There are mushrooms popping up everywhere, and the conkers are ready.

It’s autumn, despite the warm temperatures, and my mind always starts to think about the year ahead at work. I can’t believe we’re almost in 2019. There’s lots going on, and thankfully our planning is more comprehensive this year. As a team we’re getting used to what happens annually, but in this job we can still be thrown. Every day is different, which is why I like what I do.

At home we’re up to our elbows in dust, soot and plaster. The renovation has started. There’s a lot of planning, and some making snap decisions about where we should put walls! We also have to be prepared as we need permission from the local planning authority, because the house is listed, and that takes time.

And yet, despite all this the plumber and electrician have started work. It’s all very exciting, but also quite dusty. We’re having to make small and large decisions regularly. It seems to be going well so far. No major new problems. Re-wiring will hopefully mean that we have light switches that correspond to the lights in the same room, and sockets that work. Re-plumbing means that we have new blue pipe which runs to the house through our field, rather than under the neighbours house. The old pipe was leaky and has caused many problems over the past few years. We’re also re-plumbing all the drains out of the house as they are suspiciously set up at the moment.

We hope to get the heating up and running before the cold weather starts, and we don’t have long.

I used to have a rule, that I couldn’t think about ski holidays until at least September, this was back in the day when I went skiing all the time because I didn’t own a house. I haven’t been skiing in years. This now means that when September does come around I naturally start to think about winter, and the year ahead. I am thinking about going skiing for the first time in years.