Grey.

A little more colour in the sea today but generally grey and cold as we head towards another cold wet spell. I went for a beach walk in the middle of the day, the bottom photo is nearer to the actual colours though it did get dark and gloomy at times. I thought it was going to rain while I was out but so far it has stayed dry.

The builder has been here all day and still it's 'one more day'. That wasn't helped by Speedy leaving dirty footprints over the windowsill again. The door is back on and closed so he can't repeat that particular trick.

This morning the 'chief' carer from the team that looks after our neighbour came round to ask if we'd had a leak from our oil tank as they could smell kerosene inside the neighbour's house. I'd noticed the smell when I'd been working in the front garden over the last few days and had even gone up to where our tank is at the back of the house and had a good sniff. I do have a nose like a bloodhound but I couldn't smell anything around the oil tank or the boiler. The worst of the smell actually seems to be coming from next door's building though they don't use oil. Now comes the convoluted explanation- back along there was a drive next to that house, then it got built over and made into a garage and finally it was converted into a sunroom. On that original driveway and still there now is a manhole cover over a drain that takes groundwater out to the cliff. This water, which can be heard running nearly all the time, originates from an underground spring in a garden three houses up. That property has recently been sold and the garden at the side cleared as they hope to build another house on it. It is very probable that the smell is due to contamination of the ground water which could be a pretty serious matter. To be extra sure it's nothing to do with us Peter called the plumber who installed our oil tank. He came round, checked everything and said it was all fine. He returned a while later and to reassure himself that there really wasn't any fault with our system dug up the one section of the feed line that he'd cemented in which was still fine. He's left it all exposed so that should Environmental Heath want to inspect it they can, (the chap from next door was talking about calling them in and I don't blame him if the house is full of the smell).

This morning Peter carried on filling up the second raised bed with the blocks and I brought up the last of the rubble from the front garden. I'll still need to add gravel and a membrane before filling up with soil and then planting!

Later in the afternoon I looked out of the window and saw a kestrel fly past, followed by a seagull, followed by a red kite.