The Barn Comes Down 9-11th Sept.

Gina in A Hard hat

Weather

It's been hot hot hot!! Summer's come at last, it's been a long wait but the last 3 days have been wonderful.

Builders and Extension and Barn

The builders have finally finished the guttering, soffits and downpipes and it looks super. We are just waiting for the walls and floors to dry out completely then the wooden floor can go in. Jim has to finish the bathroom tiling then the plumber can come and finish off. Phew!

Talking of plumbers and water (a bit tenuous), my washing machine flooded all over the floor on Wednesday! We managed to get it to empty very slowly then Jim and I manhandled it up into the car and Jim took it to a man we know in Ennis. He rang today and it is all fixed. The pump was completely full of rubbish. Tissues, sweet papers, nails, all sorts!! Oh dear. Anyway, all done with a new rubber in the door and a new emptying hose as the rats had chewed through that ages ago!

So yesterday the builders decided that they would start taking down the barn today. Jim and I spent the last few days emptying it, which was no mean task I can tell you. Barrow load after barrow load of 'stuff' had to be wheeled up to the newer barn. Plus 2 old cupboards and various shelving units. The top barn is very full. Still, all was done in time and today they took all of the corrugated iron sheets off half of the barn roof. It took much less time than they thought. They have also decided to come and work tomorrow - on a Saturday! So I will get to see it before I go off to the UK on Sunday early morning. I took some photos of today's proceedings.

This is rather a strange joiner of the barn, from the arboretum and the ex rockery on the left. Look at that sky!! Mediterranean blue.

Joe going past the barn window with the digger. It's a big beast!

This is the other side of the barn.

Martin starts taking of the first sheet of corrugated iron. Joe is standing below, but in the shadows.

Martin and Joe both removing the bolts holding the metal sheets.

This photo I took from the inside, just as Martin removed one of the sheets!

The barn looks so strange without a roof (or half of it).

Round the back of the barn, Joe dug a ditch in which to put some of the soon to be demolished barn:

The ivy covered wall is the end of the barn. Hopefully much of the stone and rubble will go in the pit Joe has dug, which will then level the ground between our previous back yard and the arboretum.

In the above photo you can see the new guttering and 2 downpipes at the side of the new extension. The rainwater from the downpipes runs down a piece of pipe which sticks out just to the left of centre of the photo, the orangey colour. The water then runs down the gully we have dug, down to where there is a pipe under the road and away it goes along the boreen (old track, no longer used).

Can you believe that our awful neighbours came up to Joe this morning and said that the pipe wouldn't do as the water would go all down to their house!! They also suspect it is grey water, not rainwater! They are paranoid about water from the previous occupants' antics, but we have done our best to make sure all the water goes under the road and away off the land. We may indeed have to deepen the gully a bit to make sure it doesn't run down the top of the road, but until it rains we can't see what it will do. In any event, it's our road!! Pete's parting shot was 'You'll be hearing from our solicitors'. Well, I only hope he does contact his poor solicitors and wastes his money for nothing.

This is the gully we have dug out and just below here is where it goes down the hole to the pipe and under the road. BlackJack came to see what I was doing!

Buster

Buster must be the softest dog out. If either of us goes out for a while he greets you like you've been away for a month! Jim had been shopping so Buster 'gave him some love'.

Then he decided to sleep on him! What a softy.

The Garden

We still have quite a few flowers out and some still coming out, especially with the sunshine we've been having. Here are some photos:
The Spring flowering Escallonia has decided to flower again.
The petunias are still flowering
A beautiful lilac cosmos.

Kafir lily in all its glory

This is where the biggest bunch of kafir lilies is.

Such a pretty pink and white fuchsia. It hasn't stopped flowering for weeks. It reminds me of ice cream.

A 'pink', rather late in flowering but it was hidden under another plant and I moved it to here.

The orange geum has had 2 sets of flowers. It's such a vibrant colour.

A coral colour dahlia. They, too, have flowered for weeks.

One of the cactus dahlia in the sunshine.
And a pretty little red one.

Jim has grown some annual scabiosa and they have just started to flower. They are in such pretty colours:

A stunning begonia is in with the tomatoes!
And this one

I had to hold this one up for the camera!

Jack in His Hard Hat

Jason took this rather splendid photo of Jack in his Bob the Builder hard hat. So not to be outdone, I got Jim to take these of me!!

Jason, you'll have to show him his Gran in her hard hat!

ATCs

I just received my 'P' from Lisa at artsyendeavours. P is for Platypus, beautifully painted in watercolours.


I have just done my 'T' for Texture. I am really pleased with this. It's the sort of thing we did on the textile course I attended in Worthing, UK.

I layered several different materials then heated them to see what would happen. I knew the cellophane on the top would melt and the red plastic with the 'T' on. Some of the net on the top right melted too. Such fun.

Barbecue

Tonight Jim and I had a little barbecue. It's the first this summer and probably the last! I took a few photos to mark the occasion. We had some lovely white wine, chicken and vegetable kebabs, sausages and bread and butter. Simple but delicious. We sat outside for quite some time. The sky was ablaze with stars too and we saw several satellites pass overhead.

What a super day we've had.