Life goes on

Thank you everyone for your kind comments and hugs below. Knowing that people care may not make a lot of difference to the harsh physical facts but I do think it makes the storms easier to weather.

It's been a busy few days here. The forensic team have finished their investigations and established that there is nothing suspicious about the fire. They have concluded it was a case of spontaneous combustion and thankfully were even able to see it happen as the controls for the CCTV were in a part of the building which didn't burn down. They were able to watch footage of the fire start. There were small wisps of smoke for quite some time and then suddenly a mass of flames. Within fifteen seconds of the flames appearing the cameras were engulfed and no longer able to record. Scary stuff. Very scary stuff.

We now need to wait for the building to be made safe and then the clean up operation can begin. I say 'clean up' but it's not a job for mops and brushes, more a case of demolition and rubble removal *sigh*. We drove up there today. Craig wanted to show me. It's just a black, mushy, smelly mess now.

On a lighter note we watched some of the bands heading off to the Miner's Gala on Saturday morning. I like to see the bands en route but wouldn't like to go into Durham when the Gala is on. It's a big booze up for many I believe and the local papers usually report lots of trouble.

As we watched the bands last year I thought that I must be prepared this year so that I could fill Hermione in on a bit of our coal mining heritage this time round. I didn't. Hopefully I will have done my homework and be well prepared next year. Tut tut.



I've an update on my Elderflower Champagne. On closer inspection I realised that only one bottle had mould on. I decided that while the rest was still OK I would call a halt and freeze it. I know this means that it won't ferment and go fizzy and alcoholic - but then it also means it won't go mouldy too. Another reason for deciding to cut my losses at this stage was that I had bottled it in glass bottles but have since read on quite few sites that glass bottles are really not recommended for this drink as it is very liable to explode. Anyway, I now have quite a lot of flat and not particularly alcoholic Elderflower Champagne in the freezer. It's a really refreshing and earthy drink, particularly good with a splash of gin I've found.



In between everything else going on I've been crocheting and messing in my veg patch. They're better than any other therapy I know! I've made a lovely new necklace for my shop. Since starting my online shop I have constantly hounded Craig for help. I cannot get my head around how to add and delete things from the site, which means that I can't take down what I've sold and can't add my new stuff. Knowing that Craig will have even less time to help me out with that sort of thing over next few months I've decided to host my business on a blog page instead. I'm familiar with blogging technology so can do that myself. You can see my new necklace here. I'm much happier with the format than I was with the online shopping site, and doing it this way I also don't have to pay site commission and domain name fees so I can sell things for less. Hopefully I've made the right move.

I am so tired right now. Sooner or later I'll have to stop being busy and get in touch with how I really *feel* about what has happened with the fire. I really am weary but I just can't quieten my mind long enough to really think about all of the ramifications just yet.