Passionfruit flower.

One week on.

So...we have had another lovely weekend with Andrew visiting and yesterday Dave and Jen and the boys from next door came round for afternoon 'cheese'...(the World seems to be full of cheese these days!) The 'afternoon' extended into the evening with a 'jam' session with Will on whistle and cello, Dave on banjo, Jen on double bass, Andrew on guitar and me trying to pick out a few chords on mandolin.What a difference a week makes.

'Chook' and other news.

So...we are down to three chicks of the four that hatched. One sadly disappeared last Thursday. We suspect a crow or Butcher bird took it but the other three are doing well,'Doumu' one of our Pekin Bantams has gone broody and we kept taking the eggs away but she insisted on sitting in the nesting boxes so we have put 6 araucana eggs under her. Today we noticed she was sitting there with one eye shut.It seemed a bit infected so we bathed it with warm  water and dusted some antiseptic powder around it and it seems to be much better.In other news:We popped over to see our neighbours today. We have been so worried about them but didn't want to pester them or interfere since we had offered them any help we could give.They are still waiting to hear from the Insurance people about what happens next but have found that quite a lot of their things are salvageable. They were very upbeat as we sat and had a drink with them in their shed. The boys were watching 'Ghostbusters' on a TV and they appeared to have all they need set out around the shed/garage. They are actually staying down the hill at the moment in a house on the Amber Hill Winery which has, very kindly, been lent to them.I was worried that after such a trauma they might decide to up and move elsewhere but they are keen to rebuild/repair their house as soon as they can.I have felt sick all week with worry about them, that awful 'butterfly' feeling in my stomach but I feel much better now having chatted to them and seen how positive they are. We are so lucky to have such lovely neighbours. You could not ask for better.

"It's what?"

So...It's 'Happy World Teacher's Day'!"Bah Humbug!"

Painfully slow progress.

So...meanwhile back at the bathroom tower, today we continued to dig out the drainage trench. Without motorised equipment, like a Bobcat or something similar, these two middle aged men are having to do it by hand and using a spade no bigger than a child's beach spade.The trench needs to be deeper than the foundation trenches that we have already dug so that it can drain the rainwater away from the uphill slope behind the tower before it gets into the foundations. We have been chipping away at it but today pretty much got it finished.