I am covered in filth! Brick dust in my hair and clothes, I’m sweaty, I have cobwebs and plaster and those weed things that stick to you everywhere.

This is what the kitchen and extension look like now. You can see the acrow props holding up the roof, and right through the sitting room and out to the front of the house. Hardly any wall left at all, we’re nearly there. With that part anyway, plenty more to go yet.

There has been much hammering, biblical amounts of dust and grit and bits of wall, plaster and tile flying about. I have been transporting it outside into piles and sacks, complete with sturdy gloves and face mask, while DP has been chiseling, hammering, bashing and levering.

I also got behind the greenhouse to trim the wisteria, bramble and bamboo growing over and into the back of the greenhouse from next door. I had to take out the pots, canes and plant trays stored there to do it. The canes are old and fragile now and keep breaking, so I thought I’d sort through them. There are some sticks etc in the shed too, so I thought I’d do those at the same time. They are right at the back of the shed, so I had to drag out the (unused) lawn mower to get at them and noticed that there were several holes in the floor at the back. So it probably wasn’t a squirrel getting into the shed earlier in the year, it’s probably rats. Eurrghh.

I ended up dragging everything out of the shed. There was quite a lot of stuff that was water damaged, or had water sitting in it from when the roof was leaking. That’s been repaired now. DP repaired the holes with plywood and I sorted through all the stuff in the shed. Got rid of quite a bit of crud – rusted secateurs, bottles with no labels, excess plant pots, bags of fertiliser that the rats had been in etc etc. Swept all through to get rid of the droppings, brushed off the shelves, put everything neatly back. Swept behind the greenhouse too before putting everything back.

Over the last few days I have been scraping the bits of path that are brick as they get weeds in between and lichen on them, and the earth sticks to them much more than the bits of path that are roofing tiles or slabs. I did another bit today, weeded the raspberries and swept down the path. It’s amazing how much path we have in our little garden! Another couple of bits to go yet, but it’s all beginning to look much more attractive.

Lunch was spicy lentil soup from the freezer, and dinner is beef pasta bake, also from the freezer. Thank goodness for stores, it’s quite difficult to cook at the moment, I have to rinse everything off before I use it as it will have a fine layer of dust and grit on it.

I’m watching some of the tennis while waiting for DP to come out of the bathroom so I can have a shower.

Saw Andy Murray earlier, what a disappointing outcome, he just couldn’t seem to do anything right. Kyrgios, the chap who beat Nadal yesterday has just won the first set, DP is out of the shower, so I’m off to clean up. I’m a dirty, dirty girl.