen for the pudding.

YEEGODS!!!! thick acrid smoke billowed out as I opened the door and I virtually had to feel my way to the hob where I had left a chicken carcass boiling to make a stock ( never one for waste). Inside, and well stuck to, the very dry, very black saucepan was a charred skeleton turning to a sort of bony charcoal. Luckily there was no other damage so we do still have a house to sell!

Once the saucepan was safely put outside to sizzle loudly in the snow we then had to rid every room in the house of the smoke. Despite the blizzard outside and the precious heat we had been conserving all day we had to open all the doors and windows and turn on the fans. This morning a strange, strong, throat catching smell still lingers and no amount of airfreshener has been able to blot it out so far. So all in all its just as well we haven't got viewings this afternoon.



Last week we had to put people off while we had a problem drain unblocked ( what was it I said about moving before anything else went wrong?). I had visions of having to have the newly laid drive excavated but we were lucky and now have a working drain and a report giving it a camera backed "all clear".



A short break in the freeze last week gave me a chance to start on tidying up the vegetable patch ( I had hoped to be doing that in France ) and generally clear up a bit so that the garden can play its proper part in promoting the property. The fountain now has a new identity too.