The roof is no longer leaking!

This isn't just because it isn't raining at the moment - though that always did make a difference - but because a bunch of roofy men have been stomping around on it for the last couple of days. They have been sawing and hammering and covering themselves in bitumen (makes a change from custard). It's a pain because I can't really go out and do anything while they're here, but nothing like as much of a pain as having a leaky roof.

I did used to wonder where the rain went, though. Some of it would come down into my studio to say 'hello', but certainly not all of it; I can only hope that it was soaked up by the thick layer of moss and small plants which used to grow on the roof, and that it hasn't collected somewhere else in one of those mysterious little spaces that old houses have, only to cause havoc somewhere else.

The cistern was leaking this morning, but that's much more easily dealt with.

I once mentioned to my next door neighbour that it felt like I lived in a house which was permanently under construction; he reckons that it's one of the pleasures of living in a cottage. Theirs is just the same!