chez moi

Warm and damp, my hair has gone crazy. I suspect the rest of the country is basking in brilliant sunshine while we are lingering in coastal dampness.

Very good film last night 'Winter's Bone' - pretty bleak but very well made and extremely well acted. Set in a remote part of Missouri where the locals had their own, pretty tough, rules, it followed the course of a young girl trying to find the whereabouts of her wastrel father. He'd skipped bail and their house was to be forfeit unless he could be found. She also had an alcoholic mother and two siblings all dependent on her. Tough but there was redemption in innocence, bravery and love. Definitely worth seeing.

Himself is not feeling well today, I think its the shock and stress of being a radio star. The crew had travelled down from Dublin not realising how far West Cork was and arrived very late, then had to have tea and buns before the interviews even started. I think it's going out on Saturday.

Gardening this afternoon - pruned hydrangeas and cleared paths - followed by a little robin. This is our house. The greenery is quite low key at the moment but you can see it's started! The tree palm doesn't seem to mind the cold and grows a good foot every year. The very bright green stuff is montbretia which spreads everywhere. This little pond is for drainage purposes and takes all the water coming off the hill at the back of the house. We have done loads of work to the house - there was no proper upstairs when we came, and it was a very nasty dirty peach colour. The last bit of work was to replace the ancient lean-to with a conservatory which you can just glimpse. The conservatory has warmed up and is now sit-inable!! It's currently jam-packed with seedlings and cats.