Day 3

A clear frosty morning but rather down about the uncertainties around the planning permission. A few tears. Into the work routine to get over the dumps. Learned that there is a launderette in Nenagh, that the boiler room door can be left open to let the heat circulate. Offer from the neighbour with the green roof to share garbage bins (splitting the council charges).

Cheered up after visits from neighbours on both sides offering hints on where to shop in Nenagh, the bread club, the farm club, the film club, the buyers' group, meat, eggs, the library, the Makery (more on this later) ... We plan to check out what Nenagh has to offer at the weekend - and find a bread knife, potato peeler, doodahs to support the shelves in the wardrobe so we can unpack some clothes ...

The bread we know is wonderful (more of yesterday's gift loaf with pumpkin soup for lunch) and there are heaps more kinds to try: sourdough, multigrain, rosemary and olive oil, rye sourdough, borrodinsky (spelling?) with coriander, spelt wholemeal, wild garlic sourdough ... Deliveries are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and it's possible to have a four-week rolling order of different types of bread. Coming up in the autumn the baker will offer pizza (wood-fired) evenings and bakery courses. Cultivating and caring for your own sourdough starter for example. I wonder if there are going to be wood fired hot cross buns?

More cheering up. An email from our architect saying planning should be due soon as the sewage system is operational. We'll meet with him and our builder next week. Fingers crossed.