Two down, two to go ...........

This week sees wall No. 2 painted (well almost!); we haven't been able to paint the gable end in the lime green colour as it was impossible for us to reach high enough on the scaffold. The task itself was extremely difficult, didn't take as long as expected but may well need a little tweaking!! We have to decide whether to admit defeat with the opposite ended gable as we would need to use 3 tier scaffolding and there is no chance whatsoever that either of us can "man up" enough to attempt it!! We may have to scout around now to find a painter who will be willing to paint just one wall and colour in a gable end!!!! Painting the back of the house has been "put on hold" till next week as we have turned our attention and are subjecting our backbones to more arduous work on the garden project!



We have also managed to get tied up a few outstanding jobs this week with the help of our friends. A local guy from the next village came to uproot an olive tree stump which was intruding on our patio space. He had to achieve this from the lane as the gate entrance is too small to drive the machine onto the garden. With no centimetres spare he was just able to reach and dig out the stump but "Oh no" we cried out, as the digger caught hold of the mains water pipe into the house and raised it up by about 3 feet. After weighing up how to right the situation he managed to address the problem by clouting it with a mallet until it resumed its normal position in the ground. So all is ok there!!!!!




The next loose end was for the guy to come and chain saw down the top of the orange and lemon tree which he duly did today, no safety gear required!! I'm sad to lose the beauty of the tree but it was far too big and well out of hand, apparently the tree is about 150 years old, More orange juicing and lemonade making for me with all the fruit we have taken off it, the lemons are unbelievably sweet!!!!



We will give you an update of our "back-breaking work on the patio" in a few days time as I am in dire need now of some food and then its a trip down to our local to watch Portugal hopefully get through to semi-finals!!!