Another lovely sunny day, marred only by the galeforce southerly that has been rattling the roof for some time now. I discovered that despite this, the rear of the house was lovely and cosy. The house blocks the wind so the area that will eventually be a patio was soaked in lovely sunshine and would have been very pleasant to sit out on and enjoy the light breeze that was all you could feel.

This morning I scrubbed the rest of the concrete, preparatory to painting sealant on the floor, and did a bit more housework generally. Once the kitchen is done i will try to get back into a routine of cleaning, so I can enjoy the new spaces properly. It occurred to me that I should see what is required to obtain my certificate of occupancy also. I think it will only mean the doors going on between the bathroom, laundry and kitchen, and getting the smoke detector hard-wired in the hall. Hopefully they don't need achitraves and skirting boards - that would be really annoying.

I picked large quantities of spinach, chard and turnips to take into town with me and give to the person who has supplied me with gooseberries. Her own crop has been badly blighted by frost as her yard does not have as favourable an aspect as mine. Then off to Roberts's for a rain gauge (which will probably doom me to no more rain) and to Elders for some star pickets to make the second half of the chook run (so that the geese have rotational grazing over the other half of the orchard). Then home via a friends place where I dropped off the microwave, hair drier and sewing machine cord to have them 'naturalised' to Australian plugs. I have no doubt I will find other appliances etc that require similar treatment as I begin to unpack (in fact just remembered that the problem arises with my jig-saw also), so will progressively drop them off as I find them.

Snow heavy on the highlands - Interlaken Road is closed as a result - but no sign of it here, not even in the temperature of the wind...