Old and new roof

Yesterday the guys finally - after all the unusual weather - started laying the tiles on the roof - gronde, embrici and coppi. There are nine of the big flat tiles to a square metre and they weigh a lot. Amazing precision in the  work and a joy to watch - slightly giddily from the roof above one of the new skylights which acts as the access now the big copper gutters are up.

The tiles - from Pratigliolmi in the Arno Valley near Florence - are given a coating of different finishes to age them artificially before firing. You can see the old round coppi in an extra. Legend has it that these used to be shaped by the women tile makers on their thighs.

Under the roof Emmanuele was tackling the worst room for his marathon scraping and rubbing down the old chestnut planks (another extra). It is an awful job. We finally agreed the colour for the restored shutters that he is doing for us.

Later the plumbers came to fix the fixtures for the hot water solar panels - this led to a roof top conference as the finer details of the placings and spacings with the tiles were discussed (see other extra).

These guys all work so hard and with such skill. At one point there were eight men on site.

I got on with a bit of planting - autumn onion sets and shallotes that still seem sound. GL put the fear of God into me when he talked about the porcupine's predilection for potatoes. This led to a last hour before driving back to The Boss of fence mending where there is a particular threat of boar intrusion.

The artisanally made post-hole digger I bought - sharpened to a fine edge - proved useful.

We are both very tired. The building works have been going on in this unusual winter and spring for three months.