Sunny.

It's been a sunny day but the cold wind made it very chilly in the shade. For once I woke before 6.00 and had done my exercises by 7.00. Usually when I've done my exercises I feel less sleepy but after getting back into bed I fell asleep for another couple of hours.

Speedy was out and about this morning trying to make friends with one of the neighbour's cats. Her sister, another black cat, was watching him from on top of a wheelie bin in the next garden. I went across and chatted to the older chap who lives there. There's another black and white cat quite similar to Speedy which he's sort of adopted. He was such a battle scarred Tom that they took him to the vet to be neutered and I think they feed him now.

There was a knock at the door this morning and to our surprise it was a BT man. We'd complained to Sky about our poor internet and BT own the lines. At first he thought the problem was in the cabinet about 100ft along the road but then it turned out to be even further along. He and a second repair man spent most of the day fixing it. It seems we weren't the only people having problems. Hopefully now it is all sorted.

Peter went off this morning and got me a 20kg bag of ready-mix mortar. I used both bags of concrete and the mortar, first to sort out the raised bed by the decking. I had to make a wall at the back to keep the compost away from the decking and then I stuck narrow slabs around the top. I shall be planting the 'Pony Tails' grass there but the nights are still a bit too cold so instead it is full of holly sprigs to deter the cats. I also stuck down the half slabs that had been the original steps, next to where the big planter will be.

The thieving habits of the cats were the cause of another surprise this afternoon. I opened the door of the washing machine to find a bowl of batter that I had mixed up for pancakes ......... a few days ago. We can't leave any food out because of the cats so I had put it in there to rest and then completely forgot about it.  It might have made a starter for sourdough bread but I wasn't taking any chances so out it went.