The artist at work!

Today is the first day of the new boiler installation. Our old boiler is deemed too old at 37 years, although it works well. It is not efficient and there are no spare parts. The very, very, expensive replacement arrived today. Jerome and Stewart promise me that we will have hot water tonight.........

I took a car full of rubbish to the tip today and spent a happy half hour deciding which skip to use for what. It's quite complicated. There was something therapeutic about throwing large boxes into the skip. (I'd spent ages flattening mine, but noticed that other people had not.......)

Last night I leaned on my new specs in bed and a lens popped out. Easy enough to pop it back in I thought, but the frame had snapped. I've never had that happen before. They were very expensive. At the optician's today I heard that they are still available and that they are under warranty! Hurray for that.

I printed and mounted photos for the North of Tyne Christmas exhibition in Bellingham this week, but it's been cancelled because no one else has been able to produce any. That's a shame, but I have to put it down to experience and learn not to do things a week in advance!

Mum is keeping warm in her studio. Bowlby is keeping close to Mum. She does not like invaders in the house.