It would have been a lovely day to go for a ride with the cycle club, but with rain forecast for tomorrow, we thought it better to get on with the garage.

So Nick cemented the ridge tiles in place while I lasured the fascia boards and Kieran attached the guttering. Then the lads hung the first of the garage doors and left me to lasure that, while they took yet another trailerful of rubble to the tip and collected some firewood from a neighbour.

We had a heap of wormeaten wood to burn, so ended up eating our starters around the bonfire; watermelon picked from the communal garden and chestnuts, collected just down the road, roasted over the fire. Who could ask for more?!