Squally.

A day with plenty of wind and sudden squalls.

Above is the view at 4.30 in the morning when it was light enough outside to read. This wasn't me waking up extra early, instead I'd slept for an hour, woken at 2.30, spent 2 hours trying to sleep whilst being tormented by a World Service programme about how our brains create food cravings and finally given up. I eventually went back to bed at 5.30 and slept for nearly two hours so it wasn't a wasted night.

It was an eventful morning with the doorbell ringing (or to be more accurate - crowing) on a number of occasions. First off at 8.30 it was a delivery man with the blue and white tiles for the bathroom. A couple of hours later it was a pair of builders letting us know they had taken out the corner of our garden wall with their large tipper truck. And we only had it rebuilt last year! Time to complain to the council again.

It is a tight turn as there is no pavement on the other side and our neighbour's garden wall is just a few inches from the kerb but the two other roads are just as narrow. Our neighbour had been looking out of his window and saw it all happen. He suspects that the builders would have driven off after looking around and not seeing anyone had he not tapped on the window and shown them he'd written down their details. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and they may simply have been about to phone their boss. We have their details now and they have promised to return and fix all the damage. They've already cleared the broken pillar away.

It's handy that the gates are not attached to the brick pillars but instead have separate metal pillars sunk deep into the ground. The pierced concrete blocks have all come apart and one is broken but I have a few spares as they probably don't make this kind any more.

After so much excitement in the morning I thought my trip to town would be a breeze but I did have a lot to do. First stop was the dump where I got rid of a bag of clippings. Then to a nearby builders' merchants but like Huws they only have bull nosed coping not the plain sort. With 12 corners in the pond/raised bed that would be an awful lot of mitred corners Peter would have to cut. Much simpler to stick to the square ended coping stones. I checked out a few places for plants but only got a brown carex and an osteospermum. Tried another dentist to see if they were taking on NHS patients (they weren't) as suggested by a friend who had been lucky when she tried. I found two more clear glass spheres with bubbles inside for £1 each in a charity shop and finally got home feeling quite worn out. 

I thought it would be a quick job to order the coping stones on line but oh no it wasn't. I went through the whole process with Wickes but when it came to 'Pick a delivery date' there were no dates available. They will only book eight days in advance and you just have to try every day. I remember doing this before and finally giving up. Next option was B&Q; ordered, paid, waited for a verification code and then although the page says 'chose a delivery date' one simply came up. Unfortunately we won't be home that day. I was on the phone for nearly 15 minutes waiting to get through to customer services only to be told that it comes under a different department and they will ring back in 24-48 hours. I'm afraid that I rather crossly told the lady on the other end of the phone that I wouldn't be using B&Q again. To calm down I went out in the garden, even though it was raining slightly, and carried on clearing soil out of the raised bed. 

Sunset yesterday evening.