Building a new house

Over the last few days we have noticed that the maize crop has been disappearing from a lot of the fields in the vicinity, and this morning I had an inkling that today could be our day. So in the early morning light I took a couple of snaps to remind us of how enclosed part of our garden had become over the summer. And then, late this afternoon, we heard the noise of machinery in the field, and a glance from our upstairs window revealed three tractor/trailer combinations, together with the cutting machine, badged as the Forage Cruiser, at the gate to the Hendrerwydd lane. We admit to considerable apprehension as the beast approached our fence, but we need not have feared. Expertly driven, it took a swathe of corn, including the line of plants which had grown immediately next to the fence. No damage to the fence! The driver was equally careful in removing the crop to either side of our projecting garden: In a first for this blog, here is a little clip of the beast on the move: Soon, the...

We are getting very used to living here now, and are enjoying doing so very much. Not everything is finished (when is a house ever 'finished'?)  and we have a race against time with the Building Control Regulations, but our builder's concentration is obviously on other jobs at the moment. I have put bathroom cupboards up in Man Utd, Man City and Celtic (deep breath needed when drilling through the tiles); and built and painted curved shelves to fit in the cloaks cupboard and, hopefully, solve all of our shoe storage issues. Pat came briefly ten days ago and marked out the rough position of the path from the gate to the front porch. This will be resin-bound, whereas the rest of the front area will be loose gravel. Nothing further to report yet, though. We had a delivery of 'railway sleepers' with which I will build a couple of raised beds for veg and fruit production. No need to go the gym having moved them from the front boundary. I used a couple of hundred metres o...