Heatwave Blues

28, 29, 30 July

A final flurry of activity in the month as the temperatures ramp up to 40 degrees.  Dave was up at 7am filling and firing up the mixer and then fixing another ladder frame for the edge of the door, while I used the mortar he made to set a base frame for the other side of the door.  The area round the door is one of those Gant charts where certain things have to be done in the right order before we can progress with putting bales around the SW window frame:

Both frames in, but we were left with nearly a full barrow of mix, so time to finish the long-delayed plastering inside the SE window.  First the last two panels over the scaffolding above the right side of the window ...

 

 ... then we moved the scaffolding round and finished the East wall panels (almost finished, cos the last bucket ran out before the bald patches were done, but it was 10.30 am and the sweat was running into my eyes so that I couldn't see to plaster any more and anyway, Dave wasn't willing to make mixes in 40-plus temperatures).  

All this activity took three days, starting early and finishing before 11 when we just wanted to sit in the cool of the music room with a fan and lots of water.  Somewhere among all this we finally managed to order the second load of bales - another 80, we reckon, to finish.  Due next week.  The Greek crisis has pushed the euro down, so our sterling buys more now than it has done in 10 years.

Continuing the mad dogs and English people theme, we went to the post office by bike at lunchtime on the 31st, and had to have several beers to recover once we got there.