Filling, sanding and painting skirting is very boring, so I thought I’d take a break from this mind-numbing task to do something completely non-urgent, but more satisfying and fun.

We have a number of piles of rocks in the garden, which need to be rebuilt into drystone walls. Drystone walls are better for wildlife than building walls with concrete mortar, both because concrete has a big carbon footprint, and because leaving out the mortar creates lots of nooks and crannies for things to live.

However, because there’s no mortar to hold the stones together it’s important to build the wall using a certain technique so it remains stable. It’s like building a giant jigsaw puzzle, trying to find the right stone to fit the space. Although the section I’ve built so far may seem small, it’s taken me a few evenings already. With lighter evenings I’m hoping to keep going a little at a time until it’s done.

Inside the house I finally got round to cleaning the stone on the kitchen wall, tidying the edges and coating the area with three layers of stone protector.

Meanwhile, Chris plastered the remaining wall on the stairs, and added a watery coat of paint. On the ceiling he added the architrave and a fresh coat of paint. Next the architrave will need filling and the whole thing repainting.

On the landing I installed the remaining architrave.

And in the kitchen I added more skirting, though some of it can’t be attached till we know what we’re doing with the fireplace.

Along the base of the stone wall in the kitchen we’d initially planned to install skirting, so I hadn’t plastered all the way to the floor. However we realised the wall was so bumpy,skirting might not be practical, so instead I filled in the gap with plaster.

As usual I overfilled my bucket, so instead of wasting it I plastered a small section of the downstairs toilet wall.

Out in the garden some of the tulips I planted are starting to flower. With the amount of bare ground the garden still doesn’t look very exciting, but at least things are starting to grow. I also finally put our bird box outside, ready for nesting season. I felt bad hammering it on to a tree, so it’s just wedged in the crook of two branches. The 50mph winds yesterday didn’t dislodge it so hopeful that’s that job done, and maybe some birds will make themselves at home.