Relief.

Pete got his phone call today asking him to go to the surgery tomorrow for his covid vaccination. Woo Hoo! We were expecting it though maybe not so soon as yesterday there was a post on the local village FB page showing that all the over 80's and care home residents (19 of them) in the area had been vaccinated and the next group would be starting soon. After two or is it three? weeks he'll have a high degree of protection and hopefully it won't be too long until my group (over 60's) get our jabs too.

We started the day with blue skies dotted with fluffy white clouds blown along by a mild south-westerly wind. By the afternoon it had turned grey and gloomy once more. The strong swell is still coming in and I saw the first surfer running into the waves at 8.00 this morning. (He caught a good wave straight away.)

I really hoped to be able to do some gardening this morning but the ribs weren't good so instead I had a wander around looking for signs of spring. The last three photos are all of Hydrangea buds, I hope I didn't prune the bushes too hard.

The builders turned up in the morning to wipe off the excess grout from the utility room tiles. They could do with a proper wash but I wasn't sure if it was too soon to do it today. Maybe tomorrow.

Instead I had quite a frustrating time looking on-line for curtain poles for my study. I wasn't even being too picky. One pole needs to be nearly 3m and the other 180cms. One of the problems was that when I did find two matching poles there were issues about the quality of the longer pole or else the longer pole was very expensive - £127!  Some of the adjustable poles had poor reviews; not sturdy enough or poorly made. I had a preference for white painted wood but would have gone for metal too. The main problem with the wooden poles was the wooden brackets which fixed to the wall with just one screw. I remember having a lot of trouble when we used that sort at Dingles though drilling into rough stone walls might have had something to do with that. I took a break and watched an old episode of 'Portrait Artist of the Year' and refuelled with coffee and a cinnamon bagel. Back to the pc and I ended up buying the poles from Argos and then ordering extra metal brackets from eBay. Not my first choice of brackets which were £15 a pair but simple right angled ones. The first poles I tried to buy weren't in stock and then the ones I bought can't be delivered for some reason but I have to collect them from Argos in town which luckily is next door to Lidl. (The 3m pole comes in two pieces.)