Cold.

The temperature plummeted today as an icy wind blew from the east. For a while black clouds brought rain making it feel even colder but but now at least we're back to bright if cold sun.

While Peter went off to town I moved a large concrete planter from the front garden up to the back. It was very heavy so I did it in what I call 'old lady style' first rolling the tub down to the gate where I swivelled it onto our flat bed trolley. From there it was a slow but steady haul along the pavement to the garage. Then came more swivelling to get the tub onto a low wall and then back onto the trolley for the final haul along the side of the garage to the back garden. I was just finishing painting the tub, which had once been painted ox-blood red and a matching one which had been in the back garden when I heard the sound of a big truck. There are always building or gardening noises here with rennovations and even new houses being built all around but that sounded quite close. Sure enough when I went to look there was a lorry unloading concrete blocks on to the pavement. When he had finished the delivery man told me that a bigger crane would be coming along later to swing the blocks over the hedge into the garden as the crane on his truck wasn't big enough.

Later on the bigger truck and our builder turned up. They're heavy 6" concrete blocks so the builder wanted them put near where he would be working. As the driver attempted to get the second lot over the hedge I was sure I saw the truck slip forwards a little and the builder told me afterwards he saw it too. With a lamp post the only thing between the truck and the cliff edge that could have been disastrous. Fortunately the driver decided to move the truck around to the bottom of the garden and got the rest of the blocks in over the end hedge.

Then it was time to get on with siliconing the cupboard. I'd also planned to re-do the silicone around the tops of the kitchen cupboards. Because the replacement kitchen roof had happened after the kitchen was fitted the banging and general stomping around had caused the original silicone to split away in places. To do the job properly first I had to prise out all of the old silicone. Only when that was done could I put in the new silicone and even with a proper shaper tool thingy it was a long and tedious job. Thank goodness for wet wipes which are perfect for wiping off the sticky silicone. Got the job done in the end and then came the fun part of unpacking some boxes of glasses and arranging them on the shelves.

They've been a long time coming but I'm happy with our new shelves.