We finally worked our way down the stairs and filled in all the gaps between the 'A' frame. The plasterboard was filled and painted and the beams on the staircase were varnished. Done!

You might remember many moons ago that we began work on a hardstanding area for the fire wood. Well, after a lot of deliberation and shock on the part of our neighbour for the waste of good roof tiles, we decided to change our tack. Instead of using roof tiles alone to create the area, we used a combination of concrete and cut roofing tiles. The main hardstanding is in concrete with an edge of cut tiles which wrap around the garden edge to the stepping stones. So, here's some highlights of that little adventure. Incidentally the pics at the bottom show the original wood store, which was alongside the back of the house. That's all gone now and my willing, but foolish, brother and his wife are going to begin the construction of a brick path on that spot next week. Note, in the far left of the final shot is George having dinner. More about him below.

We'd agreed to give a load of old roof tiles to our neighbour, Roger..him of the shocked, 'i-don't-believe-your-wasting-them-tiles', episode. Anyway we'd brought a lot back from our mates' Ed and Malc after finishing their barn roof and realised they were in significantly better condition than the ones on our toolshed roof. So, we decided to replace those tiles with the better ones and give the old ones to Roger. Problem was that when we got half way across the roof we found that all the lathes were completely rotten and needed replacement. Needless to say we had to replace them and after a certain amount of badgering from Roger, also replaced the end chevron - which was a learning curve all of its own. Anyway we're happy to say that the job's done and it looks a lot prettier than before.

You might remember Mimi, who was recently mentioned in dispatches. Turns out that the weight we thought she was putting on happened to be a litter of three kittens. Anyway there was no mistaking the paternity and the three kittens looked like George in a selection of Mimi colours. She had them outdoors, which was a little precarious and lost a kitten when she was spooked by a local idiot neighbour who insisted on showing the three day old kittens to his grandkids. Finally, after three weeks, we brought the kittens inside and all are doing fine. In fact Mimi's suddenly realise she's got a babysitting service on tap and has taken to hanging out with the boys again, which is how we got into this mess in the first place. After the kittens are weaned we'll ask a friendly vet to put a stop to the kitten factory. Truth is I don't think she's got the constitution to produce another litter without doing herself some harm.

Our mate Moe came to stay for a few days, which we all enjoyed..I think. No, it was a really lovely week. We spent a few days finishing off the work we had to do and then had a weekend off seeing sites and having a lazy Sunday. Moe brought along a special friend, I think her social worker and mental health advisor probably recommended it as a form of therapy. Anyway his name's Kontinental Ken, he's about 25 cm high with a bad haircut and an interesting choice in knit wear. Moe and her mates take ken on holiday and take artistic pics of him in various locations - sounds like a recipe for a court case. It's a wide and varied world.