Dambusters

70 years ago tonight....they made better men than me then.

Another day

The lads and I needed to get a move on today if we are to be ready to pour the pad on Monday...the weather as usual refused to assist.

May blitz

Much has been written about the effects of the Nazi blitz on London back in the early days of WW11 but because of the importance of London the devastating May blitz on Liverpool has gone sadly under reported. 73 years ago my mother as a young girl spent night after night hiding beneath the stairs in the family home or sheltering in the air raid shelter dug into the back yard. My home city suffered much physical damage (some still visible) and a great loss of life. My mums stories of unexploded bombs in neighbouring gardens and seeing bodies lying against walls apparently untouched yet dead from blast effects make any of my present day problems seem trivial by comparison. My grandfather worked right through the blitz in Liverpool's dockland, the veritable eye of the storm and yet never missed a days work regardless of danger even spending his spare time on the dockland power stations roof fire watching and extinguishing incendiaries......a tough people and a tough city.

Muck

We had our first decent spell of weather for what seems like a year or more and so all hands (large and small) turned to the digging and barrowing for the footings. After the usual palaver with the building control officer we should get the concrete poured today...jobs a good un!

Four makes the set.

Later this year my family is to expand yet again, if number 4 is as good as my other 3 little uns then I'll count myself blessed.The new baby has been named Bilbo Baggins by its brother and sisters, poor thing...fun times ahead.

diggety dig

All ready for the digger on Monday morning.....can't wait to get started, it's like having a giant toy set to play with.

ST.George and the kids

I could have done with St Georges help today trying to keep my three little chinglish kiddies still for a pic,  topping a dragon would have been a doddle by comparison. Anyway,enjoy, celebrate and for once be proud to be English on this our patron saints day.

Doodley do!

As you can see I have been practising my negligible artistic skills again in preparation for starting the bothy rebuild. When starting a project I have difficulty expressing verbally or visually just what I intend to see coming out of the ground much to the exasperation of everybody involved in the build process. The architect has the unenviable job of translating my gibberish into working plans for PP, plans that during the build I'm wont to change daily because I've just had another bright idea! The building control officer views me pretty much as a vegan faced with a 16 oz porterhouse, but I find the whole process including the battles with officialdom rather fun....it's amazing what you can come up with over breakfast with a scrap of paper and a biro.

A great lady

R.I.P. The blessed Margaret, God bless and thank you.

Out with the old

Out with the old and in with the new! The old Bothy is now palleted up and waiting to start life on the other side of the village. The new stone has been delivered (my version of flat pack) from the quarry with the first quoins already off the saw and being tooled ready for delivery  with the last pic showing the excess stone being bolstered to create rebates on the reverse of the quoins... and off we go,.happy days!

Tasty

My little girls decided to treat me today as they have been very concerned about my welfare as they can't understand why anybody would subject themselves to a Lenten fast.....who gives up chocolate? rice krispie chocolate nests topped with cadburys mini eggs seemed to the girls to be a suitable reward for my Catholic endeavours...God bless them.

One door closes

and another opens or so I've been led to believe.The last of my bothy will come down on Monday to be replaced by what I hope will be an impressive Gothic revival house....new adventures it seems lie ahead and I'm feeling game for anything the future holds.

spring

This is going to slow us down a little this morning as its rather slippy and some of those blocks that need handballing weigh 150lbs......the lads will be happy.

Stairway to heaven

A room with a view, drafty though.