Windy.

Cold.

Looking at the garden bushes waving in the wind this morning I was tempted to get some washing out on the line. That same washing got brought in twice when I spotted raindrops on the windows and hung back out again when the rain blew over hardly wetting the ground. By nightfall the wind had increased and right now it sounds as if a fierce storm is blowing.

I rushed out this morning to get to the Post Office before it closed at mid-day and didn't take my camera with me as I could see sheets of rain sweeping across the bay. I was caught by one shower just before I got to the shop but it was over by the time I was back out so I went for a quick march along the beach. The wind was bitterly cold as I strode along the wet sand but once I turned for the return it gave me a helping push back along the beach. I had to smile at a group who were there with a number of well wrapped up small children digging in the sand with their buckets and spades. The children that is, not the adults. 

Back home Peter and I got on with more DIY. It has become obvious that the 2.5m width of our bedroom windows is too much for the current old window poles and even with new poles, from the builders' merchants and not a curtain pole seller, it would be advisable to have a central bracket to support each pole. So today's task was to add a central bracket. We also needed to move the existing brackets to a better position as we hadn't got them quite right when we first put them up. So far this sounded like a relatively simple job. The problem came when working out which fittings to use on the insulated plasterboard. Unlike drilling through plaster into brick or blockwork and putting in a rawlplug into which a screw can be screwed the insulated board has plaster backed by a thick (maybe 4cms) layer of foam behind which is a space. We have two kinds of fittings especially for this system but neither seemed to do the job securely.  After much disagreement debate we ended up using one of the metal sort that has a special gun to open it plus one normal screw and plug all secured with extra filler for each bracket. I made sure to rub the wooden pole with a candle to help the rings slide along more easily and after touching up the paintwork (don't ask) and wiping both window sill and the venetian blind the curtains are back up. Oh and I forgot to mention that we used three different drills including the one that is so heavy I can't use it. It doesn't do Peter's knee any good going up steps so I try and do anything that involves going up and down the steps.

Having given up running in and out with the washing I hung some above the radiator in the back room and ironed the rest dry which took up what was left of the afternoon.