Sunny.

It's been a lovely sunny day. After a good night's sleep I felt a lot better. I didn't go to Pilates last night because I was so exhausted. Today Peter's friend painted the garage roof with bitumen after sealing all the joins yesterday. Two days and the job we've been waiting for so long to be done is finished. I sorted more stuff from the garage to give away, posted pictures on FB and have a couple of people wanting most of it. The page rule is that things should not be sold on with the slogan 'For the needy not the greedy.' I'm just happy to pass on things which can continue to be used. Even my trusty bow saw is going as there aren't any trees to cut down in the new garden.

Peter says that the daisies in the lawn are too pretty to mow down but I suspect that might be a bit of an excuse. He didn't come to choir tonight because his knees which now have new lumps kept waking him up last night.

I went on my own to choir but didn't stay on for a cuppa and a chat. We went through the songs for the Nightwalk and then spent the rest of the time working on Po kare kare. I'd been practising at home and had ended up writing the music for some of the lines where the altos sing a harmony and not the tune to keep myself on track.

A bit more about Borth.-

We met most of the neighbours and they are just so nice. Everybody was friendly and helpful and the one thing the Welsh like to do be it a casual meeting or 'business' is to chat. To try and get to the point quickly would be to seem rude. The good manners of everyone were noticeable too. Walking around the house with the builders they made sure I walked through the doors first which I'm sure doesn't happen much here. Back to the neighbours, one thing that struck me was the kindness and high regard they had shown towards Chick, the man who had lived in the bungalow. One chap who is a semi-retired builder/carpenter would do any repairs and another would come and trim the hedges and offered to do the same for us. The first chap came over to turn on the water which was too hard for us to do and is actually going to keep an eye on the builders for us, not as a project manager but to make sure things are going smoothly. The second chap was happy to recommend tradespeople and he's got our phone number in case he sees anything untoward. A third set of neighbours gave us a couple of buckets of water so I could get on with the cleaning until the water was on. We met our next door but one neighbour also very friendly who until recently was the local MP and leader of the Welsh section of his party. It then turned out that he had trained to be a teacher in Devon and had taught at one of the local schools at the same time as I had done supply work there so he knew Barnstaple well.

I didn't do a lot in the bungalow apart from 'Shake and Vac' hoovering of the sitting room and kitchen carpets but I did take a deep breath and clean the fridge freezer which had a certain amount of mould on the shelves. At that point I wasn't planning on keeping the fridge but I couldn't bear the thought of seeing the mould. The next day Peter and the handyman, who is going to get rid of all the carpets and take down the sheds and lean-tos, persuaded me that it might be useful to have a second fridge freezer in the utility room. The local dump charges a lot for taking most stuff and will ban you if you turn up too many times even in a car. Now that it is clean I could offer the fridge on the local free FB page if I don't want it. I'll certainly do that with the two greenhouses in the back garden.

Before we set off on our return journey we went to our front, front garden ie the cliff top which has been mown and sat on a bench to enjoy the view. We'd left the front door wide open and I had a mug of coffee and a croissant in my hands. While we were there a red kite flew slowly past about 10 ft. above the cliff as it searched for food. Stunning.

On our circuitous drive back we drove through Aberaeron past colourfully painted Georgian houses with their stonework picked out in white. which reminded me of iced biscuits.