Just about as bad as it gets!

After my tranquil afternoon last week at the table in front of the window, the workroom has been invaded by plumbers, replacing the boiler in the cupboard. The lino had to be cut back, the hardboard prised up, the floorboards sawn through - but now the new gas pipe is in - in fact the boiler is in. There's just that little window in the back wall - the vent for the old boiler - that needs bricking up. And the small matter of all that needs doing in the living room, which also had its floor taken up so that piping could be run through.

In fact things are getting better not just in terms of the work nearing completion but on other fronts as well. I've been able to rescue, from somewhere under the dust sheets in the living room, the various peripherals needed to finally download photos. And at the weekend studio I was able to work on my "black books", more of which later.

However there is the small matter of reinstating some sort of order in the workroom, once the plumbers finally leave, and putting the flooring back. After that, all the furniture from the front room will be moved in, so that the entire floor can be replaced. The packets of "ash" laminate are waiting in the hall. It's all feeling rather more hopeful, less all-pervasively chaotic.