Living in a cave

Ok, chums - today you could have had moonrise (wonderful), a huge tree of golden broom (also wonderful), a very muddy spaniel (funny, to see a dog with a commando face) - but no: today I give you the ruination of my sitting room this morning. By the time I took the photo, the builders had carefully cut out a big rectangle of plaster down to the laths and found the cause of a large damp patch that appeared while we were in Russia last year and which has resisted any attempt to remove it. A great pile of rubble had fallen down inside the wall and got jammed at the corner of the fireplace, catching on the original lintel stone which forms part of the gable end wall of the building.

By the end of the afternoon, they had bagged all said rubble and removed it, leaving the wall patched with plasterboard, which they will plaster over tomorrow. The fireplace will then have to be replaced and the gas fire re-plumbed in.

I can't actually believe it's all going to work, and there will be no redecoration possible before next week. Then we have to move all the furniture back ... and I haven't even begun to mention the dust ...