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Chris almost finished laying the kitchen floor today which is the culmination of over three months' work in preparation. We've gone from a damp, sinking, Edwardian quarry tile floor, to the excavation of a few feet of Nottingham Clay, filling two skips, barrowing in tonnes of hardcore (that was a great day off work), packing in huge wadges of insulation, a thick concrete slab, a smooth layer of self levelling screed and finally to this. Tiles. Clean. Warm. Dry. Of course it's more difficult and time consuming than anticipated, and there are a million more repairs and jobs to do before it's finished, but it's a huge achievement.

Also, we had the morning off and bought a lovely witch hazel tree, covered in masses of buds and ready to burst into flower, all leafless and spidery yellow. Later, I gadded off on my own to find a fiery red and yellow cornus for the garden too. We will overcome the mistaken ground force makeover that we inherited one of these days!