A Quick Update

The most important thing first: the weather has been glorious for two whole days now - it can't last.

Of the major works, P the builder only needs to install a central heating and hot water system and that work begins a week on Monday - more upheaval and more getting worse before it gets better.  When that's done it's just the little things remaining @ £140 pd.

It won't be long now though; P's done a great job so far. It's beginning to look fab and passers-by actually stop and say how lovely the house looks now it's been painted and the garden has been cleared.  I'm not sure how many have noticed that I've taken down the ugly Sky satellite dish and replaced it with a rather swish and buccaneering weathervane - which actually works.   I love it!  If I get stuck for something to do I walk out into the middle of the road, shade my eyes and cast lingering glances of admiration upwards.  If only I'd had time to attach a pirate skull and crossbones before it went up my life would be complete ;)

Suki loves it here too.  He's establishing a little routine: eat, sleep, patrol, fight, sleep, eat, patrol, fight, sleep ...  The strange thing is that although he's now made friends with the other neighbourhood cats there's one he actually goes out on the prowl for and that one is a little three-legged cat, just like him.  You'd think that being birds of a feather they'd form a bond since three-legged cats are rare as hens' teeth, rather like those who admit to being a LibDem these days.  The trouble began when Suki saw his fellow feline doing her business in the garden the night the fences blew down and he won't forget or forgive: they are sworn enemies.  She just sits there and pouts prettily before telling him what a scumbag he is and running away - I think she might wear him down in the end.

I'm making inroads into the back yard with netting fixed to the walls and clematis and honeysuckle ready for planting; the montbretia went in a couple of weeks ago and has taken very well.  I just have to fill the beds with compost where the level has dropped and, hey presto! I'll have a lovely view from the kitchen window before you know it.  At the moment it's just paint-flaking, stone-crumbling walls that once were white but are now green and fungi-ridden. I'd like to put decking out the back too: the paving is too far gone to restore and it's quite dangerous to walk on but I think a make-over will have to wait.  The flagpole is up though - St George and a Gadsden.  It was supposed to be 20ft but I lowered it to 15ft so it isn't too intrusive for the neighbours.  I don't know them well enough yet and I'm not about to give anyone a chance to call me a racist for flying the flag of my own country, not just yet.  Let me settle in first.

I haven't begun the raised beds because I just keep adding to the pile of rubbish in the front: cardboard; plastic, ripped out kitchen cupboards/worktops/kitchen sink/taps/oven/hob/satellite dish... you get the picture.  I'm having it cleared next week before a Roma family takes up residence.  If you're wondering why the neighbours don't complain it's because my new fence is 6ft high and the pile of rubbish is 5ft 11ins.

Slowly, slowly... I'll get there in the end.