I've become accustomed to being woken at 7 a.m. and the screech of the cement mixer all day but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the acts of vandalism being perpetrated by the builders.
The glass in all the old windows and doors which we were saving to use as cold frames has been smashed and thrown all over the lawn. They've also smashed an old Godin wooden stove, all my terracotta pots which were sitting on a wall out of harm's way and the old loo. It's partly our fault that we didn't move these things to safety, but we didn't expect them to be deliberately smashed up.
They've stacked up the shuttering against the fragile wire fence where I've been trailing a vine for six years (just feet away from some iron railings where you'd expect heavy shuttering to be stacked!) and broken it, so I'll now have to cut it right back to replace the fence.
In addition to breaking the remote for the crane, they've also broken BB's chainsaw and again returned it without saying anything. And one of the builders has engraved his name on the side of the crane with a nail.
I can't sit still when they're here now and I spend all day pacing and looking out the window, waiting to spot the next act of destruction. I've just planted out my seedling sweet peas and sunflowers (which I've been growing in a propagator for the last six weeks) - dangerously close to where they're working - and if I see them being trashed I think I may just go and get Poire's gun! There's only one major job left to do - the staircase down to the basement - which should be done in the next couple of days then a bit of finishing off and they will be gone for good.
The glass in all the old windows and doors which we were saving to use as cold frames has been smashed and thrown all over the lawn. They've also smashed an old Godin wooden stove, all my terracotta pots which were sitting on a wall out of harm's way and the old loo. It's partly our fault that we didn't move these things to safety, but we didn't expect them to be deliberately smashed up.
They've stacked up the shuttering against the fragile wire fence where I've been trailing a vine for six years (just feet away from some iron railings where you'd expect heavy shuttering to be stacked!) and broken it, so I'll now have to cut it right back to replace the fence.
In addition to breaking the remote for the crane, they've also broken BB's chainsaw and again returned it without saying anything. And one of the builders has engraved his name on the side of the crane with a nail.
I can't sit still when they're here now and I spend all day pacing and looking out the window, waiting to spot the next act of destruction. I've just planted out my seedling sweet peas and sunflowers (which I've been growing in a propagator for the last six weeks) - dangerously close to where they're working - and if I see them being trashed I think I may just go and get Poire's gun! There's only one major job left to do - the staircase down to the basement - which should be done in the next couple of days then a bit of finishing off and they will be gone for good.
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We're eating a lot of asparagus at the moment, but even in season it's expensive - €11.90 a kilo in our nearest shop. The restaurants in this region serve it with a vinaigrette sauce with chopped boiled egg on top. I like to eat it steamed, with anchovy and lemon butter (knob of butter, chopped anchovies, squeeze of lemon and some dried chilli if you like a kick) or roasted with garlic, cherry tomatoes, black olives and some olive oil.
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