Windy.

It was windy and cooler this morning. There was one quick shower which sent me running to rescue the washing from the washing line and the large curtain that was airing outside.

It's so good to have the whole day at home to get on with jobs at my own pace. So far I've been staying awake when Peter gets up and not going back to sleep. That may explain why I've found myself getting to sleep earlier in the evenings. The first task of the day was to work on the metal strip stopping the kitchen door from closing properly. A long and back breaking job it was too. Chipping out the concrete above the strip wasn't too bad but my initial plan to flatten the metal was a no-go. The metal was too strong. Plan B was to remove the metal strip which involved chipping out more concrete and then getting the chisel under the strip to loosen it from the concrete below. Thank goodness I have my mother's old stone working chisels. Eventually I dragged out the metal with a pair of pliers (dentist & tooth?) with only a bit of damage to one of the cork floor tiles. And now the door shuts perfectly. I'll need to fill in the gap under the wooden threshold the next time I mix up some cement.

After a suitable rest and painkillers I went back to work on the porch. I should have know that painting the doors would lead to more than a tidy up there. To keep out the winter drafts we had heavy curtains over both of the doors. That did the job but it was a bit of a battle to get through the doors when the curtains were drawn. Instead I've fitted a longer curtain pole (a length of copper pipe instead of wooden poles) above the inner door so that both curtains can be closed on either side of the porch light. While I was working on that I decided to do something about the electric cable that ran from the wall socket, up over the inner door, across the wall, out under the front door, round the corner and across the flower bed to the pump that runs the waste system. Much better to have it run into the porch roof from outside, over the inner door, down the wall and to the socket. To do this I had to remove the wire from the plug so that I could thread it through under the eaves. It was only then that I discovered that the cable was about 50ft longer than needed. I should have remembered as it was me that looped the cable tidily and hung it from a hook. That made for a lot of extra work and it was only as I was pulling it back through into the porch that I realised we don't need all the extra length. I left some slack outside and a spare 10ft inside before chopping off the rest and rewiring the plug. After that I just splashed a bit of white paint on the arch over the inner door and the not so red now tiles.

I did a tiny bit of gardening too, making a start on clearing the strip behind the house.