Pledges, pledges, pledges

I was wryly amused by the juxtaposition of headlines on this morning's BBC website. Two pledges were reported one immediately above the other: "Osborne to pledge 'growth' budget" and "Defiant Gaddafi pledges victory". Now, as I sit out here in the garden in my shirtsleeves (!) at 4.30 in the afternoon, I've not really digested the budget - but who has yet, except the Treasury boffins who put it together? I gather there are crumbs of comfort for charities and a small refund of the money taken from science research in the autumn spending cuts, which sounds like long-term good news for the MNDA. Mark you, the growth forecast sounds pretty long term as well. As I understand it's particularly good news for the large multinationals, rather than small businesses. Maybe freeing up planning and other regulations might help them, though it sounds a bit worrying to me. However as one commentator, Niall Cooper, pointed out there was not a single mention of people in poverty - which is sad from a government pledged to protect the vulnerable. (Budget ignores plight of the poorest)

However I enjoyed my time in the sunshine. Jane's bulbs are out again, the scent of hyacinths surrounding the new French windows. Talking of which, last week we had our windows replaced by the excellent Nick Ponting and his merry men. We've had to sacrifice the bowed tops to the windows and have replaced wooden frames with plastic - against my professed aesthetic principles. But practicality won in the end. The workmen, I must say, were wonderful. Highly recommended. Here are two pictures. In the first you can see old-style downstairs with replacements upstairs; in the second work in progress downstairs. 

We're pleased with the result. It made an immediate difference in warmth and light, we thought. That's been appreciated as, before the sun shone on us, our boiler's been misbehaving again and the heating unpredictable. Not that that worried our guest at the weekend, the towering Tony Cheslett, our energetic friend from Stockport who introduced us to the joys of the Lake District. He's bagged all the munros. He is well known around the UK for corny stories and for the advice, "If you've got cold feet, wear a hat."