Down to earth

After our lovely weekend, it was back down to earth with a bump and I spent what felt like all day mixing plaster. The heat here means we have to mix small quantities so it can all be used before it turns to rock in the bucket (after about 20 minutes). Not having a ready supply of water, means that we have to wait until the plaster goes solid and can be knocked out of the bucket, rather than rinsing it out when the bucket is needed again. This means we need a lot of buckets...

There was some more painting - meaning our 'kitchen' (it will lose its inverted commas when it has more than a drain pipe and oven extractor tube in it) now looks a bit more civilised. Once the plaster Mr B did in there today has dried and can be sanded and painted it will look even more so. Meanwhile, there was more painting in the living room, highlighting a few problems requiring specialist paint products.

It being the last week of term, the kids have little homework, so our evenings can be a bit more relaxed. Katherine is supposed to be revising for tests at the moment, but claims to know it all already and as she seems to be doing well in all her other tests, I can't really argue with that. So, I continue to struggle through the Princess and the Pea in french with Conor (why did I ever pick such a sappy story?) but am relieved to be done with Groupe Nominal Sujet for now.

This is the view from the back of the garden. The colour of the soil here is bewitching just now, not more so than in the early evening light with long fingers of shadow heralding night. Still wonderfully warm here, warm enough for dinner outside if we were so inclined. But we've gone native, and are not.

There are very very many backblips for you to check back through if you like. There's no particular good reason for the backblips, save that I've been tired after my labouring job every day and also my computer is used as a telly most evenings. But I know that's a bit lame, so I will try harder....