Breezy.

I've been in a much better mood today. Firstly it has been a breezy and often bright day. It is also getting a bit warmer. Last night in Bude (Cornwall), the temp didn't drop below 10C. We have been grateful that our bedroom is now a tropical 12C. For the last few weeks it has been 8-10C which is a little on the chilly side. I've been working outside for most of the day but I didn't feel the 4.1 earthquake in the Bristol Channel.20k north of Ilfracombe that happened at about 1.00.

And I'm in a good mood because I've  GOT THINGS DONE. There was half a bag of cement left over from the work on the chimney. With the right amount of sand I had a full wheelbarrow load of cement to mix. I had just done the dry mixing and added the water to make a large amount of cement when down came the rain. Nothing to do except cover the barrow and carry on working. First I laid a course of bricks along the back wall as the wood that had been there was too rotten to re-use. Then I used the rest of the cement to bed in the 3 beams. No wonder the the front beam ripped off, the mortar in the stonework was crumbly, like sand. I brushed off all the shoddy mortar and fixed the beams as best as I could. I've never been too good at trowel work so it is a bit rough and ready but hopefully will keep the wood in place. The rain eased off so I didn't need to cover everything.

Then I tackled the next task on my list, cutting back the blackcurrant bushes on the side nearest the old wood shed. The side of the shed is  falling apart and that was the job I had planned to do this week. As well as the cutting I got all the branches cleared away too. I was nearly finished at that point but decided to pull up some grass that I had spotted growing in a bed by the yard. Walking up the drive with half a bucket of weeds I thought to pull any odd weeds that were growing in the ground cover plants on the slope by the drive. At first I thought there were only a few weeds but once I started looking I could see a lot of tiny weeds, mostly grass. So that job took a little longer than I thought. 

All in all it's been a good day. Peter has just arrived home but he is off out again for the gig club's AGM. That might go on for quite a while.