Workday Wednesday...

Craft was cancelled again today so John and I were having a work day (together!!).  For some reason John was up with the larks this morning but I opted for a lie-in but there is little chance when Angela's builders are working as they start on the dot of 7.30am with the cement mixer doing its stuff.

It was cold last night, bloody cold let me tell you and I keep reminding John that he told me it didn't get that cold up here...

...let me show you how cold it got last night by taking a look at the paint tray John had left outside after doing the  flat roof.

Look at the thickness of the ice and the perfectly formed ice crystals - that is COLD!!!  

No wonder my poor plants don't know whether they are coming or going, either baked, drowned or frozen - not much hope is there?

It may have been cold last night but today was fantastic with glorious sunshine all day - so we are prepared for another sub zero night again tonight.  I find it hard to get my head round the fact that January is so much colder than December.

We are concentrating on the 'downstairs' loo as we have a deadline looming.  The first job was to finish off the door which I have stripped of its sticky brown varnish and which John lightly sanded and then I cleaned and waxed it ready for it to go back up temporarily.  We have stripped as much paint as we can from the door frame and it will need to have the termite damage repaired, then be given an undercoat before the final finish which will be gloss or eggshell depending on whether we can get eggshell paint and it is reasonably priced.

My next job was to remove all the old tongue and groove and clean the walls of the 'no-more-nails' that only worked in places!  

Whilst I was busy with my job John set to putting up another layer of polythene on the underside of the 'conservatory' to make it a bit more weatherproof.  

We have decided to take our time with this project because we have lots of ideas and we need to see exactly how the space works best.  

In the meantime we have made it as waterproof as possible as cheaply as possible and even in January we can sit outside having a coffee and feel the warmth of the sun being magnified as it comes through.  The whole family John, the cats and I took time out to enjoy our outside-inside space.  The cats were desperate to catch the bee that had got itself caught up in the glass - they were unsuccessful!

Whilst we were sitting outside John suddenly came over all cold as he heard the sound of a helicopter approaching!  For just a minute he was transported back to the Old Grey Funnel Line!  We had some sort of Russian gunship flying around for a short while - a little reminder of what he has left behind but doesn't miss at all.

Having completed the jobs that we wanted to do today we tidied up and had a late lunch.  John demolished the remainder of the brandied chicken livers that we had for tea last night and I had the carrot coriander and ginger soup that I made previously.  

We are off to Paphos tomorrow - we should be getting the master key sorted for the CRV at long last, playing pickle-ball, doing some more homework on the wood-burner and then attending the quiz.  It will be a bit of a milestone as we plan to leave the cats home alone overnight for the first time - I am guessing John wont sleep as he will be worried that Minnie Mou has been having her foof fluffed by Domino!