We choose the coldest night of the year to be without glass in the inner porch . CatCalls: Revitalising my Inner Porch

The wind blows a gale and for once I am grateful to be woken at four am by Pearl pulling at the duvet at my edge so that she can creep her way next to me . Toby is at the right flank and Kitty at the outer edges . I assume Jessie is keeping tout on Nats bed in case she should make a late night return , unlikely as she has taken duvet and pillows to a sleepover down at the sea front . I should know , I had to stop the car on the seafront in fear of our lives when the high winds threatened to take us over the sea wall with them at seven last night .

Although my little paste of lime juice and flash liquid etc has made little difference to the carpet stain the effect on the shower tray is impressive ( the hair dye stain ) so spurred on to greater things and fresh from the shower itself I wrap in a towel and squeeze a lime I find in the kitchen .( I can hardly believe Im blogging about stains here ) .

I apply myself again , this time to the grout between the tiles , some of them at least .

It strikes me as I scrub on hands and knees that cleaning a house is a full time occupation . Something that again I'm sure is known to many , though has escaped me , as it's something with which I concern myself in fits and starts . On the surface our house looks fine . Underneath ..... well let's say a full time housekeeper would not be pleased .

After some twenty minutes application , I am clean out of paste , about a tenth of the grout is looking better and I have written " a bag of bargain lemons " on the shopping list which sits in the kitchen . I have a plan to do a bit now and then , when the mood takes me . I am well pleased with my efforts so far , though I notice also how my arm aches and again wonder how a daily cleaner copes . ( as a student I worked as a cleaner in a large residential establishment . I suppose I must have had big muscles then . Or something . )

Following my ablutions , we walk Alice in the park . The high winds make heading for the sea and the headland inadvisable .

There are numerous trees down and some path clearing is inevitable . Alice is never at her bravest in the park , which has numerous shady spots which could be housing masss murderers or small ghastly terriers , so the walk is not a relaxing one . She starts frequently , and walks with that glancing from side to side to side motion which makes me laugh .

Once she is snooozing happily on the sofa I set off to my CatCall , the fairytale garden house , and find a lovely note there from Sue . I forget that sometimes real life collides with the blog and there are real life people who read the blog . I love this ..... that real people read . The cats are sleeping but each gives me a chirpy hello .

I head back home to throw a strop over my missing cake ribbon , but peace is restored when D goes to a flower shop and sources a new one . Truth to tell I hate cake decoration ( love the baking, hate the icing business ) and love to blame him for "throwing my stuff out ". He recently transformed my "odds and ends " drawer into a second cutlery drawer and insists that everything from there is now neatly housed in a basket in the cupboard under the stairs . But the ribbon was missing . It was not just any old ribbon either , being a particular yellow one which Laura had brought me last Easter to tie round the simnel cake having queued for it in John Lewis .

Say no more though ..... having given it considerable thought as I was weaving the trellis work on the cake ( and this year it worked !!! ) though I had some trouble getting my marzipan balls all the same size , but that's to be expected , I applied the deathbed test and decided that no , wishing I had spent more time griping over lost yellow ribbons was not something I would look back and wish I had spent more time doing when my number were up .

The yellow ribbon is to be mentioned no more , until he tidies away the next thing that is .....