An expensive time but we're counting our blessings in The View from the Terrace

Another plumber called on Tuesday. He said the underground pipe is also leaking and we will need to dig up half of my flowerbed. That is a shame as it is looking so lovely and also has perennial summer flowers in it. Hubby says if we are careful and dig it up in large chunks and don’t disturb the roots we should be able to put it back afterwards. The plumber quoted £500 if we dig out the flower bed ourselves and and extra £300 if we don’t. Today he emailed to say he had underestimated the cost of getting rid of the asbestos pipe and now quotes £1000. He doesn’t say if that includes the £300 for the flowerbed. I have emailed back to ask about that but I think we will have to accept anyway as the pipe is getting worse and I am not sure how much longer I can cope with the worry of trying to find someone. It means we won’t have a toilet for several hours. I was going to go to town in the early morning and stay until the job is done but I have decided that I couldn’t cope with getting up early and going into town on the day if I woke ill, so I have booked a b and b in Hereford for the night before. I can stay there until 11 o’clock in the morning and then go to the library and relax if I am not well or have a walk around the shops if I am OK.

I guess that means no main holiday this year. As it is I am going to have to dip into our emergency fund to pay for my dental treatment. I was trying to build that up a bit as it includes what we need to leave when we go, for final arrangements. Hubby is insured but we couldn’t afford to insure me, well we can at the moment but once you take out a policy you have to keep up payments for the rest of your life and when Hubby stops work we wont be able to afford it, so we are trying to leave a capital sum. As things stand if anything happens to Hubby I have enough, but if I go first he would be struggling if we spend too much of the capital. We had hoped to go either to Italy or to Ireland later this year but now I guess it will be a few days in Cornwall, not that I’m complaining, we have the money for our immediate needs and can still afford short breaks. I just hope nothing else really expensive happens soon!

We also need a new washing machine. The one we bought second hand last year from a charity shop started making a terrible noise and Hubby said the bearing was wearing out. Chris decided to try to save us some money by replacing it but, after buying a new bearing, he found the whole thing is sealed. He spent around 2 hours on it yesterday, but doesn’t think he can fix it. He put it all back together for now but this morning it wouldn’t come on. I had a pile of Tony’s dirty work clothes and was suffering from the aftereffects of my migraine meds so Hubby washed them by hand in the bath. Later Chris arrived and found he had forgotten to connect a wire. He did this and then it did switch on but when we tried a trial programme it leaked. He’s had another go at fixing it but to no avail so we are hand washing until we get a new one, luckily the spin still works. I need to go to town to do the Easter shopping tomorrow so will look for a new one.

Today has been a lovely warm spring day. The blossom is out on the cherry tree I planted last year and it looks beautiful. I have been out in the garden this afternoon. They are saying is will get even warmer for the Easter weekend.

We went to our folk club at Longtown last night. We had a great time. We both sang. I got a few complements about the ‘lovely song’ I did. It was one I learned from an old John Denver album called Today and is one of my favourites, especially at this time of year as the words speak of blossom. One of the other singers joined me in an impromptu harmony which was beautiful.