Nice While They Lasted...

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What a difference a day and some low pressure makes! Bank Holiday Monday morning ushered in a howler of a storm: fierce winds carrying icy rain battered us up until around three this afternoon. I was working some of the time on woodwork for the cottage, which entailed frequent trips to the studio to use the table saw and for gluing stuff up. Several times it seemed as if the roof would lift off the place - the wind was making so much noise I could hear it with ear defenders on. But I guess well over half a ton of roof - which has after all survived quite a few Atlantically-derived storms over the last few years - has enough inertia built in to keep it from flight. Pity our recently potted-up tulips didn't fare so well...

And now: a gentle breeze and sunshine. Tomorrow we're tidying up the studio and moving my workshop kit to the opposite end of the building, freeing up its current location for table tennis. We have six days until our first AirBnB booking arrives and I've still to get myself to the dentist to get this tooth sorted: I know it's a cliché, but I really am busier than ever since I retired - still, I get a holiday (domestic - we're leaving foreign travel for another year) later on in the summer, where I will definitely go into veg mode. As we're heading to Shropshire, the excellent real ales widely available there will be a central feature of the trip, no doubt!

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