There's nothing like the imminent arrival of visitors to bring out the sleeping domestic god within so I have spent the bulk of today with duster, mop and hoover, even to the extent of moving furniture to get at hidden nastiness and realign the Moroccan rug.

Above and beyond the call of duty I cleared out the pamphlet store that is the lower level of my coffee table casting into the recycling without a second thought gems that are not yet twelve months old.  I haven't gone so far as to dispose of the 2011 Fringe programme nestling in a drawer in the spare bedroom but one has one's limits.

The trouble with this blog business is that it's so easy to get behind unless you have enormous self discipline.  The more you do the easier it is to get behind.  Here we are very nearly at the end of April and my reactions to nine plays, two films, two concerts and a science festival evening remain unrecorded.  That's not to mention TV, radio, books and the dreaded internet.  Well so be it.

I've also fallen behind with my coffee drinking.  I went into the freezer after lunch to fetch a new bag of coffee to find that the only one I had was a "special limited edition Christmas Blend".  To be enjoyed it said with mince pies and Christmas jumpers.  Neither were available but there had been several short showers of snow like stuff on the drive up from the Lakes this morning so perhaps the coffee wasn't being drunk in an entirely unseasonable setting.