Progress

A couple of years after the conservatory was built, I sent a snagging list to the company that built it.  No response, and I nagged at intervals, but ran out of steam a year or so later.  The fact that a sealed glazing unit has recently blown prompted me to make contact a month ago, mentioning a few of the items on the snagging list that I hadn't sorted myself in the meantime.  A month came and went with no call to arrange a maintenance visit, so I rang again.  'Call you back this afternoon'.  That was Monday.  I rang again this (Wednesday) morning: fortunately their salesman was in the area, and dropped in.  He has gone off with a list of nags, and we'll see what happens next, and when.

Meanwhile, antirrhinums are germinating in a pot on the window ledge.  I happened to be dead-heading one that had self-sown into the pot we keep the bay tree in, and found that the seed heads had ripened well.  Nothing ventured, I sprinkled the seeds on a pot of compost, and a good dozen have come up.  The other bit of gardening today was to pull up the dead ceanothus.  I just managed to lever it into the town's compost bin, which, fortunately, will be emptied tomorrow.

Today's other visitor was a young man from EDF, to change the electricity meter (at the company's initiative, not ours).  South African, by the sound of him, and he had us back on the grid in about 20 minutes, after fitting a minuscule new meter.  So we have a full complement of new meters (except for the water ditto, which we got fitted as soon as possible after we moved in, having taken fright at the bills based on rateable value).  The rest of the street has since had water meters fitted compulsorily, so we shall no longer be subsidising large households with inveterate showerers and hair-washers.  Don't suppose the outrageous bills will come down, though.  Meanwhile, tax allowances increase by half the level of inflation.  Oh well.