Warm.

I woke at 4.30 this morning, lay in bed listening to the blackbird leading the dawn chorus accompanied by a wood pigeon cooing in the background and got up at 6.00 as the dawn began to break. Out at sea a fog bank rolled in giving a bit of a gloomy start and then out came the sun and it's been a glorious and warm day.

The plumber turned up nice and early and found me muttering as I tried to remove pencil lines from the beech worktop in the utility room. (That was after I'd cleaned off the speckles of white paint.) I even went so far as to consult Google when my eraser wasn't doing the job. Dr G suggested acetone which I do have but can't remember where but surgical spirit and plenty of rubbing with cotton buds did the job. I haven't quite got the wood clean enough to give it a coat of oil to seal it.

Before looking at the almost finished toilet check out the photo below, namely the uneven border tiles and the sloping top of the cistern. Our builder just doesn't have a straight eye. Nothing to be done about the tiles but the plumber did manage to straighten up the cistern.

And here is the toilet all plumbed in. There was some muttering from the plumber too when he found that the tiles had been put so close to the cut off pipes he couldn't access them and one water pipe had to be laid over the tiles. He sorted it but it made the job harder and no doubt will cost us more. I saved all the offcuts from the kitchen so I can easily make a cover for the exposed pipes.

And here is the utility all plumbed in too. I can't start filling the cupboards because the builders didn't fix the shelves inside and now the little peg thingies are nowhere to be seen. I'll have to pick up some the next time I'm in town. The plumber ran a 'rinse' through the washing machine to check for leaks but having been unused since last September it still needed a good clean. That I did and then ran an empty wash with soap. Then when I was in the shop I found some household soda so I ran a hot wash with soda for a final clean. We are due another sunny day tomorrow so the machine will be working hard first thing.

While the plumber worked I cleaned the windows which took hardly any time and had a long chat with a neighbour over the hedge. Then off to the beach I went. With the easing of the lockdown and the sunny, warm weather the beach was full of happy visitors.

It was lovely to see so many people out enjoying themselves, children running in and out of the waves and kayakers and surfers out in the water. The lifeguard hut is back by the lifeboat station so I'm guessing the lifeguards will be on duty over Easter.

One of my jobs today was to order four more of the short trellis panels for the back garden. I initially went to the same site I bought the first lot from but was rather shocked when the delivery charge was £135. I found the same trellis at a number of other places but none would deliver here. Eventually I found one that would and although the delivery charge was £96, yikes, the cost of the panels was a bit less so I went ahead and ordered them.

With the sun shining on the terrace Peter and I sat out chatting and watching all the walkers going past and the people enjoying the beach. As usual we took out Kindles out with us and then didn't read a word.

Speedy went out yesterday evening and came back with a large (dead) wood mouse which he wanted to bring inside. It's now been put to rest in the dustbin, a shame but that's the nature of cats.