Cloudy.

The day began grey and a little chilly but eventually warmed up to an almost sunny afternoon.

Remember how I was going off to sing last night? Well, I waited at the arranged point, and waited and waited. I gave up 20 minutes after the agreed time, walked home via the house of one of the people I should have been with but no one was in. I wondered if the choir had been cancelled because of the Queen's passing as so many other events have been but when Peter phoned (he had the number in his phone) the person I made the arrangemet with that wasn't the case. Arrangements changed and I was forgotten. It was suggested I made my own way but it was too late and I would have had to look up where to go as last week I'd been in the back of a car on a wet evening. And my ears are still ringing so maybe it was all for the best.

Today I planned a day of working in the garden. My first job was to fit the hose to the water butt and thanks to Lea's suggestion to soften the hose by putting it in hot water I was able to force it onto the spout. Not all the way but I used a jubilee clip to secure it. 

Then I was called by Peter to give him a hand with the bathroom demolition.

Above is how the bathroom looked a few weeks ago. The pink tiles fell off the overhead panel last year and for the past few weeks I've been prising one and sometimes two layers of tiles from the walls. Peter removed the airing cupboard door easily enough but the rest of the structure was another matter.  For a start the frame was built with 2x4 timbers. In places a second layer of timbers had been added when the bathroom was refurbished. That included the panel coming down from the ceiling which was double layered with each layer having tiles stuck to it. It was heavy and awkward work but we got it done. It's a decent sized bathroom but I'm still having difficulty visualising the finished room. It's all so bitty. With the ceiling being so high having half tiled walls will look better but then the shower area will need full height tiles and the original window (with the utility room on the other side) breaks up that wall. I think the bit above where the bath is will become alcove shelves for the shower and we'll box in the rest. 

Peter loaded up the car and took everything down to the dump. Now all that's left for us to to is take out the bath and remove as many tiles as possible from the final wall. After that we will have to wait for the builder to install the window and eventually complete the job.

I had a break and then returned to the front garden where I cleared all the montbretia from a corner of one of the flower beds. I'm going to remove all the montbretia from under the hydrangeas along that wall because not only does the orange of the montbretia clash horribly with the red of the hydrangeas but the montbretia is too tall to be under those shrubs. 

I hoped to see the green flash again tonight but at the last moment there was the haze of a cloudbank stopping the change in colour.