A Right Miserable Old Day...

Not too much to blog about today as neither John nor I have set foot outside the door.  It was a good job we went down to Polis for lunch yesterday as today would have been a washout.  

We have got so used to the sunshine that we had forgotten how violent the storms can be here and today we had it all, rolling mist, thunder, lightning and HAIL with a maximum temperature outside of just 12 degrees today.  Fortunately inside it is warm and the brief interludes when the sun did break through have warmed the conservatory.  Talking of which it was a good test today of whether or not the structure is water-tight.  In the main yes, but we do have a couple of 'problemas' in that one of the window drains filled up and water came through one of the handles and then where we have the pebble-dashed join between the pink paving slabs it is very uneven so in places the silicon hadn't quite filled the gaps and water managed to seep through.  The roof, and where the roof joins the buildings, had no problem at all which is good.  The rest we now know about and can address once it is dry.

Nothing looks quite so cold and uninviting as a swimming pool in the rain, but nothing looks too bad from the comfort of the conservatory!  No need for me to do any watering today and I moved the plants that were in the conservatory so that they could get a watering naturally.  It had been my intention to plant them out today but that will just have to wait.  

John was going to have a look at changing the sink in the bathroom but didn't fancy having to go to and from the shed in the rain for things he might need. We had a catch-up fest instead - we have got quite into Scott and Bailey which is shown on ITV and we have also watched the most recent episode of The Syndicate on BBC - we are now doing our homework for the quiz and are watching The Chase now.

The cats don't like the rain either and have been in with us all day - and yes that is me in my fluffy brown dressing gown and John in his grey and black striped one!  I had a rare cuddle with Minnie Mou whilst Chivers was well comfy with John.  

Poor Old Chivers is growing up and with that comes a whole load of dangers.  Today we realised that he had his first tick - in fact it turned out to be two ticks.  After checking on tintyweb we found out that we should soak them in alcohol and then carefully removed them with tweezers by pulling them out and twisting the tweezers anti-clockwise being careful to make sure we removed it all because leaving the head and jaws in can lead to infection.  He is absolutely as good as gold if you try and do anything to him - unlike Minnie Mou who struggles and wriggles and goes off in a huff.  He patiently sat in John's arms whilst I did the deed and it was only after I removed the big old fat tick that I found the second little bugger.  I hate things like this.  We also read that you must make sure that they are well and truly dead when you dispose of them so John decided to burn them forgetting that the kitchen roll was soaked in alcohol - it went up like nobody's business - good job we were outside!

I have spent this afternoon cooking up something for tea tomorrow when Mum and Dad are coming up for a run out.  We are having a chicken, bacon, ham, leek and apple casserole in a mustard cream sauce - if it is a hit I will publish on the food page as I haven't updated that for a while.

I will leave you with a photograph of what the dirty rain has done to the windows - there must have been sand in it and it has left a right old mess - we could do with more rain - clean this time!

Just had a phone call from Mum to say that Dad has got much improved vision today which is brilliant news and Missie has gone nine weeks since her last steroid injection and her bid for freedom outside the vets.  Both brilliant news.