Yesterday I decided to get out. I have not been for a walk for some time, just sitting at home watching the rebuilding destruction and taking photos. I now have over 300 photos of how to rebuild a complete block and it gets depressing from time to time, especially when they cover my complete back garden with plastic to protect it from falling parts of masonary.

The idea was that they would begin on the West side this week, but it will now become Monday. Until Monday my lawn and plants, which are now developing and growing, would be slowly suffocating beneath sheets of plastic. The leader of the builder pack (a nice guy) said we could shift the plastic to one side until they begin. Shifting things to one side is not my thing, either-or and so I have removed most of it and put it in a nice little heap. I want to see how things develop in my garden. From my experience on the other side of the place, there will be just bits and pieces to remove. I am not prepared to sacrifice my lawn and garden with their solution of covering everything in plastic.

And now to something completely different.

Yesterday I took a walk again. It has been some time, and I have not been feeling so energetic. There are not so good days and better days, but I pulled myself together, mounted my walking stick and made myself on the way. I noticed this week that the new hen house is now in use at the nearby stables. The old wooden house is still there and in use, but now there is a more modern construction in fibre glass, with a window for the hens to see the outside world, and a free run for those that like to feel the grass under their claws.

I took a few photos of course. I can now get much closer to the action. This photo seems to be a discussion of the brown hens – are they the ones that lay the brown eggs?

There are also white hens (the white eggs?). Strange how they seem to get together in their own colours. Harold the rooster is not fussy. He now has two hen houses. Either he can go slumming in the old wooden house, or do his business in the new penthouse suite. I have never actually seen any babies, but probably Harold is so successful that there are too many to keep in the hutch.

You can buy fresh eggs from the hens, which I have never actually done up to now, but it would be an idea. After half an hour talking to the chickens I made my way home and it also began to rain, just a few drops and not very long. Yesterday evening the rain returned with revenge, and there was a storm lurking amongst it. We had torrential rainfalls, and it was very windy, but everything survived.

Today is week-end shopping time and I made my list yesterday evening under consultation with Mr. Swiss. My No. 2 son sent a message to say he was back in Switzerland, and had the worst flight he had ever had on his way back from Morocco. I will have to catch up on that the next time I see him. I am just glad that everything went well with his trip. Travelling to other countries today is not only an adventure, but a risk.

And to the background noise of pneumatic tools, I will now leave you until this afternoon. It looks like it will be a nice sunny day. The rain yesterday probably cleared the bad weather away for a while. See you later, no time for relaxing on one of my favourite benches on my walk yesterday, I have work to do – ok, I know, I am a golden oldie, so what’s the problem? I cannot just sit around doing nothing all day, I have a supermarket to visit and a vacuum cleaner to take for a walk.