I don’t know about you, but we passed a quiet weekend, mainly at home where I got some work done, watched some films, and put my back out. We popped out on Saturday and, for the first time this year, sat outside the café until after dark. It was a warm weekend with temperatures reported as being up to 27°, and, for sure, being 25° in our courtyard. On Saturday, I was tempted to sit out there and read in the sun, but a firm was repaving the lane, and the air was dusty with cement, not to mention the sounds of the concrete mixer and scraping. This was why, when we returned home on Saturday evening, Les Misérables sprang to mind. Not because we were miserable, nor were we singing, but because…

Beyond the barricade… is a brand-new lane. Smooth, neat, and hopefully, not to be dug up again for some time. I remember, it wasn’t long after the section by us was done that the added weight of the extra covering cracked a sewer pipe and had to be dug up and the pipe fixed. Hopefully, that won’t happen again. The road was open again by Sunday morning. I looked out on Saturday and saw the guys starting from up by the bins, which isn’t a huge distance, but still not close, and I thought, they might get it done by Tuesday. No. They were there from 7.00 to 17.30, about nine or ten of them, and they got it all done in one day.

I’ll aim to get a snap of it in daylight when I next venture that way, which may not be today. I have the final proof of my next book to start checking, a piano lesson and a model-building session today, so the hours are already booked.

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A few random photos to end the week, starting with one taken just now as the Friday Blue Star was coming in. The weather’s calmer today, after some wind and cloud yesterday, and apparently, it’s set to get colder again, having been warm for a while. Still dry though and there are already BBQ bans and fire warnings in effect in parts of the country.

As you’ll see, there’s a mix of images here, in that some were taken in the summer last year, and some towards the end of the year when the ground was dry and the hillsides brown. A contrast to what we have now, as there is still grass and greenery to be seen

I’m pleased to say I have nothing at all planned for the weekend apart from editing and old book and preparing it for a re-release. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, have a good one, and I’ll be back on Monday.

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News of the day? Not much, really. Last night, I made a cottage pie, as opposed to a shepherd’s pie because of the kind of meat involved. It’s interesting how a cottage pie is made with beef and in gay polari* a ‘cottage’ is a public toilet. Ponder that for a second. I don’t think shepherd has any meaning in polari, but a ‘looker’ might, and down on Romney Marsh, they call their shepherds, ‘lookers’, as they do in my mysteries set on the marsh, the Saddling series. (Any excuse for a plug, eh?) I have no idea where this thought is coming from, too much onion gravy, I imagine (which took over an hour to make, by the way). Here’s a photograph.

Today, I shall be sending the final draft of ‘Acts of Faith’ to my proofreader ahead of deadline, and will then return to the reading I was doing yesterday, which also had nothing to do with polari, but everything to do with the Police Illustrated News of 1893, a fascinating read if you’re into all things crime related from the late 19th century, and a lot easier to read than the hundreds of other publications in the National Newspaper Archive that I spend more and more time in each day when looking for the next story, or details to use in the current one.

If the mood grabs me, I may take myself out for a wander later, I’ll see what I feel like doing. One thing I know for sure, is that we have a heap of cottage pie left over, so lunch is taken care of.

* Polari (noun) a form of slang incorporating Italianate words, rhyming slang, and Romani, used originally as a kind of secret language in England by people in theatres, fairgrounds, markets, etc. and adopted by some gay people in the 20th century.

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The spring cleaning has begun – at home, I mean. The idea is to thoroughly do one or two rooms each week, starting, this week, with what we call the laundry room. We have a wardrobe in there, and the original idea was, we stored the winter clothes in it in the summer and the summer clothes in it in the winter. So, yesterday, we emptied from it suits that hadn’t been worn since 2004, a hundred shirts that ‘Might fit one day,’ 50 towels, a rug, four winter coats worth keeping, George’s bedding (for when my nephew comes to stay), two pillows, five old photographs, a painting of the Nautical Museum by Gill Bennett (if anyone wants to buy it, let me know), two paint trays, and five ground sheets. It’s a big wardrobe.

Then, there was what was on top of it; loads of boxes that ‘Might be useful one day.’ Actually, they were very useful to package up the 101 old glasses we never use, some old crockery, and various other things that might break in the bins and become a danger to the stray cats. Then, there came the other cupboards, the things on shelves, the shelves themselves, three buckets, several broom handles that I ‘Might do something with one day’ and other paraphernalia of no use to mouse or man.

It was a lovely day for emptying, cleaning, throwing out and replacing, and this morning as I passed through on my commute to work, I looked at the room and felt slimmer. Next to be emptied, cleaned and restocked, I reckon, will be the spare bathroom where the WC doesn’t work, and where, if we use the shower, we have to empty the water tank before the water runs hot, so we use the room to store other people’s suitcases. We shan’t be throwing them away, but we will give them a brush to get the winter dust off. After that, it’s open season on the rest of the house, when we feel in the mood, while out in the wider world, as mentioned yesterday, people are preparing their houses for Easter. We are also preparing ourselves for our annual MOT health checks next week, and I’m keen to tell you about our excellent experience with a private imaging clinic in Rhodes, but more about that another time, because now, I want to stand in the laundry room and listen to the echo.

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As usual, I had a good idea of what to write about, last night, but have now completely forgotten what that was. I could tell you about my dream where I lost my cello on a flight from somewhere to somewhere else, but that’s not very exciting. What’s more entertaining is that, when leaving the house yesterday afternoon, we were met by Michaelis coming to read the electricity meter. What was fun about that was that I’d only just seen him on TV a day before, running in the Athens half marathon. He got back here and back to work pretty fast, but then, he is a marathon runner.

We are still walking in a spring wonderland.

People are starting to tidy up their houses and businesses getting ready for Easter, and after that, the summer season. The outside of our house looks like a dodgy work of art, but it’s not up to us or our limited bank account to redecorate it. We take care of the inside which, to date, has involved two or three repaints inside, including the courtyard, balcony and ironwork, a new bathroom ceiling, a hot water tank and about four water pumps, plus general day-to-day stuff like renewing the traps under the sinks and having various bits and pieces repaired as anyone must do.

Right, the sun’s up and so am I, though I’m still looking for that missing cello… I must get on. I’ll try to remember to write down my brilliant ideas for tomorrow you have something more interesting to read with your morning coffee.

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