Yesterday the electrician came back to fit a timer to the immersion heater circuit so I don't have to get up during the cheap electricity night period to turn it on and then off again for early morning hot water. I set it up for the night period, and a midday period which I can override if it's not sunny. The little LED output light was not working, and this morning it was clear that the whole thing wasn't either.

Today the electrician came back, and sorted it. The sun is now heating my water. Though I'm not making quite as much as I'm using, with the heater and the washing machine running a descaler programme. On the other hand, I wasn't using any earlier on.

After no sun yesterday, except at the end of the day, when I managed to plant out some corydalis (the yellow sort, which is weedlike once established) from my parent's garden, some creeping jenny (lysimachia nummularia) which will have yellow flowers, and some lavender. I went out and bought some large terracotta pots to pot up things I have grown from cuttings, which are finding their small pots too small, but are not ready to be planted out yet, some compost for them and the potato bags, and to look for some loosestrife (lysimachia punctata) to add verticals to the yellow stuff. Out of stock, the last, but a friend's mother apparently has some.

Today I have planted out the climbing rose (Albertine) from my grandparents' home, and built a new step in the path to the back gate, where it was not safe to be used. I've also pruned the Virginia creeper on the back fence.

I was about to do the potting up when the electrician came, I had a long phone call from a friend, and a man selling frozen fish turned up. Since the freezer is full, I had to turn him away. I wish we had a fish van from Rye or Hastings coming round, with fresh caught fish, but we must be too far out. There used to be a van from Lowestoft at the Thursday market, but now there only seems to be someone who gets his stock from Billingsgate. (Billingsgate is the big fish market in London, the other three places are seaports with still active fishing fleets. Hastings is particularly good for being ecologically sound.) The frozen man is from a company which sources at Billingsgate, and is quite local here - but its website has no information at all about the background of its product.

It's probably time for a snooze now.

Penny