Chilly.

Grey and chilly today but thankfully no rain.

With the builders due in today I was up and ready by 8.00. That's not early by our past working lives but when you're retired it's nice to have the option to stay in bed if you feel like it. But it's so worth it to have the work being done. Boss builder was here soon after 8.00 to drop off the concrete blocks for the raised beds in the back garden but he won't start work on those until the other gang has finished working on the garage roof. They arrived a little later, the carpenter has mainly worked in the utility and just now has taken out the window from the small toilet and I guess the new one will be going straight in. I'm still cross with the window company for not pointing out the height of the handle. This oversight has cost us over £200 and two week's delay. The main work has been out on the garage getting the boards nailed over the rafters. The final stage (tomorrow I hope) will be to pour over a new product which is like a liquid rubber and is supposed to last for at least 20 years.

My main job today, apart form making lots of cups of tea, was to see to the orchids. I've been very guilty about my poor orchids. Not only were they suffering from being over the radiators which had caused leaves to shrivel but there was a major infestation of woolly aphids. I'd been putting this off because access to the window sill was blocked by all the boxes and tools stacked in our bedroom. I took each tub out to the terrace, sprayed with insecticide, wiped off as many of the aphids as I could and sprayed again before cleaning up the tub. Once all the orchids were done and sadly I think a couple of the orchids are too far gone, I sprayed the window sill and replaced the orchids. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can move them into my study where the radiator will either be off or turned down to low.

 Evening low tide.