Wet.

It's been heavy drizzle all day and I've hardly been outside except when I had to break up a yowling match between Speedy and Fluffy Cat. The noise was atrocious and it was coming from my neighbour's garden where the two cats were having a faceoff and from the sound of it some fighting as well. The wall on that side is an overgrown wooden fence that I couldn't see over and wasn't secure enough to lean the ladder against. I converted the ladder into an A shape so that I could climb up and see what was going on. By that time the cats were in the middle of the garden and some loud hissing from me broke up the encounter with both cats leaving in opposite directions. 

It was such a relief this morning when the time came to take off the blood pressure monitor. The nurse had put the cuff on tightly so it was squeezing my arm even before the monitor got going at which point it was really tight. I'm such a delicate flower! I know it's great that we have the technology to do such monitoring but having the power pack around my neck for 24 hours was cumbersome to say the least. 

Having had to be up early for the last 3 days we indulged in a long lie-in today. Apart from my routines I cut some shelves for the kitchen. 3 that are going one above the other each had to be hand measured before cutting as either the wall or the side of the cupboard is not straight. I also cut a shelf from one of the 2 floating shelves I took down. This is to go above the fridge and I'm trying out a plan which involves no screws or drilling, only 'no nails' glue. I won't know if it works until tomorrow.

Foggy.

This morning two little cat faces looked at me accusingly through the sliding door as they'd had to spend the night in the conservatory. I had put their cosy cat houses and a box they like to sleep in in the conservatory last night but they were not impressed. Once they are trained to go through the cat flap in the kitchen to use the litter box outside they can sleep in the warm kitchen but for the time being the conservatory will do.

The day began with a light fog obscuring the view. Throughout the day the sun tried breaking through the clouds giving a hint of colour to the sky. The window men came as I was setting off to the doctors' where I was fitted with a 24 hour blood pressure monitor. The test reading the nurse took was very high because not only had I been held up in traffic due to a broken down car blocking the main road but when I drove into the surgery car park there was not a space to be found and I had to drive out and park in a nearby road all of which made me five minutes late.. There is a school close to the surgery and apparently some parents sneakily park in the surgery car park. If you arrive late for a doctor's appointment you get a telling off and have a long wait even though I've never been seen on time. Luckily today I was just seeing the nurse.

Back home the men got on with fitting the kitchen window and finishing off in general which took until 4.00. They gave me the invoice which I said I would settle once the sitting room glass has been changed. I spent some time rearranging furniture in the sitting room or rather moving a large pine chest from one space to another. It was very heavy and something underneath was scratching the wooden floor so I had to move it carefully until I hit upon putting a large towel under the chest which then slid easily across the floor. 

I also finally got around to successfully informing the DVLA on-line about my change of address, cut my plastic driving licence in two as instructed and posted it off. I took these photos on my walk around the corner to the post box.

 A hint of sunshine on the hills.

More Windows.

Another busy day today. While the men were working on the windows Peter and I took my bike and some other stuff down to the garage and used the trolley to bring back the foam sofa bed that flips open to make a generous double bed for visitors. Going carefully to avoid the ice from a very frosty morning we got the sofa up to the front door and then the strong window fitters carried it up the stairs for us old folk. As it was a crisp sunny day I wrapped up in my scruffy working clothes and did some more work on the shed. I got as much of the tar paper that I could reach off and then broke up and bagged the old cupboards inside the shed. I've taken the whole lot down to the dump already. Just one cupboard left and then we can begin chopping up the shed with a circular saw.

More windows done today, namely the sitting room, my study and new sliding doors to close off the conservatory. The bigger sitting room window looks so much better and didn't cost any extra as the plastic panel which took up over a third of the space was part of the original window. My preference is always for the biggest windows possible to let in light and any views. While all the houses in the street have the same window opening there is a great variety of designs though I haven't seen any with clear glass as far down as ours. Quite a few houses have frosted glass in the lower sections. There was only one hiccup with the sitting room window which is that they will have to order safety glass for the big panel and the small low down panel. That is to comply with safety regulations, after all you wouldn't want a small child to ride its bike through normal glass even though it is double glazing. No extra charge to us as it was their oversight, just a wait of a week or so for the glass to arrive from the manufacturers. 

