Chilly.

The day began with light rain but soon turned bright and sunny with a cold wind blowing from the north.

Since we had a wet start there was no excuse not to be getting on with my annual cleaning blitz. As tomorrow is recycling day it was a good time to turn out the larder in the kitchen. I'm so glad I was able to fit in a floor to ceiling larder when we remodelled the kitchen. The three wall cupboards that we used are not so deep that things get lost at the back and the shelves are just the right size for the shoe box sized plastic tubs that keep things in categories. It all helps to keep things to hand. I could only do a few shelves at a time as their contents covered all the kitchen worktops. In between cleaning I got on with other things including working out in the garden filling more bags with plants from the lawn. The robins and blackbirds were soon there to collect worms and the female blackbird even had a bath while I worked on the other side of a bare hydrangea. Peter took a carful of bags down to the dump today and I'll take some more on Friday.

While cleaning I did say goodbye to most of the pickles and chutneys that had been accumulating over a number of Christmases. I know they last for a long time but not sure for how many years. A bit gets eaten at Christmas to go with the Christmas cheeses but for the rest of the year cheese sandwiches don't feature much in this house. Neither do things like pork pies or processed meats and when else would you eat that kind of pickle? (We both like pickled gherkins.)

 Off soon to Pilates.