Last Monday we woke to snow! Not what we were expecting at all! Happily, by lunchtime, the thaw had set in and it was completely gone by evening. It has stayed cold, however, so, being a wimp, I haven’t done any tiling this week.

The lads have continued to get on with Joel’s homework, cementing up the window and door edges and cementing around the ends of the beams that support the roof. Joel’s back on Monday and is hoping to start replacing the roof this week, weather permitting. Nick and Kieran have also laid the pipework to drain some of the wetter parts of the garden into the well, so there are now even more big piles of soil and mud around the place; no doubt, one day, it will all be shovelled back into holes, or somewhere! They’ve also made a swimming pool for the goose, which she loves and spends hours diving in and doing somersaults in the water! It’ll be fine till she chews her way through the plastic liner.