Today we had two tasks, move a smoke alarm to a more effective part of the house, and do some weeding in the flower beds.

It was Julie’s first mission (BIG UP!!) and the weather rather let her down, so whilst the rain was at its worst, we chose to focus on the smoke alarm. Our host had experienced two near-misses in the last month whilst cooking, so was keen to get the smoke alarm to a place it might identify burning food (or worse…) more quickly. A ladder and screwdriver later it was relocated from a hallway several rooms away, to the ceiling of the kitchen. Job number 1 in the bag…

Under marginally clearer skies, and powered-up with black coffee, black tea and biscuits; we turned our attention to the garden. Taking care to avoid the lovely red peony in the middle of the flower bed, we pulled out the weeds, and dug out the old rotten bulbs and stumps ready for it to be replanted.

With the garden waste bin full, and after a quick chat with our host about what the council and other charitable services might be able to offer them, we set off home carrying a fair bit of mud with us on our nice trainers, grrr!! ;-)