There is nothing sadder...

...than a neglected worksite in the rain. And look at those daffs trying to come up amid the debris. There are puddles everywhere, it's dripping with rain, and in any direction you look there are bits and bobs lying about. Jinks! Crivvens! Help ma, Boab!

(These are well-known slogans of Oor Wullie [Our Willie], a much-loved Dundee-based D.C. Thomson comics character, a wee impish boy who just turned 70 this week! Help ma, Boab! for those of you who don't know, translates to "Help me, Bob" as Boab is one of Wullie's best mates.)

Distinctly not funny is the story I'm about to relate. You may recall that Bill, our contractor, has been trying to reach our tiler to find out why he's not getting on with the job of putting tiles on our new roofs over the studio extension, utility room, and kitchen extension. Bill phoned yesterday afternoon to say he had finally reached George on his cellphone. He found him in Ireland having a wee holiday! According to George, his assistant, Stuart, was to be here on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week. Needless to say he hasn't been. George did say if it's been rainy, that may be why we haven't seen Stuart. Well maybe that's it, although it wasn't rainy on Thursday until the afternoon.

The good news, however, was the the joiners will be here on Monday to install doors and windows in all the extensions. Perhaps their next job will be erecting roof trusses over the sitting room extension now that the chimney is up.

It may have been too rainy for roof work yesterday morning but not too rainy for Donald to go play golf with the St Fillans Seniors--and win first place! It was his first time coming in on top, for which he won 3 brand new golf balls. We celebrated by going out to The Tullybannocker Restaurant just outside of Comrie for lunch.

In the afternoon yesterday, we phoned Joanna, the staff nurse in Ninewell's dermatology clinic who had given us her phone number in case we had questions. Among our questions was how long was the operation on Monday afternoon likely to take. Her answer was that it was unlikely that I'd be under the general anaesthetic for more than an hour, if that long. This means recovery will be fairly quick. Joanna expected I'd leave the hospital before noon on Tuesday.

I'm hoping to have the new quilt top finished later today and perhaps I can post it here tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, here are the lovely red roses Jackie and Eric gave me last Wednesday evening. (In reality, they are more of a deep, bluey-red but my photo software likes to add yellow to reds.) They are lasting so long and are so cheery on these dreich days (dreich, pronounced "dreech" but with a soft "ch" means dismal weather, dreary and rainy and sort of raw-feeling). And now it's begun to flurry.