Back to normal...

...or nearly.  We left for the UK last Tuesday pretty much as soon as we'd finished putting the house into hibernation.  We could have done with a bright, blowy day to get the laundry out and dried, but didn't get one, so have a lot of taking down and putting away to do next time we're there: every available indoor line, rail and airer is solid with drying clothes, bedding and towels.  We decided to leave early for the airport and get there in daylight, since the prospect of the Toulouse périphérique in the rain after dark is more than one can contemplate with equanimity.  Fortunately, the café-restaurant in the top floor of the terminal building has now been refitted, and is a very comfortable and pleasant place to spend the odd five hours reading, nattering over a glass of wine and enjoying a leisurely dinner.  It offers a view across the field, and we were amazed at just how busy the airport is with domestic and international traffic, not to mention operations at the Airbus works.  The flight back to Gatwick did what it said it would, but was a stark reminder of how little I like being stuck in an uncomfortable seat in a confined space in close proximity to people sharing inanities too loud in disagreable tones.

Meanwhile, our domestic surroundings improve little by little: we have our new sink and gas hob, and the floor and walls were re-tiled while we were away.  While I was hob-nobbing with wife-beaters yesterday, Martyn was treating the working surfaces with Danish oil, so we're starting to look right posh.    Outside, it's another story.  The grass is too wet now to cut, though the mild autumn means that it's still growing.  I managed to get the worst of the ash leaves up before we went away, but the rest of them are still lying, and the oak is still shedding.  I wouldn't find it so irksome if they were our trees.  Oh well, it's good in the other half of the year to live in leafy surroundings.  I've done a bit of chopping back and dead-heading in the garden, and have re-planted a few containers.  While we were buying potting compost for the latter job, a chap drove into the garden shop car park in a van that advertised gutter-clearing services, so we collared him, and he's coming on Thursday.  So that just leaves insulating the roof, fixing the downstairs loo, getting the drive tarmacked, taking out the hedge and the tall leylandii at the front, decorating and carpeting the hall, stairs and landing, replacing the front door and then we can start all over again.