Warm.

The day began with light but steady rain. Fortunately by the time I went out to do the shopping the rain had cleared up and it felt remarkably warm.

I paid a final visit to Laura Ashley which closes in three days' time. Even with a further 30% off I didn't see anything in the depleted stock that I wanted.  

In Tesco's I bought a pasta bowl to match the mugs I bought a while back. We've got enough bowls to eat from but I thought one green bowl would be nice for fruit or biscuits etc. I also bought myself this fluffy hoody. How could I resist even if I do have similar (but not the same) tops? 

My final stop was at B&Q where I bought the wall tiles for the toilet in Red Roofs. They're just large plain glazed white tiles, 60 cms x 30cms which I'd seen on-line at half the original price. The packs are heavy and I had to ask for help loading them onto a flat bed trolley and also to put them in the car. However the first assistant left me to push the trolley through the store which was incredibly difficult. I had also planned to buy this spotlight strip for the kitchen. Nice and bright and the spherical bulbs sort of fit with the big spherical paper lanterns I'll have on all the central pendant lights. However when I looked at the details of the light it said that the bulbs were 'integrated'. Suspicious that it meant that you couldn't replace a faulty bulb I went and checked with a store assistant. I was right, once a bulb failed that was the end of the light. There was a five year guarantee but even so. So no, we won't be having a light with integrated bulbs. There was another spotlight that I liked with replaceable bulbs but they were only 40W so I need to confer with Peter before I buy.

Once I got home Peter helped unload the shopping and then put the white tiles in our garage before taking the car down to the garage. When the car was in for its MOT last week there was an advisory note to replace some rubber bits. Usually they phone and we get the work done straight away but they didn't this time. Best to get the work done at a garage we know and trust rather than have to look around once we get to Borth. The work is being done now and Peter will pick the car up tomorrow. 

Up till I've seen very few butterflies, just one at a time on the buddleia but today there were almost half a dozen along with some giant bumble bees. Last night as I gazed through the window I watched a small bat taking advantage of the moths and other insects attracted by the light of the street light at the bottom of the garden.

The case of the unclaimed wheelie bin is about to come to a close. It turns out that my neighbour was the person who moved the bin into the line on Monday. She's phoned the council to take it away but in the meantime put some of her rubbish in it to be collected. (They have a lot of extra rubbish in their house.)

Brighter.

A real change in the weather this morning. Later the clouds returned and there were a few heavy but brief showers. Right now the sky is looking very grey with the sun shining in the distance.

Our wheelie bin mini drama continues. Last night when I looked out of the window the abandoned bin had been moved (presumably after being filled) over to the line of bins ready for this morning's collection. That put paid to my idea that the bin was one no longer in use. Unfortunately I didn't get to see who was responsible. My neighbour and I wondered if the bin belonged to either of the two corner houses but this morning as I collected my bin prior to washing it out I saw that the number of one of the corner houses was on another bin in the line and Peter says he saw the chap from the other taking his bin back to his garden. So the mystery remains. 

After washing out the bin, (how very Stepford Wives) I took down and packed the pictures from my study walls. That's one more item crossed off the list and some bare looking walls. I also took down the road map of Wales from the back of the door. I'd made this map using pages from one of those big road atlases when I started on the house hunt two and a half years ago. Being an irregular shape stuck onto the door with masking tape it didn't come down easily and sustained a few tears. However I'm sort of attached to this map as it embodied our hopes for a new home; the coastline - for me and arrows pointing out the few main hospitals and more numerous rowing clubs for Peter. 

The chap from the removals company has just delivered an enormous stack of cardboard boxes. Now I can begin filling boxes in my own time.

Wet.

After a bright cool morning first showers and then thunderstorms rolled in.

After the usual tidying I've taken things easy again this time doing some sewing. I'm halfway through more alterations on a bra top as currently my ribs don't like being squeezed by a standard bra. Before I began I made a toy for Speedy from some scraps in my sewing box. The soft fabric nose removed from the hood of a fluffy top, about palm sized, was filled with dried catnip and bells attached to some strips of fabric which were then sewn onto the 'nose' to make a kind of octopus. Originally I added strips of a very fluffy fabric as well but quickly cut them off when I realised they were shedding fluff all over the carpets that Peter had just hoovered. I'll see if Speedy enjoys 'killing' the octopus later during his active play time when he usually has great fun chasing the feathered thing.

While not as ferocious as the recent storms the thunder crashed overhead fairly frequently and the rain came down in massive drops. They've just said on the radio that some places have had a month's worth of rain in one day.

Earlier I heard a lot of sirens in town and a police helicopter circled overhead. 

Then this came up on FB. Below is somebody's photo of The Square at around 4.30 as flash flooding came up from the river. The whole centre of town is flooded and traffic grid-locked though I can see that traffic is now moving over the new bridge. Peter says the Gig Club has been warning the council for years that the river is so silted up that flooding is inevitable. However with govt. funding to councils being cut year after year it's not surprising that the council couldn't afford to dredge the river. 

Sunset last night.

Photos from Chris Bennet (FB).

Cooler.

A fair amount of blue skies today with occasional showers. It's also been a lot cooler and thankfully less humid.

