For the past couple of months, we have been anxious as we watched a bulge develop high on the chimney wall, with cracks appearing too. In early February, we contacted a large local building company, asking for a visit and quote, and to their credit, they were out very quickly to have a look, do the professional sharp intake of breathe and muttered "merde", and produce a quote in 24 hours. Since then, there has been an even more anxious wait until they got any necessary permissions and the weather was suitable to do the work.
At the beginning of last week I was told Wednesday - phew! Except no one turned up on Wednesday. Thursday morning, 8am, there was a knock on the door, and while scaffolding went up outside, a mason came and checked the attic for any sign of internal bulges. He disappeared, and at 9:30am, when the scaffolding was up, so did the scaffolders! It was very grand scaffolding we thought.
At 10:30am, really serious noises started, and tucked away in my little office, I could hear drilling, banging, the odd crash and rumble. We had all this (apart from the drilling) 16 years ago, when we had that facade repointed, an intervention where it took a whole day to get the scaffolding up. What was missing this year was the odd cry of "merde" from the artisans. Then at midday it all want quiet again, as they left for lunch. So I ventured out to see what had happened, not expecting to see this!
They were back just before 2pm, so John had a word about what they could see in the hole in the wall, then the afternoon was taken up with the faint hum of a remarkably quiet mixer and odd sloshing sounds. At 5pm they were gone, although the scaffolding was still there, but by 9:30am on Friday morning, that too had gone! Now there is a very tidy patch on our chimney wall and one of these days we will feel brave enough to light the fire again (that wasn't a hint, John). More importantly I don't dread seeing a pile of masonry in the road every time I turn into our road!
I left the trail camera where it was last week, in the hope of better badger footage, but it is clear they are settling into a routine of using the path to go somewhere important and not stopping on the way. The only interesting video was a cat defecating on the badger path, the interesting bit being that we don't recognise the cat! So the camera has moved, and there was just the one nice badger shot to show for the week.
Other wildlife of interest was spotting spawn (frog, toad or newt - impossible to tell) in one of the ponds, but clearly near to hatching, as two days later it was just empty casings left to provide food for whatever needed it. The hares are also out and about. The fuzzy shot was taken while a cat stood on my shoulders watching the hare, which was a good 30 meters away. The hares come through the Meadow and Orchard too, but not where I had the trail camera set up - it's nice to see them around. Clause, the biggest of the cats and bigger than many dogs of my acquaintance, is terrified of the hares!
Those photos are out of order - first is the empty spawn, then the viable, then the hare - editing the image galleries is a perilous exercise on a Sunday! But to make up for that, here is a happy picture of narcissi, which are particularly lovely this year it seems to me.
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