White lilac

Mr A is understandably very excited about the buds on the white lilac. I am sure it is going to be magnificent. It is much progressed from under three weeks ago.

There's been a fair bit going on here today, including work.... We finally got some plumbing "small jobs" done, including one which was stopping the taps in the kitchen sink running properly. It turned out that there was a small stone blocking the inlet pipe to the tap. This presumably arrived via the water pipes coming into the house when the people who were resurfacing the road outside cut the water main. We were not there when it happened, but it seems like we have experienced its afterlife. We also now have a functioning plug in the bathroom sink. And we've had the pipes up in the loft checked out, along with the overflow from the tank in the loft. It's taken months to get these small jobs done, but the plumbers were actually very user friendly when they arrived.

The plumbers arrived with relatively little notice, so that made it hard for me to take a peloton workout, when I was working around the plumbing works and some meetings in the afternoon. So after my meetings, I went out and worked hard in the garden for an hour to make up for not going for an evening swim at The Port. That was suitably restorative and also filled up the brown bin sufficiently to make it worth putting out for emptying tomorrow. The front is looking quite neat - added an extra. The garden here is such a tonic to me. I was also happy that Mr A power washed the concrete path at the back, which looks much better. Meanwhile, the weather has continued fair, sunny and really quite warm here. The whole week looks to be similar and this is such a change from this time last year, when I was in despair at the cold grey weather and the inability to get into the garden. This time, I should be able to use this break to weed all around the garden, including at the side, which was much changed in the latter part of the summer last year, but which is currently overrun with weeds.