I've moved the orchids to the front window, my current plan is to make a low shelf so they sit a little higher. My neighbour was a bit taken aback when I said that we wouldn't be having blinds or net curtains but the garden plants act as a partial screen and the only people walking past would be going to the next two houses along or the one around the corner. 

This is the sliding door into the conservatory. In hindsight we should have asked if it would be possible to have two doors that swing open as when the door is open the gap is fairly narrow. However we now comply with building regulations with a certificate for the highest level of double glazing. The biggest difference we have noticed is how much sound is cut out by the new windows. It does also feel a lot warmer but then the wind has been light south-westerly and not the bitter north wind. They are coming back tomorrow morning to do the kitchen window and replace the cladding between the upstairs windows at the back. They've also agreed to take down the old TV aerial that sits above my study window.

Lastly - I really enjoyed singing with the choir yesterday evening. It's a no-audition choir with no reading music scores but you are expected to sing from memory after a while. That is certainly going to expand my neural pathways. Once I sign up as a member the website has the words and music to help you with learning the songs and they do sing a lot in other languages too. There were about 50 people there last night and you simply put yourself into the voice range you feel comfortable in. I chose alto though I may at times sing with the tenors who are a mix of men and women. Everything was sung in four parts and we produced a gloriously rich sound. They do a lot of concerts, as much as one a week in the summer but there is no pressure to take part in public singing if you don't wish to. They also hold social events and seem to be a very friendly and supportive group. My next step is to persuade Peter to come along. Being Lithuanian it is in our blood anyway but he was made completely self conscious by an nasty music teacher who singled him out in a music lesson when he was a child and told him not to sing with the rest of the class. However he enjoys singing sea shanties with the gig club and we both belonged to a Lithuanian song and dance group when we were young so I shall keep on working on him.

Bargain Hunting.

The day dawned bright and sunny, a nice change from yesterday which was wet, and a relief as the work on the windows has started. We got up early and not knowing where they were going to start took down all the curtains and spread dust sheets around. It turned out they are doing the upstairs today, apart from my study and the rest tomorrow. I look forward to no more draughts and condensation on the windows. It was so sunny today that in the afternoon is felt really warm in the front garden where I was pulling up stray weed seedlings. The house itself is cold with all the doors open. I hid for a time in the sitting room but that doesn't have a door at all, something else we are going to replace.

Most of my morning was spent walking into town, twice! The first time I went to collect our prescriptions which we now have to collect from a local pharmacy as the pharmacy at the doctors' is for out of town patients only. I nominated Boots in the High Street as it's so easy to walk to. Having got all our (free) medicines naturally I checked out a few shops. Calling in at the Hospice charity shop I bought a wooden cd storage tower about 4ft high for Peter who still needs some storage. I decided that it would be no problem to carry it home which was a bit of an underestimation. It was easy to hold but seemed to get heavier and heavier as I plodded my way up Pilton Street but I made it in the end.

In the Hospice shop I spotted this Ladies bike for £30. Once I'd staggered home with the shelves I told Peter about it and he encouraged me to buy it. Before I walked all the way back into town I gave the shop a ring and they put it aside for me. Peter offered to walk in to collect it for me but as the house was in disarray with the window work I was only too glad to go out again. Without a back pack full of shopping and those shelves I felt as if I was floating down the road in the sunshine.

On my first trip to town I checked out Accessorise as I saw they now had sale stuff at 70% off. While I didn't find anything I wanted in the ordinary stuff I came across a whole load of bags with broken jewellery in. They had been reduced several times and were now 10/20p each. Well worth buying for the component parts; chains, beads etc. The whole lot cost me £1.20 with the original prices coming to just under £100. I think it's fun to create something new from broken bits and I've already got plans for a pair of dangly earrings. My sale bargains didn't end there. I went into Wilko's to get some hand cream and casually walking through the sale Christmas items I found some fruit panettone. They weren't priced but when I asked was told 75p. While I'm not a fan of traditional Christmas fruit cake I do like panettone so of course I bought some.

