Busy day today. Not for us, but for others. Alas, the weather did not help by pouring with rain and there being a vigorous, gusty, wind. Anyway, as planned our neighbour turned up with his kit to pressure wash our front step. It now looks as it has never looked in our time here, and he has done the front door too, which was going green in places. Some wet came in under the front door but we have dried that up and are letting the air circulate to it to finish off the job. He says that sometime later, possibly in March, he will do the rest of the concrete paths surrounding the house.

And while this was happening, the plumber came, unannounced to reconnect the boiler condensation drain and put us back to normal. We asked him how often we have frosts such as we have just seen up here, and he said he though the last one was 2010, so not very often.

Here is a snowy scene from December 2010 – the only time we ever had to have a snow plough come down the road where we then lived, so maybe the plumber’s memory is not far out.