Today started early with the painter arriving from the insurance company to do the ceiling for me. I had chosen warm white or ivory as my preferred colour, but the paint he brought was more a clotted cream - quite yellow really. So we mixed it up with the left over antique white i had in the spare room and toned it down a bit. I have to say it looks wonderful! He brought it down about 30 cm since I had water stains coming down the wall as well. So now all I need is a picture rail and it will look great!! I would love to show you a photo but i have temporarily mislaid the bit o cable that downloads photos from the camera... While that was going on I dodged out between mizzle and cut a bit more wood to dry out in front of the fire, and so the house is now stocked for tonight and also tomorrow night. I will be out much of the day tomorrow so won't be needing the fire. Also boiled up some bacon bones to make some soup and that stock is now sitting cooling so I can skim it tomorrow before stage two. Shadow has won a dog blanket in a competition so we will love to see it when it arrives, even it is only briefly before the cats take it over. A period of sunshine this afternoon lasted for a good couple of hours, but the air has a distinct feeling of ice in it this afternoon, presaging the 2 degrees forecast for tonight.