That’s it – everything is gone from my beautiful, comfortable home and into a storage depot for the foreseeable future.

Well, all except this bottle of Galliano………

My sister bought this bottle and has, on more than one occasion bemoaned the fact that it ended up in my possessions not hers. BUT – she bought it twenty five years ago and I’ve carted it from house to house ‘in case we have a cocktail party’. Jan occasionally says ‘I want my Galliano back’ and I say – ‘it’s mine now’.

Anyway, no more. On this occasion, we cannot afford to put stuff in storage that we will never, ever consume so, tonight, a few short moments after I took this photo, the Galliano went down the sink……along with the crème de menthe, Curacao, Pino Colada mix and all the other horrible drinks that have been left here over the years after parties.

The kitchen now smells like a distillery and there is a line of empty bottles that look as though a lush has been at work.

We are camping with a single pan and the remains of the food until morning, when we will set off for our new life.

Rosie and Archie are disturbed, the hens and wabbit have no idea that in the morning, they will be unceremoniously dumped into boxes and transported two hundred miles away. I’m glad we don’t have any restrictions at the moment on transporting the hens and hopefully that bird flu will quietly pass Cornwall by…..I hope.

Last year we were doing the hoe down and the year before, before all these plans were hatched, we were enjoying pip's seat.