Sunny.

A sunny and cold day today. 

The builder was back again this morning to start work on the sitting room. Here he has already removed the false wall that stood about 6" out from the real wall. The grey patches are where the recesses were. Such a good idea to put the tv above the radiator. Unfortunately the floor was laid after the wall was built and is no longer available. Our extremely meticulous builder is doing his best to match some new boards that have a different tongue and groove profile where they slot together. He also blocked the strange window/mirror in the back wall  and put up the frame of the big mirror we brought from the kitchen in Dingles. We are both out this evening, Peter to the Pilton history group and me to sing so the sitting room can be left with the curtains down and dust sheets over the furniture.

I had a good session scrubbing the decking in the back garden. I found that most of the gaps between the planks were blocked with decayed leaves etc. so I spent some time clearing them with a metal barbeque skewer to help the water drain away. I had to be careful because the water left from yesterday was frozen making the decking even more slippery. A lot of the slime and dirt came off but I'll probably go over it with the washer as well. It might even turn out that the handyman who is coming to make the lower steps deeper and to tidy up the decking in general will say it will be cheaper to buy new planks. We'll see.

Last night's Pilates session was the usual mix of hard work and fun. I'd pulled my back on Monday and couldn't do all the exercises fully. To counteract the exercises that were hard to do including one where I collapsed in a heap twice trying to thread an arm under the other so that the shoulder was on the floor while one leg was high in the air (think pretzel) I do have flexible hip joints and don't struggle with the exercises that involve bending down from the waist.