OK tomorrow is now tiling day. The tiler was most apologetic - he assumed the woman at the shop had phoned me. He was going to come yesterday, but I had to change that because of Events. Also had to cancel a craniosacral therapy session, grizzle. This was because my boss finally took some time off & as his deputy wasn't back from New York yet I was doing his job Sunday and Monday, 11:30am to 10pm without a break. Now the deputy has come down with some ghastly flu that's going round New York - as if people there don't have enough grief and pain! - and I may have to work longer hours on Thursday and Friday.

This morning I had my hair done, and because I'd been getting up early for a couple of days I had no trouble getting up early today -- but now I'm starting to flag. I can sleep in a bit tomorrow, the tiler's not coming until 3pm.

Hah. I went mad recently and churned out rotas for our section for up to Christmas. We don't publish on Christmas Day so we get Christmas Eve off every year. According to my calculations, Christmas fell on a Saturday, which we always have off, so hurrah! we all got a nice long weekend. Sigh. No, don't all rush to tell me - Christmas Day is actually on a Tuesday this year.

I'm not very good at rotas.

I'm good at fencing though! I don't know if I mentioned that the firm came through with a quote: £890. Eight hundred and ninety pounds sterling for a fence measuring 30ft by 5ft. Aiiieeee! So on Saturday I drove out on a mission to find something cheaper, much much cheaper. The solution turned out to be bamboo screening. Two rolls, each 16ft long by 5ft high, £100 total. I was pretty exhausted once I'd gotten the rolls home, but I pushed myself to get it erected -- wiring it to the existing 3ft high fenceposts. (Interesting aside: galvanised wire is very difficult to find. DIY shops don't stock it. No wonder Britain's in such a mess! You can't fix anything properly without No.8 fencing wire. I finally found some in a small garden shop - which didn't have bamboo screening, however.) It was a tricky operation, the screening kept falling over and it was hard to get it taut. I finished the last corner just as it was getting dark, not a moment too soon.

The second section is a bit wobbly because it goes uphill and over tree roots (I might go back and rewire it), and the whole thing waves around a bit in the wind. But it's dog proof. Bertie came out to see what I was doing and actually cried when he saw it. Heh. But it means I can let him outside at night without him going awol. And I'll be able to grown sweet peas on it. Now that I've cut down the elder tree and pruned the rowan, my next DIY project is to make a bird feeder.

It's autumn already! Trees are going gold and leaves are falling, blackberries are ripening.