Wet.

Grey again today and very mild. It was warm enough for me to sit out on the terrace and drink my morning cuppa while contemplating the sea.

I woke early this morning (6.00) but it was one of those days when the longer I stayed in bed the worse some of my aches got so I was up before 7.00. For once I ate my breakfast alone, leaving Peter's porridge ready to be heated up in the microwave later. That meant I was able to load up the car with bags of garden waste early and head off to the dump. From there I went to Morrison's and then called in at Charlie's (like Mole Valley - tools for farmers, gardening stuff, outdoor wear and household goods not to mention aisles of Christmas glittery stuff and a small garden centre). I was looking to see if they had any herbs with their plants but in the end I only found some pots of rosemary. Just my luck, they had no prices on and I was already grumpy because the shop's hand gel that I'd used was horribly sticky and I kept having to prise my fingers apart so I didn't bother looking for an assistant to ask what the price was. I did buy a cheap doormat for the back door. I can't put a thick coir one there and up till now I've just had an old towel on the floor to wipe my wet boots on.

The rain had set in by the time I got home and then it stopped. So then Peter went out with his giant circular saw and cut down the big slab of concrete. He got most of it down but it's proving quite a problem. Right in front of the zig-zags is the oil line under some? cement and the other side has a massive shoulder of concrete like a buttress that goes down well below the level of the path. We're going to have to talk to the plumber who put the oil line in and the builder who is coming to do the terrace (when he's finished moving house) for ideas as I want to pave up to and around the tree stump to create a more open entrance to the back garden.

I couldn't work outside while Peter was cutting and bashing, too much noise and dust but once he'd finished I was out there grubbing about. I dug out most of the soil from behind the concrete so we can see what we're dealing with and put some bricks along the wall as it looks like we might be able to get one more of the large trellis panels up.