Georgian frieze

The fab four returned to my mother's house this morning for a second day of auditing. Amongst the most interesting items added to our catalogue was a four metre long Georgian frieze (the start of which I have blipped), and a Roman jug that was apparently dredged out of the river in 1870 (seriously!) None of us have ever seen these items before. This is largely due to the haphazard way in which my parents amassed, hoarded, and hid away their art and antique collections.

I also found several boxes of letters. I will explore their contents fully when I return to Edinburgh. So far I have only had time to take a brief glance through a few of them. My paternal grandmother penned this hysterical line to my father in 1964 when I was about a year old: 'Your writing was not very clear (mine isn't now, but my letter is longer than yours), but did I read that Hazel TIDIED UP now? Trust untidy parents to make their poor children tidy up for them!' She'd be pitying me and my middle sister this week, had she lived to 111!

We finished our work - at least for the time being - at about 5pm. This means that we won't need to return to the house tomorrow. We're pleased, and somewhat relieved, to have made a good start on a truly enormous task. For the next stage we will need the co-operation of our not-so-little sister. We'll do our best to support her.

This evening we took Katherina out for dinner at Le Bouchon to thank her for accommodating us this week. It was a lovely meal, with all three of us choosing exactly the same dishes: pâté, steak and chips, and white chocolate mousse.

Exercise today: small amount of walking (7,697 steps).