A sunny umbrella

Another man came from the insurers today. This was Ian who will be in charge of all the decorating and restoration work. He was delightful and very helpful.

Turns out he has been a very keen footballer but has had a torn anterior cruciate ligament and had an artificial one put in a few years ago. He wants to do more walking. Before he left, I taught him how to use walking poles!! (I also gave him festival leaflets, of course!!)

The dehumidifier is working well and we hope that Mum's bedroom will be dry in a week. Then the plastering will be done and the repainting etc.

We talked about my plans to renew my kitchen while it is empty, so now I have to go and look at new kitchens and make plans. 

This afternoon I had a quick walk in Acomb woods. The wood anemones are hanging on and still beautiful. Many trees have new leaves and I like these because they looked like a parasol. There were aphids happily feeding too....... I saw my first dog violets of the year and my first bluebells. The latter are not out yet, but the blue spikes are showing.

Tonight I met Julie and Ann in Hexham for a quick meal before the National Theatre screening of All About Eve with Gillian Anderson. It was an excellent production with some very good acting, but it was impossible hard to like any of the characters. I thought is was a bit two dimensional and I'm off to read reviews.

I thought I had asked Sharon to do Mum's meal tonight but I hadn't. When Mum tried to let me know, my phone battery had died. Not the best bit of the day. Fortunately I realised and phoned home on another phone to check all was well - it wasn't, but Sharon had dropped everything and come round to feed Mum. Phew!