They've been following me round the house singing to me for two weeks.

My turn to sing this evening - we did our first concert with the visiting choir from Padua, including Tallis's fabulous and almost impossible Spem in Alium. Luckily I had a much stronger singer with me on my part.

Before the concert I emptied the shed, as one does. For ten months it housed a lot of my belongings, including my bed. I worked out in advance that what I would save on 'proper' storage would more than pay for the cost of the shed and replacement mattresses if they didn't survive but to my astonishment they did.

To prepare the shed last June I put down a layer of old carpet offcuts then a very large tarpaulin, protected from the rough concrete below by the carpet, then another layer of carpet on the tarp. I tied the tarp to the walls of the shed to make a waterproof 'tank'. Today I took out the carpet on top of the tarpaulin which despite a couple of mouldy patches was mostly dry. Then I removed the tarp to discover completely saturated, rotting carpet underneath. (An extra if you're up to it.) Some biological process had occurred between the wet carpet and the concrete shed base to make an extremely hospitable habitat for brandling worms.

I'd intended to put things back in the shed before going off to sing but have left the concrete to dry out overnight.