I've been tidying up my paperwork, sorting through those not too large piles of random papers floating around my study. It would be even easier if I filed papers away each day but nobody's perfect. After that I spent the day thinking about the new kitchen. A fun task especially as Peter passed on the latest photos from the builder.

Look at those amazing clean lines and gleaming walls. Not to mention the new flooring. It's only a modest sized kitchen area though about average by UK standards. It'll be quite big enough for two old folk without a passion for cooking or regular family visits. That said the dining area is big enough for 6 or 8 around the table.

Below is the kitchen as I last saw it ('scuse the mess) nearly a year ago. The big window and the door next to it, which is now all glass, look out over the sea. There's no way anyone is going to sit at a breakfast bar with their back to that view which is why we're not having a breakfast bar.

Another view showing the extended opening to the sitting room. Where the brown units are will be a floor to ceiling larder cupboard. I've chosen units that are just 30cms deep (like top units) because stuff just gets lost in the deeper cupboards. My other design point is to have the units in the kitchen, maybe topped by a board, go right up to the ceiling. I've found that having a space above the cupboards just makes one more place to trap dirt and I've no wish to be climbing up the stepladder to keep it clean. 

Can't wait for the next lot of photos.

Wet.

It's been a day of white skies and plenty of rain. It was raining heavily while we were having our morning cuppa when I became aware of a dripping sound. I wasn't sure at first because we also hear sounds from our neighbours through the walls. Nothing too loud, just muffled sounds of cupboards being closed or walking upstairs (we think) and occasionally the tv or voices. All the things you'd expect living in a terraced house. Anyway this was a definite dripping coming from above so up I went into the loft to investigate. There was a single drip coming down where the roof flashing had let water in before. It sounded loud because I've got a couple of plastic storage boxes strategically placed and the water was plopping into one of those.There was only a small amount of water in the box, maybe half a cup and Peter will get in touch with the guys who did the repair before.

The rest of my day has been spent on kitchen design. The basic cabinet layout is now all sorted and drawn up. When we decide to buy I'll get the store's 'design consultant' to look at my drawings to make sure I haven't made any fundamental mistakes. Then I'll review everything once we're in Borth. 

It would have been fun if I'd chosen these handles from B&Q as the style is called Ruta. But no, they're not to my taste. I'm think some kind of long bar that's comfortable for Peter to use with his swollen joints.

Grey.

The weather today has swung between horribly hot & humid, wet and cooler & grey. A thunderstorm would be welcome to clear the air. I put a load of pillowcases in the washing machine and hung them up in the conservatory rather than risk the rain. By the afternoon they were dry enough to iron while the washed towel and t-towel weren't.

Look who turned up this morning. I thought my friend who is on the local council had something to do with getting them to come but she says not. So it must have been down to Peter who told both the local and county council that he thought the long grass was a health hazard (possible dogs' mess) to the young children that play on it. I'm so glad they turned up as otherwise I'm sure Peter would have been out there soon damaging his back again.

A lot of my day has been spent happily planning the new kitchen. This involved scale drawings, much examination of the B&Q kitchen product guide and trotting up and down the stairs to double check measurements of our kitchen here. I'm not going for any major layout changes from the kitchen that was there, mostly in the garage now, more of an update and trying to plan ahead as well. Today I worked on the back wall cabinets which includes the fridge, cooker, hob and microwave. The future proofing features include having the oven at counter level so we don't have to bend down to take things out of the oven. While an oven with the door that slides back into the oven would be ideal they're at least £400 extra! so skip that. We also use the microwave a lot so that would be best just below eye level. I think I've sorted the oven/microwave layout as there's a cabinet that takes both at the required heights. To check this and to show Peter I stuck masking tape marked with the top and bottom levels for the oven and microwave on the fridge door. I won't be ordering anything until we're in Borth but it would be good to have the main details sorted now when I can go and look at kitchens. It'll probably be from Wickes as B&Q is not always the best quality.

The lone wheelie bin is still sitting in the middle of the grass. I had a chat with my neighbour on the right and we still haven't been able to pin down whose bin it is. If it's still unclaimed after next Tuesday's rubbish collection one of us will ring the council to take it away as it's unsightly as well as being very dirty.

Phew!

While the air may have been fractionally cooler than yesterday there didn't seem to be much breeze  today and the overall effect was humid and ennervating. After yesterday's walk to town I wasn't able to do much at all today. Even my afternoon of kitchen design got no further than collecting up brochures, measurements and my note book before I zoned out with my feet up and Grand Designs on tv.

The met office issued another amber alert for thunderstorms maybe even with hail running through to next Monday but for us the morning was hot and sunny. The thunderstorms didn't arrive until after the recycling lorry had been and I'd washed out our recycling bins which was a bonus. The thunderstorm brought heavy rain with lots of thunder though the lightning was to the east of us so I missed that spectacle. Other parts of the country have been affected more seriously. You can read about that here. It's raining very heavily again and I'm soooooo glad not to be out at Dingles.

Saw this pair of jackdaws earlier in the day when it was a lot more hazy. Last night I could hear a female tawny owl making its shrill squawk (the males hoot). It's nice to hear countryside sounds as well as the town traffic and emergency vehicles.