Joel, our builder, came round last week to see the plans for the inside of the house, take measurements, etc. I had misunderstood when I thought he was going to start in October; he’ll start at the end of the year, unless we have a very wet October and we’re ready to go. So it’s all hands on deck now, to get the preparation done in case it rains a lot next month. Kieran’s broken up all of the concrete floor in the grange with a noisy breaker-thingy, so we’re ready to start removing it. Hopefully a local farmer will want at least some of it and the rest will go to the tip.

Of course, this involved emptying the grange, Kieran’s motorbike parking up to now; he’s thrilled with his new, clean garage area – my arrière cuisine!

But Sundays are rest days, the mornings anyway; so I went walking and Nick went out on his bike this morning. He hadn’t gone very far when he thinks his wheel got caught in a rut in the road on a fast descent; it pulled his handlebars sideways and sent him spilling across the tarmac. He’s removed a considerable amount of skin from his leg, hip and shoulder; yes, the same side as always, which has already sustained a broken hip and bears the scars of several tumbles. His new shorts and favourite jersey will have to go in the bin, along with his helmet, which is well scuffed and broken internally. But it could have been a lot worse; typical Nick, he cycled the 10miles home!