Windy.

Stormy winds have been blowing all day with a few sunny spells but no significant rain until the evening. We're still taking things quite gently to ease out all the aches and pains acquired in Borth. Peter had a meeting with the estate agent to see if there's anything we can do to improve our chances of selling. Apparently all the feedback has been good but the garden wasn't suitable for a dog (we guessed that one), too many steps in the garden (they must have known about the stairs indoors) or they're still waiting to sell their own place. We've dropped the price slightly and will have to hope for the best.

Saturday in Borth...…….. My goal was to clear the plants blocking the passageway along the side of the bungalow.

Before - above and after - below. On the left hand side is the utility room which was an addition to the original bungalow. Later a wall was built next to the neighbour's fence on the right and a roof added to create yet another room with a wall and door closing off the side path that leads to the front garden. 

A better view of the side passage. The green stuff leaning in is a plastic windbreak but we think it was more likely put up to prevent a dog from scrambling over the wall onto the neighbour's roof as the metal gate at the far end has an extra grill at the bottom to block up the gaps. Taking the green stuff down is on the agenda for our next visit and then I'll be able to hack away at the elder bush that also leans into the path. 

The utility room from the inside after all the fittings and floor to wall cupboards had been taken out by Peter. That's the above lean-to on the left which will be removed and on the right hand side is the double length garage. We're keeping the garage though we may reduce its length but will be removing the roof that covers the passage that runs between the garage and the house. Apart from making the utility room very dark it also stops any air flow around the back of the house. The back garden is at right angles to the rest of the bungalow behind the end of the garage. 

At the front are steps leading down to the gate that is at the end of the side passage. Now that all the branches have been cut back it is possible to go down the steps and into the front garden on the left. As there was still room in the skip I chopped up a lot of my prunings, bagged them and threw them on top of the skip.

I've also made a start on taking the wall paper off the inner walls. There at least I'm only dealing with several layers of thick textured paper.

We've been planning to get down to St Ives this summer to visit the place I grew up before we move further up country. We've also been in touch with the Tate St Ives Gallery regarding some of the art work we have which resulted in a number of phone calls from their archivist who is very interested in my mother's work and the gallery she ran in St Ives. I spoke to the lady on the phone tonight and she's very keen to exhibit some of my mother's work from that time in an exhibition in October.