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Lofty ambitions

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I'm on holiday! Hurrah!

Unfortunately, there are more than enough things to do, living in a 100 year old house. I was supposed to be painting the windows this week, but so far the weather has made that a tad tricky. Removing a sash window does have the unfortunate effect of letting the outside in.

Having noticed yet another mark on the ceiling in the spare bedroom, I've spent a large part of yesterday and today crawling around in the dark hell that is our loft. The roof is, I think, original, hence it's slabs of slate, nailed to strips of wood, then cemented to the wood on the inside. At least, that's how it was a century ago. Most of the cement is now on top of the ceiling to the rooms upstairs, slates have moved and Cumbrian weather gets in. Have I mentioned it rains a bit here...? I'm pretty sue you shouldn't be able to see a thousand points of light inside you roof space.

Anyway, the current leak was quite close to the outside of the building, meaning I was heading into the uncharted territory of the eaves, home to alternate life forms and a very old washing up bowl with an inch of water in. This involved crawling under a beam 27" above the floor of the loft (I say floor. It's the beams.) and then working in a space you can't sit fully up in, trying to wedge cement into gaps you can't actually get to. What japes, eh?! Anyway, filthy (100 years of dirt, soot and spiders webs anyone?) and knackered, I think I'm done. Until it leaks again of course.

Happily for out allotment a Panther arrived today. Cute little fella. Maybe tell you about it tomorrow...

(Radio today! Liza Tarbuck on Radio 2 at the moment)

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