Pearl Birman , the butter wouldnt melt blue point

5am . My eyes hurting . I wake . Try to sleep . Read . Cant read . Eyes hurting .
6am . I open the bedroom door and the Guinea Pigs squeal hugely . Come down for eye drops and feed them lest they wake the household . The cats start their swarming .
6.30am . Seems pointless to return upstairs . I open the laptop.
Pearl starts her morning routine early . A flying leap onto the high mantelpiece . Lands and slides . Centres herself and stares into the mirror nonchalantly . Looks out into the room for D , who looks on her antics less fondly than we do , not wanting to waste her performance if he is not there to witness it . Ponders a while . He is clearly not there . Is it worth the effort of flicking off a few articles , just so he will see them out of place the minute he enters the sitting room ( left impeccably tidy late last night ?) Or is it better to hang fire till he is there to watch ? She gives a cursory flick with her paw and peers over the edge as the nail clippers fly off the edge , landing with a disproportionate crash on the old Victorian tiles . Hm , perhaps one more thing . A packet of strawberry and cream flavoured hard boiled sweets go flying . Thud . Hardly worth it . A card from William next door . She pushes it hard with an upward movement but it practically floats . A look of disdain . She edges towards a little bottle of expensive cuticle oil , stll boxed for added protection and gives it a slight push . Another glance at the door . No sign of him . The oil would certainly make him squeak , later , and she hesitates , pushes it back into place and lands with a thud of her own on the carpet .
7pm . D enters the room stage left , and heads straight for the fallen articles. Pearl grins from her parking space under the table .
Result!

Overloaded head and eyes

My head overloaded by the DayJob as ever at the start of the week and now my eyes overloaded as well , conjunctivitis plus dry eyes strikes in earnest so I confine myself to looking at the weekend photos and congratulating myself hugely for engaging the services of Roofing Man . At least he is coming to Have a Look on Thursday am which is a step in the right direction . And it would appear that D has ordered the cabinet for the bathroom ( 4 drawers), not to mention a 2 drawer chest for the Area near my Laptop Dept ( where numerous piles of Stuff accumulate ) to calm his OCD tendencies and hopefully curb my untidy tendencies in the process.

The painting remains unfinished but getting there , only a few lengths to go . We're only talking the skirting boards so far though , the colour for the walls not even chosen yet , though a paint chart lurks in the kitchen .

And the really exciting thing ? The blog continues to have a sizeable following and the website is

attracting interest too.....

And now I need to get off here and attack the eyes again with more drops and liquid tears blah blah ( or so I'm told ....)

Saturday 7pm , Waterhead

Look no rain ....

This is the scene at Waterhead at 7pm , we can hardly believe we are in the Lake District and it's not raining .

Sunday morning

Sunday morning view with coffee, Newby Bridge .

Click on the picture to enlarge and see the birds .

Mandy and the boat

Mandy , Siobhan , Oonagh, Granny,Eilish and in the foreground , Cate , on the occasion of Gerard's sixtieth birthday , on the boat .

This was to be the last time we spent any time with Mandy . Autumn 05.

Birds squabbling, Painting as therapy

This was last Friday morning , the day we got caught in the rain , this half an hour before the rain fell . Down at the ferry landing , where we stop for a breather , watch the boats and the big ferries and the seabirds nesting and shouting . Click on the picture to enlarge it and the birds are visible on the parapet of the house , squabbling and jostling for best place .

Glad of the painting last night as therapy . More teenage Angst . Wonderful to have the house to myself for a couple of hours , painting rhythmically , covering up pipes and wires and everything that comes in my way . Cover it all up in thick white clean blanket and Magic , everything looking good this morning . But , though we are taking off for the day , the knowledge that the Issues bubble away . The slate is still off , the water still creeping ( and at times lashing ) in .

But there will be a time for fixing , and its not today .

CatCalls .....

.... and a repeat booking from a new customer , for the end of July and some time in August , which is looking wonderfully busy now , and a text thanking me for my last week's services .

The two cats I had been looking after were lovely , changing from shy to inquisitive and playful . They watch as I hoover around quickly trying to leave the house tidy and sweep up the stray litter and leaves and flowers they have brought in to play with from outside . I can almost see in their faces their plans to trash the place the minute I left . I tried .