This and that

Been another busy day. Up at the crack of dawn to take my car in to have the heater fixed. Walked back with Emma, it's half a mile, some downhill, then uphill. Quite a killer at that time of the morning, especially in the rain and a Force 9 gale in your face. Exhilarating I believe is the word. Hmmm.

So then got on with the nitty gritty, cleaning. Dusting, hoovering, putting the Christmas crap back up in the loft.

Cuprinolled the new fence panel my side as it was dry and sunny, and very windy (we had several April showers this morning though, strange weather at present) Was gutted to find on standing on the step ladder to do the top (and having sunk 6 inches down into the "lawn" ) that the side that faces the neighbour, which I did the other day, had all bloody washed off. I just love wasting an hour. Now I shall have to go round and knock and ask to do it again I suppose. Sometime. Also one of the other panels got a right bashing last night (we had horrendous gusts, near on hurricane force I think, kept waking me up) so that panel is about to come crashing down any time soon. Also noticed two of the side garden ones are hanging by a mere thread. Sigh. I hate the cuprinolling, I really do, just doing the one today has killed my back again. Sick to death of standing all my tubs of plants up in the front garden too, all the five big ones had gone over in the night and were scattered about the lawn and path. I've dragged them into the porch today, but the wind has dropped tonight.

Okay now the bad news. My heater in the car. Brian had it all to bits, flushed it all out and did everything possible, and it still won't work. So it apparently leaves two possibilities, he phoned the Citroen dealers to find out what it could be for me. Either a crack in the head or the heater-rad matrix (erm yeah right) Either job is hideous, and we are looking at roughly £400-ish to fix. Shit with a capital "S" So I am thinking about what to do. It looks like get a newer car! And trade that one in to a dealer. In the meantime, I'm going to try one of the plug-in heaters that shove into the cigarette lighter, they are about £20 on eBay and are supposed to be quite good, Brian used one for ages in an old car of his. My car is getting on a bit, and although it's a lovely car and goes so well, there are several things now which are starting to go on it, it's not worth spending that sort of money, I don't think.

Took a pic of our village church on the walk back up to fetch the car, looked quite pretty I thought, it's called St Mary's, and it's our only "proper" church, there are two Chapels here though, but they are just big buildings. Also took one of the river, from the bridge by the old mill house. It's the old part of the village, there's lots of quaint cottages up that way. Also one I took yesterday when I went round the park of a deceased salmon, it was three feet long, wonder if it died and got washed up? I wouldn't think a fisherman would have just dumped it. Plenty of birds had been having a feed, so it wasn't going to waste though. Poor thing.

When I cleaned out the guinea pigs yesterday, as I was getting the woodchip from the shed, I looked down behind the bale, and saw a cute little nest - I think my mouse that I disturbed the other day has found a new home. Awwwww. So I put some suet pellets and sunflower hearts next to it and they'd gone this morning, and also the nest has been built even bigger, so I've put a whole dish full in there tonight! I don't know how it's getting in, I had a good check round and can't see any gaps but the door doesn't shut that tightly at the bottom so maybe squeezing in that way. Bless.

Oh well, just lit the fire, logs are a bit damp I think, it's ticking over okay though, and am getting a bit hot now! I suffered dearly by not using the spark guard the other night, I found two bloody great burn marks in the carpet where bits had shot out and I didn't see them. :(