Tuesday 22nd September 2014

Monday.

First (official) day of autumn

Possibly.

And the first day of the invasion of the builders.



Yes, the builders arrive. This is a different set of builders from before, these are to apply the undercoat and top coat of the render, K-Rend, which will make the house waterproof and look lovely. Thing is, team A builders, who did the taking down, repairing brickwork and installing the new windows were totally reliable. You told them once something, and it was done. The B team, well, repeat, repeat and so on. Now, I have confidence, we have confidence in the work they will do, but it is a different experience for us. Mainly in that their work is powered by tea and tea alone. Head builder, Nobby, can her a kettle boil or two tea cups clank from a mile away.



Ok then, if you're brewing he will shout, so I make tea for the three of them.

Well, it helps pass the time when I could be doing something else, something else like watching and rewatching the highlights of the Leicester Man Utd game. It just wasn't funny enough first or second time around. That really is priceless.



I decide to leave the guys discussing how to begin, and walk to the cliffs and back. It is a warm day with lots of weak sunshine, so I take one camera with nifty fifty fitted and set off across the fields to Fleet House, then down the dip, up the other side and along the cycle path. The usual route, with the usual views. But there are changes: fields have been ploughed, the hedgerows are full of fruit, and the shadows longer. The year is getting old. Older.



Across the rolling fields towards the monument, and those are being harrowed, and huge clouds of dust are being thrown up as the tractor trundles along. I take shots just in case. Just in case they come out well.

I reach the cliffs, and take a seat on the bench near the edge. A cool breeze is blowing, and it is wonderful just to watch the swallows and swifts diving and swooping before they leave for Africa. France is lost in the haze towards the horizon, and there are very few people about now the kids are back at school.



I walk back along the same route, the hill on which the house stands comes into view, and I have to walk down the dip and up the other side. Once home I brew up for the guys and look at what they have done, the first wall is having the undercoat applied, and the guys seem to have applied it all over themselves. As well as being powered by tea, they are powered by roll ups, and discarded ones are appearing all over the garden. We will supply an ashtray for tomorrow I thinks.



I bake a batch of short cakes for them, and for Jools and I , in the afternoon, and they have one final cuppa and a cake before leaving for the day, leaving us with one wall, on one side of the house with undercoat, but this is progress. There is a promise of more tomorrow.



Jools comes home and we feast on unpasteurised French cheese and some old fashioned English beer, and all is well with the world. We sit outside as the sun goes down, and watch as jet lines fly overhead heading for destinations unknown. It may be simple, but we love it.