Yesterday's Pilates was great fun and a proper work out. I'm glad I've been keeping up my daily exercises as I'm not suffering today. The instructor was very calm and positive and kept reminding us that we all know our own limits and to take things more easily if we needed. I found the hardest thing was to be trying to follow the exercises but having to look up to watch the instructor so that I knew what to do. I had put my mat next to my friend and I'm glad she's not a giggler because that would have made me giggle even more. My downfall was an exercise where we lay on our stomachs in a 'dish' shape, arms and legs stretched forward and back and off the ground. Try as I could not one bit of my thighs came off the floor and I ended up lying flat on the floor trying hard not to laugh out loud. There were some ladies behind me (must get there earlier next week so I can nab a spot right at the back) who were also gigglers. It's definitely going to do my back and general posture a lot of good.

Progress.

Things are happening! We had a phone call today to say they are starting putting in the new windows tomorrow. Then we had another phone call and visit from the chap who is going to do our loft. The first part of that is to install a pull-down loft ladder and we've chosen the wider of the 2 options he showed us. 

In preparation for tomorrow I cleared as many of the window sills as I could. The kitchen is much brighter without a window full of orchids. My intention was always to move the orchids to in front of the new sitting room window which will extend further down than the current window.

Having bought a reduced box of hair colour this afternoon I messed about ombreing my hair again. It was a bit unnerving to add bright blue powder to the mix and to read the warning that before turning lighter my hair would go red. I don't think it did but I had my hair hidden in a plastic bag to reduce the smell of the bleach. (Had to crop the photo because Peter failed to mention how pudgy my elbows looked.) Not too bad for only 50p. The silly thing is that my hair is almost always tied back in a single plait but I'm giving in to vanity in not liking how dark my hair has got as I get older. Can't wait until the natural white streak at the front gets bigger.

I'm blogging early as tonight I'm off to my first Pilates session with my fancy purple mat. 

Cold.

I don't think it has been quite as cold today but it has been an unpleasantly clammy overcast day. First thing this morning I walked down to the Co-Op to buy some strong bin bags as I wasn't sure if the flimsy ones I used yesterday to put the shed rubbish in would hold. People in the shop were saying how cold it was but I felt quite warm after my brisk walk. I must remember to take some gloves rather than just my fingerless gloves though as my finger tips got a bit cold. Even though it was early in the day I got a few reduced items including some blueberry muffins that Peter likes.

Back home I began tearing off the tar paper from the shed roof and putting some in each strong bag as well as yesterday's bags. So far I've cleared one side of the very old roof. Peter's friend came around in the afternoon and took the heavy sprung mattress down to the dump in his pick up truck which was a great relief. I then loaded up my little car with all the bagged rubbish and also drove down to the dump. As it was nearby I called in at Tesco's for some vegetables I had forgotten in the morning. Tesco's isn't too good at reductions but I did pick up a fresh pineapple for 49p and some Southern fried drumsticks at 25p for 2 which made Peter happy. Some reduced cheesecake might also have made it's way into my trolley though with a view to returning to healthier eating I did buy some cottage cheese as well. 

The weather vane on top of the church.

Cold.

 It's been a sunny but chilly day today. 

As a friend is supposed to be coming around tomorrow to help us take things to the dump in his van I thought I'd better make a start on the shed. Tempting as it was to get straight into demolition I decided to work methodically and clear the inside first. Although the shed had been left technically empty by the last owners there were old kitchen cabinets, shelves and tool racks to dismantle. Also the walls look to have been papered when the shed was first built and I needed to remove the faded and tattered paper. Old paper like that makes me cringe but at least it wasn't wet which would have so much worse. The original wooden floor had mostly rotted away to crumbs and growing over and under it were the fattest and longest bindweed roots I have ever seen. I managed to get the worst of the mess into bin bags ready to go down to the dump. I can't wait until the whole thing is down and gone.

With a clear sky tonight's sunset was a magnificent horizontal fade from blue to yellow and orange.