It was welcome sunshine that greeted us in Maryland this morning as we made a return visit to see Sue and her planters (of the "inanimate wooden" kind, not of "tea"...).

She had already forewarned us that today's task was painting (something we're always up for, especially when it's bright and sunny outside), and was clearly well prepared as her shopping trolley was overflowing with items that a modern day Michaelangelo would have been proud of.

After a quick round of weeding to tidy up some of the planters that we hadn't tended to during our last couple of visits, the paint trays, brushes, gloves and tins of white primer appeared, and once Graham had carefully done the pouring, Rosa, Hilary, Eugene and Nick positioned themselves along the wooden sides to get started, and as with all good painters, chatted contentedly as we worked. Helpfully Sue had marked with a cross (confusingly...) the blocks that she wanted painting - forfeits would apply to anyone who strayed outside of the lines.

As if by magic, we were soon joined by Kevin and Sharon, making a very welcome return to tasking, and it took Sue all of two seconds to put a paint brush in Kev's hand and tell him to start work...

After a good ninety minutes of careful brushing and much concentration, we soon had the three large planters primed with different sized white blocks (Piet Mondrian would've been proud of our efforts). Sue's intention is to then apply a range of different colours onto the primer which will then give the planters a more unconventional "artistic look"...a return visit surely beckons for us all to complete the masterpiece...

It was clearly becoming a Friday afternoon for bugs - in this case some flies that somehow had got inside Mrs M's bathroom light cover. All I needed to do was stand on a small stool and unscrew the cover so that we could remove said beasts (swiftly disposed of into the toilet), and all would be clear and light once again in her bathroom.

Mr T was keen to show me some unusual indentations on his carpet, thinking that perhaps little beasties (of some description, but we didn't think moths) were making a meal of it - and so at his request, before picking up the rest of his weekly shop, I diverted via Robert Dyas to get some suitable potion to apply which hopefully will rid him of this issue. I'm already looking forward to next week's debrief.