New Friends

Jack has developed a liking for straw.

And roofing continues at a fairly slow pace. I have discovered that I don’t really care for it, as an activity. Unfomfortable, fiddly, awkward and slow. But I have the hugest roof in history and there’s really nothing to be done but keep going.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you all about massive f**k-up number 37-46b, where I didn’t allow for any particular valley system in my roofing, so we had to design our own. St Andy and St Antony helped design it, and it involves a continuous gutter of flashing tape down the valley, followed by sheets of DPC laid between courses of tile, which are cut to as-close-as-possible meet down the middle of the valley.

Cutting the bastards is difficult except with my tile saw, which is either going to mean setting it up on the roof or endless trips up and down the ladder. But it does seem to work. And thanks very much to Chris who came and helped on this most thankless of tasks.

My newest friend David, who works at the builders’ merchant downtown, finally came up to see the place and took the opportunity to show off his rather lovely hammock, designed and made by a friend of his. It is a rather niftily designed piece of kit, packs down to almost nothing and is very easy to put up and take down.

And finally, here are some of the people who’ve been staying this week for a lime rendering course across the valley. They were busy most of the time, so they didn’t have much energy left to do work at mine, but I hope they had a nice stay and I hope they’ll come back.