Sea Mist.

No Ukrainian photo today because each time I try to copy anything my pc says it can't be downloaded securely and to be safe I've deleted them. Will need to check further. 

The day began with blue skies but very quickly a sea mist deveolped and gradually moved closer until it reached us at about 5.00.

I was awake very early and was up before it got light. I'd had a bad night, mainly I think because I was worrying about the state of the drains. What if they got worse and we ended up with no working toilets? What would we do then? Knock on the neighbours' door or run down to the public toilets by the lifeboat station? As soon as he woke I got Peter to agree to ring the drain company and up the call to an emergency call out. In the end that wasn't necessary because Peter used his plumbing experience to get the two rusted down manhole covers free (impact technology with a wooden post) and we were able to ping them up with crowbars. That enabled us to see that there was no problem with the sink and toilet in the 'blue loo'. What a relief, in every sense of the word. Peter tried to get the drain rods into the other drain but would have needed to climb down the manhole to do that. The drain company assured us they would be here today to use their power jet to clean the drains though we're still waiting. In the meantime Peter put boards over the open manholes and I put a notice on the garden door warning of the open drain on the other side of the door. Today's builder has measured up and will see about getting replacement covers as the handles have rusted out of the old ones.

The two lads worked all day and have finished the kitchen roof apart from one tiny bit of fascia board which they plan to do tomorrow. In the meantime I pottered about in the back garden which was still sunny, and brought up some more of the pebbles. It may look like a bunch of hay but that is actually a blue ornamental grass planted in a hole in the concrete.

Although I had a bad night my early morning walk to the shop (just after 8.00) to buy milk cheered me up. The blackbirds perched on the chimney pots were singing away as was a dunnock in the brambles on the cliff while the waves whooshed soothingly over the sand. The older children were making their way to wait for the school bus to town and a few dog walkers were down on the beach.

Later in the afternoon it began to feel chilly indoors but I snatched half an hour sitting out in the open before the sea mist and now a few drops of rain arrived. The weatherman is talking of cold air with sleet and snow or at least rain. Yuck.