D-Day Minus One

The Outlaws (B's parents) arrive tomorrow....they'll be with us 'till Friday, head onto Europe for a fortnight and then come back to us for a couple of weeks, one of which I'll be spending at a conference in Slovenia, leaving B to spend some quality time on his own with his "parentals"...

The house has been cleaned from top to bottom, the fridge groans from the stockpile of food, meals are planned...now all we can hope for is that the sunshine continues and we can take them to the places we've lined up for the next couple of days. It's the first time they're visiting us in spring - their past two trips have been in the late summer and we've suffered abysmal weather. I swear they pack rainmaking equipment in their luggage, as without fail, the clouds congregate over Heathrow and follow them from there on their travels. August 2007 was the wettest on record...we spent a soggy week traipsing around Norfolk, wishing we had an amphibious vehicle, or even webbed feet. September 2004 was also particularly bleak - sheeting rain is not what you need when you're stuck on a narrow boat with both sets of parents.

On the topic of watery matters, the "Fish Hotel" has been installed...B spent a good part of last weekend and every evening this last week assembling the cabinet, fixing the 3-D "rock-look-alike" backdrop into place and washing gravel. The tank now holds almost 300 litres of water and a very large piece of wood... plants will follow soon and fish in about a month. Follow the progress on http://www.fishhotel.blogspot.com/