Shelves Done.

Another cold, grey day.

But I didn't mind because at last the alcove shelves are finished,

and filled with a random selection of books from the first boxes I opened. I thought I wouldn't have too much to do today but when I opened the box of records I found they all needed cleaning. I think most of the dust had got into the box here but to tell the truth I don't ever recall cleaning the record covers and most of them go back over 45 years. It took a long time (hours!) to clean all the covers and then my inner librarian took over and I shelved them in categories and then all the classical and more modern records were put in alphabetical order. So now The Incredible String Band sits next to James Taylor and Jethro Tull. So many memories resurfaced as I went through those records. Luckily the boxes of books had been sealed shut and the books were in good condition. There's half a shelf of children's books, some of which go back to my childhood, others were the boys' and the rest tried and tested crowd pleasers from my days as a supply teacher. I had hoped to be reading those to small children here but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. The rest of the shelves are mostly filled with LOTR books and books on Roman history. On the floor underneath the shelves are two spare tiles for the blue loo. Although the tiles were not that expensive the delivery charge was horrendous so I bought a couple of extra tiles. Those two tiles aren't fixed to the floor and could easily be taken up to be used in an emergency.

This is the only photo I have of the original cupboard taken on the day we came to view when the house clearance man was sorting through stuff. I think it was too dated for me to ever want to have a proper photo of it.

And late in the afternoon this was my treat of a billionaire's brownie from Pwdin. I was going to chill out with something mindless on tv but when I turned on the tv Mozart's clarinet concerto was playing on Classic FM. Not the usual extract but the whole thing and I've never been able to turn it off. It's got to be my favourite piece of classical music as hearing it takes me back over 30 years when we took the boys on our annual holiday at the beach in North Devon. I would play a tape of this while Peter went running with the dogs and the boys played outside in the sand. While I cleaned the kitchen after breakfast I'd hand the boys toast through the window and then we'd all head down for a day on the beach. Those were the days.