Today Nick and Kieran have finished laying the new floor above the arrière cusine and bike shed; there’s still an awful lot of mess to clean up, but it was such a lovely day that Nick and I were allowed time off this afternoon to go out for a short bike ride.

We’ll have to buy another tarpaulin tomorrow, to drape underneath the roof tiles; most of the roof is already draped, but not above the newest bit of floor. To say it rained on Tuesday is something of an understatement; it came down in torrents of rain and hail, overflowing gutters and flooding the drive within minutes. That was when we realised that the roof above the boxes containing the new kitchen isn’t exactly watertight. So until the roof is replaced, a tarp will have to protect the new flooring.