Snowing.

Cold with a dusting of snow up on the hills and a morning of sleety snow showers.

We woke this morning to find that on this coldest of days the central heating refused to turn on. At first we thought yesterday's frequent power cuts, sometimes every few minutes, had caused a valve to jam up but then Peter diagnosed a drop in water pressure. He added more water to the system which did the trick but then we had a flood from a pipe in the toilet. When the builders had taken off the radiator to work on the walls they hadn't capped off the pipe but simply turned off the TRV (the cap with numbers on) which was fine when the pressure was low but as soon as it went up - whoosh! Fortunately the water went into the corridor but instead of carrying on and getting under the laminate flooring it turned right and flowed into the utility room. The first I knew of this was hearing Peter shout while crouched down with his thumb over the pipe. We swapped over and Peter tried to find something to plug the pipe. Unfortunately he gave away all his plumbing equipment once his hands became affected by arthritis. He found something which we jammed into the pipe and I secured it with good old gaffer tape. That got it down to a drip while Peter phoned the plumber. After discussing the situation Peter remembered he had a nut which was the right size. With a 5p piece inside I replaced the temporary fix and tightened up the nut. Job done. Must get a set of emergency plumbing supplies.

Before settling down to breakfast and The Archers, I went down to the shop for some milk as I wasn't sure when they were open till. Found out the winter hours are 8 - 6pm seven days a week. This was while it was snowing so I didn't go for a walk on the beach.

An excited surfer posted that the first of the big winter swells were in. That brought the surfers, at one point I counted at least 18 surfers out in the water. Unlike North Devon which faces out to the Atlantic here Ireland is between us and the Atlantic so the surf isn't so good.

I spent time on my pc looking for suitable window film for my study. I've narrowed it down to two, one is rows of sparrows sitting on branches and the other is clear bamboo on a frosted background. So far I'm leaning towards the bamboo. That's for the street side window while I haven't made up my mind for the south facing window that overlooks the drive and then our neighbours' front garden. That might just get one way mirror film.

I finished the afternoon with another piano session. Sight reading (Farewell to Stromness) is good for the brain though I did squawk the first time I came across the section that has 5 sharps. Sight reading was never my strong point but it helps knowing the tune.