Dry.

The day began with a bright blue sky and not a drop of wind. No point in doing any washing I thought but a couple of hours later the breeze picked up and I threw a load into the machine and got it out on the line. A few hours later the sky was completely overcast but even so by the end of the day the washing was at least half-dried.

Straight after breakfast I washed the front windows. Not only had the recent strong winds covered them with a film of salt but a passing flock of seagulls had had a bombing raid on the front of the house. They had also caught the car so once the windows were done I gave the car a quick wash too.

That done I cut two shelves, one for the study and another for the bedroom. Peter had bought the wood a few weeks ago and I'd been hoping that he would cut it with his chop-saw as my hand sawing isn't the best. But the chop-saw isn't set up at the moment so hand-saw it was. I sanded down all the sharp edges, waxed the piece that will be going in the bedroom but came to a halt with the other bit which is going to be painted white. I was going to give it a coat of wood primer but realised I needed to paint 'knotting' over the many knots in the wood to prevent the oils staining the paint. One of our earlier builders didn't use knotting on the door frame to the utility room and now there are some marks showing through. I'm sure I had some knotting many years ago but can't see any now so I'll have to buy that before carrying on. No point in doing a job badly.

Finally I was free to head out to do some gardening. I'd lost the sun by that time but I wrapped up in my big workcoat, cleaned up a couple of half buckets of pebbles to move from the front to the back garden and then began work on a small heap of soil at the top of the lawn. Weeds in one bucket and the hopefully weed-free soil stored in a dumpy bag. I'd like to clear up this extra soil which is a mixture of subsoil and compost that was in various planters before starting to dismantle the narrow raised bed that runs across the garden. I find it much better to keep the soil in a dumpy bag where it can't be invaded by the plants growing in the old lawn.

It seems that the world is split into those people who fall asleep in an instant and those who don't. While Peter falls asleep in minutes I've spent my whole life spending hours trying to get to sleep. Even as a 6 year old in boarding school I can remember still being awake when the nuns crept through the dormitory on their way to bed. No gadgets in those days or even books or radio just my thoughts keeping me awake. It wasn't until I'd left home in my twenties that I began listening to radio until the early hours of the morning. Now add in the aches and pains that come with aging though they do have benefit of coming with painkillers which eventually help me to fall asleep. But ....... recently Radio 4 had ran a series of talks  called Sleep Well which went over various proven ways of helping falling asleep. There were all the usual things, stay off your phone, have a routine etc but there was one that I tried- slowing down your breathing sometimes called box breathing. Your breathe in for 4 seconds and out for 4 seconds and hold for 2 seconds or just in for 4 seconds and out for 6 seconds. I do that for a short while then go back to not counting and I find myself asleep within 5 or 10 minutes which is quite amazing. I sleep with earphones and the radio running for 90 minutes because Peter snores a lot too and I haven't once had to press the snooze button in the last few weeks.