All work and no play

When we arrived at 'work' at the MBH this morning we found things a little more mad and broken than usual. Part of the front of the house was now in the courtyard. This area of the courtyard, in front of our house, is where the neighbours' kids often play - sitting on our front steps - front steps now covered in huge lumps of plaster and ten inch square tiles. Happily (if the front of your house falling off can ever be called happy) it fell off very early in the morning, before anyone was up.

The first part of our working day was spent chasing people out of the courtyard so Mr B could bash the rest of the front of the house with a crowbar in case more wanted to fall off (it did). The plasterwork that has fallen has been pushed out by the roots of a small fig tree, growing up near the roof.

Later, more framing of the bedroom, shopping for friends arriving the next day, and more work on the house. Conor had to go back to the doctor as his cold/bronchitis has left him nearly deaf. More prescriptions, including a seemingly compulsory homeopathic remedy. Having this prescribed alongside a range of conventional medicines makes it difficult to know if the homeopathic one has any effect - but we'll try anything right now.

Very much later, we were outside watching quite the most violent thunderstorm I've seen down here. The storm, which started just as I turned the hose off from the evening plant-watering session, rumbled overhead until midnight with such flashes of lightning overhead that it was bright as day. We stood out under the covered bit on the end of the house to watch, with the rain pouring down. I did try taking some photos - but they were all a bit rubbish, so here's a shot of the view south. Our friends' journey from London didn't seem to have been at all disturbed by the weather, and they arrived just as the rain was beginning to ease off, and in spite of some slightly dodgy directions from me.