I need to set the record straight . . .

OH MY, did I get into trouble last week! Not from you, dear readers, but from him indoors — the practical husband who slaves away over our homestead, making everything work, feeding dogs, dealing with bins and recycling and even saving spiders from death.

What did I do wrong? After telling you I felt down but had tried to perk myself up, I wrote: ‘I walked around the house, looked at everything anew, and realised I didn’t mind the stained ceiling, leaky shower, dust and spider webs, because it’s home.’

‘Leaky shower?’ he protested. ‘People will think I’m useless and lazy. Anyway, I mended it!’

‘But when I was writing we couldn’t use it,’ I said.

‘But I still fixed it...’ (subsides, muttering).

Who’d have thought an honest description would irk such a mild-tempered guy? We do now have a shower — and the water runs cool if a tap’s turned on elsewhere — but the stained ceiling needs touching up.

He has a weekly jobs list to make a dedicated DIY-er quail. Each of us has a role to play to keep this farmhouse standing.

Of course, that column was about cheering yourself by acting and counting blessings. Marion G understood: ‘Your article was an inspiration — knowing I am not alone in feeling a bit down...in a world which has shrunk somewhat and where the worry of Covid has been replaced in some countries by political upheaval and uncertainty.’

Thanks, Marion, and I’m glad I gave you a ‘way forward’.

Then Fiona recognised the domestic problems: ‘I am 78, lost my husband two years ago and am still in the old house we bought 50 years ago.

‘Your paragraph about “home” struck such a chord. Yes, the roof leaks, the kitchen door has to be wrenched open and I noticed a new spider’s web in the bathroom. But home is where the heart is, and I love it.’

So do we, Fiona. And I’ve promised my husband I’ll now tidy that messy room. Like a good . . . er . . . housewife.

Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, london W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.