Chilly.

After a fairly bland day yesterday we had the most spectacular orange and red sunset. As I stood on the terrace taking photos I could see other people walking down the road to do the same.

I wasn't up very early this morning but I still caught a red sun appearing from behind the mountains. For the rest of the day the chill mist blown in by the easterly wind has been fighting with the sun to give the appearance if not the feel of spring.

The plumber came in the morning and fitted the radiator in my study. That's all the plumbing done for now as we're going to have a break before going ahead with the bathroom. That done we both went into Aber. Peter shopped while I went to the bank. On my way back I cut through a second hand furniture shop in the now closed in platform (on the left hand side of the photo) of the railway station. The shop looks like a charity shop but from their website I see it's a 'not for profit organisation' dedicated to recycling and providing goods for people in need through Social Services. It may be set up like that to avoid the paperwork involved in being a charity.

Then off we went to the builder's merchants. I wanted to add a few items to our order only to find that the gravel and soil were already on the lorry. 'But we're not home, we're here.' I said in a minor panic and suggested they phone the driver to tell him to leave everything in the drive but they reassured me that's what would happen anyway. They weren't sure if they had the two fence posts I wanted and sent me to go and ask out in the yard before they printed out a bill. Off I trotted out to the yard only to meet up with the builder who is going to do the terrace. He offered to put the posts in his truck and drop them off at our place rather than wait for the next delivery. Back I went to the counter to tell them of the new arrangements and the lad suggested the three bags of mortar and a wooden pole also went in Andy's truck. Back out I went to ask if this was okay and then inside again to report on the latest plan. That's the first time we've gone somewhere and met up with somebody we knew, not surprising with the restrictions keeping everyone at home. The last thing was to chose the paving slabs. We need fifty and I didn't want any red ones. When the yard man balked and said that they came in packs my response was that they also came in singles and I wanted fifty singles. In the end it wasn't even an issue as there was a sealed pack of thirty five which didn't have a single red slab and it was easy to reject a couple of reds when picking the extra fifteen. These slabs have now been put to one side until our builder starts the job. The sandy grey colour matches the concrete 'stone' walling around the garden.

At home we ended the afternoon sitting outside. My only other activity was to put up some curtains in my study. White ones at one window and the white with blue and yellow flowers from the kitchen at Dingles at the second window. Now they're up I think I'll go with the kitchen curtains as the white ones look too stark. Buying fabric, even from the reasonable on-line places would cost at least £100 for that room.

Last night's sunset again.