The first mild-weathered weekend of the year has seen the expected rash of DIY-ers out in force. (Its hard to believe we were under snow three weeks ago.)

The new neighbours next door have been putting up some fencing at the bottom of their garden, and I even managed to motivate myself to get something done. I took the doors off the cupboard in the hall and took them outside to remove the bottom centimetre from them. They have been scraping a bit on the floor where I didn’t plane them enough before. Now there is a big gap at the bottom – hopefully with enough clearance for the wooden thingummyjigs I intend to put down.

Although the back garden is still a bit boggy in parts, I decided to try giving the lawn its first mowing for about 6 months. At first the mower made a real racket as it only had one blade and was not balanced properly. I put another blade in, but it was a bit loose – the circular plate-thing which holds the blades is damaged, and I have not been able to find a spare part for it. I knew the mower was on its way out, but thought it would be best to try and get the nasty first cut done with it rather than have to make that the first task of a new mower. This strategy was half successful: with half the lawn done, there was a nasty burning smell and the machine stopped. I think it is well and truly dead now.

Its now fingers crossed that the weather stays fairly dry this week so I can buy a new mower and finish the job next week, which is a long weekend.