Goodbye woodburner!

The chaps who were installing the new fire arrived, Archie 'welcomed' them, but not with as much noise and clamour as usual. In fact, he was fairly subdued. Could it be that he's getting used to workmen in his house? (He should be - there have been plenty of late).

One of the chaps drew the short straw and had to get up on to the roof to push down the new chimney liner. And he knew what was going to happen - he was attacked by marauding seagulls, protecting the chicks, who are very big by now. What a racket! I could hear them sqwaking and screaming at him. He said that the chicks were quite big, and they took off running away, and a couple of them ran right over the edge at the back! We went to look, and there was one lying in the neighbour's grass, not dead, but possibly a bit stunned.

It's all set for the gas man to come tomorrow to install a new pipe. They seem to think he can crawl under the floorboards if necessary ('Plenty of room...')

Archie and JR escaped for a while to Midmar Paddock and the Hermitage, while I made numerous cups of coffee for the workers - they didn’t stop for lunch.

Archie's looking a bit puzzled here - Where's the table? Where's the rug? Where are the paintings? Where's my chair by the window so that I can see out? A few more days of disruption, Arch. Painters coming on Thursday.