Getting towards the end - aka end of Day Nine

Since Mr A couldn't hawd his horses this morning, and insisted on blipping Sophie at work (she was excellent - she cut all the slabs to size this morning), it falls to me to do the end of Day Nine, by which time most of the slabs are now in place. They definitely will be by the end of tomorrow, after which there will be painstaking work to fill the gaps with mortar / cement, and grout the slabs, before everything is finished. Soon, though. Which is a relief, to be honest.

It's been another lovely day in the north, although it has clouded over now. I did a couple of loads of washing, including our mattress topper/cover, of which we only have one, so it needs to be dry by the end of the day (and it is). I also had a successful day of work, writing about half of a short piece I aim to get finished this week, for an online encyclopaedia of which I am an editor. It's fun to do something like that. Creative and rigorous, but not too long and not too difficult. And a successful day on the peloton bike, on which I did a good hard workout just after lunch. So, overall, a good day, so we had a wee glass of wine out in the back garden to celebrate, before eating our dinner outside.

For those concerned, Mr A is feeling much better today, having slept well last night. Phew. He was well enough to come out shopping with me to Bannermans for coffee and then to the garden centre (where we ran into N, A and A's dad, shopping for trees) for trellis and an (accidental) new clematis to complement the one we have already. An impulse purchase....