Chilly.

Sunny for most of the day, blue skies, whitecaps out to sea and a chilly north wind. At one point there were three kite surfers and about 20 surfers out on the water. There was talk on the forecast that this might lead to sleet and snow over the mountains but no sign of it so far. Right now a squall has blown in with lashing rain and whistling gusts of wind.

Last night I looked in the utility room I had another 'Oh no,' moment when I saw the cupboards that hide the pipes coming through from the bathroom. All I had asked for was a couple of doors over the first two spaces and an easily removable panel over the third space behind which is the gully (drain). Somehow with all the faffing about the removable panel was now a permanent feature, aargh. We had one lad in today. He's good but not very experienced but he cut out the panel and put in screws that can be easily undone.

My morning was spent trimming the hedge at the side of the terrace. There's still a hump to the right of the lamp post which I need to flatten out  but we now have an improved view of the sea and in particular should have a better view of the sun setting over the sea. It's been a matter of getting a balance between privacy and the view. Working from the street side first I made sure that it is still above passers' by head height though with the terrace being higher we could, if we wanted chat from our side.

The postman brought me some fabric samples today. This company- Terry's, lets you have up to 10 samples for free which I think is a good policy. I was really looking for something for my study curtains but when I saw the blue seagull design it made me smile and I thought it would be perfect for the window by the dinning table. My initial thoughts are that it is a 'trendy' design which may well go out of fashion but I still like it a lot. For now it's propped up by the window to help me make up my mind. I chose a couple of the other samples simply because I thought I might make tiny gift bags or something. So far Terry's have been the only company I've come across that offer free fabric samples. I was going to order some samples from another company but they charged £1 per sample. No thank you.

Later in the afternoon Peter and I put up the third short trellis panel. There is a fourth panel but it had been damaged when the wind blew it over a while back. We repaired it as best as we could but when we offered it up to the posts we realised that we hadn't got it properly square. I've decided to order some more of the short panels as I hadn't planned on having so many raised beds until I saw the state of the wall and the repaired panel can be used in an awkward space which may need some adjustment to the panel.

The plumber popped in to see if there had been anything more about the kerosene smell which does seem to have gone. We haven't been visited by anyone from Environmental Health but yesterday I noticed a van from a boiler/oil company parked outside one of the houses up the road, maybe the house where they are doing a lot of work.

Apart from needing a radiator (pipes are in) my study is DONE! The temptation is to rush in and start getting organised but I'm saving that for tomorrow. The plumber won't be here until Tuesday at the earliest so I can't do anything yet in the utility room. Ah well.