Christmas approaches – well it doesn’t seem like five minutes since I was happily babbling about the one from 2016!    I do not host christmas anymore – that is down to other members of the extended family.  Where I go is usually calm, orderly and extremely clean.  In fact the hostess has a thing about constantly wiping down surfaces and popping the cleaning sponge in her microwave oven for a quick 2 minute sterilising burst.

I have never thought about doing that – knowing my luck the spong would self combust.  However, they like to have everything really clean for themselves, but even moreso when entertaining.  This last year I put them in touch with a really good professional cleaning agency – they see to all rooms, even do the oven as an extra.  Their expertise is second to none and everywhere smelt and felt like new.  A Christmas Fairy treat for sure.

One of the things about looking after someone else’s pet is the sudden influx of mess that  you don’t really expect.  I have never had to think too much abut removal of muddy paw prints over a honey cream carpet or over the pale cream three piece suite.   I do put massive great towels down near the back door where the hounds come bounding in.  Good job I am absolutely hopeless at getting rid of old stuff that no longer seems to have a purpose or need for a space in my house . . . .  old bath and swimming towels are exactly what’s needed when babysitting two energetic pups when they’ve made the most of the exploring time in my garden!

The next thing I learnt – very quickly, was that getting the carpet really clean again is to hire the services of a professional carpet cleaner – nothing beats their expertise.  The finish is luxuriously soft. Just like new!

Wooh how the time flies – it seems only yesterday I was happily babbling on about a lovely holiday I had spent with my best chum from work, but how we had needed to call in a professional cleaning company when massive clouds of chaff from the harvest had caused havoc with our skin and clothes.  She just couldn’t get her cotttage bright, clean and sparkling enough.  We needed what she referred to a “a right bottoming out job”.  She has lived out there for 24 years after taking redundancy from the company we both enjoyed working for.  Her husband also managed to get redundancy at the same time, which in their case was not a double blow, but in fact a really double wind fall!  They had already bought the cottage and were doing it up as they could each summer holidays.  The start of harvest each year signals time to book the annual autumn clean up.

The Easter holidays in our house used to be manic – one of my sisters has her birthday in mid April and that’s when I recall most Easters fall.  OK, many of course do land at the end of March, but on the whole, it’s Easter bunnies and April showers that come together for me.  We used to have parties and as I recall, masses of easter eggs each.  They were always wrapped in lovely shiny tin foil, in garish colours.   There being several of us in the family, there were an awful lot of choccy eggs about.  Always had to be kept on show in the sitting room.  None of this sneaking them off upstairs to our special space.  Trouble with all this easter fun was the mess that ended up on the floor!  Chocolate trodden into a carpet of any colour is not a good look.  Very special cleaning was employed – all of us with dust pan and brush followed by the 1001 treatment!

When my family moved into our house in the early 2000s, it was brand new – all lovely and smart.  We took photos on the day when we were allowed in to measure up for curtains etc. In fact my daughter mastering things much quicker than me, managed to make a pretty good video of us wandering from room to room.  She did a good running commentary and I did the magician’s assistant trick of opening all the cupboard and room doors for her to make a grand entrance!  The carpets had yet to be fitted.  We had chosen a gorgeous pale honey colour.  Probably a big mistake, especially as we had a complete petrol head living in, his greatest joy was mooching about in garage and then coming into the house via the integral door.  .  .  It’s amazing how efficient a professional cleaning company can be when faced with half a engine of oil over the new honey carpet!