Getting hot but yes it's August

Hot sun all day today. First thing, though, while it was still cool, I went for a run - just the short loop round by Lestrade de Gales - it was the first time for I'd guess nearly a year. I can't say it was a real pleasure actually out pounding the roads, but it was nice when I'd finished. I'll give it a day or so before going out again.

My first job was to prop up the peach tree. It's now slung from the wall of the barn, using the now redundant electricity barckets. The slings didn't seem quite enough, so I cut a heavy crutch in the woods, and that's also holding it up. It's now just about possible to get in the door without bending impossibly low. Regrettably while coming down the stepladder, a brief wobble led me to speed up my descent, and I cracked my knee on the ladder quite painfully. What have stepladders got against me?

Then I grouted the tiles I'd put in yesterday and afterwards went to have lunch with Tony and Anne. Cheese souffles and nice chilled rose. We commiserated ourselves about the absence of M Goutel and the lack of progress on our respective bits of joinery: T&A are having to put up with some fairly rough temporary handrails on their stairs and balcony. But I think there's a good chance of getting Mr G back and working after the 21st. We'll see.

In the afternoon I shifted the patio tiles off the patio ready for work to start putting them down. It now really looks like a dauntingly large area to cover, but maybe that's just because it's so hot today.

Here are the tiles as they are today.



The picture makes the area to be done look fairly small, but in fact it's about 25 square meters. And ideally it would all be done at the same time (for better cohesion of the mortar bed), so I'll try to get all the preparatory work done, and the sand and cement in place, before starting up the mixer. But when I do the upright ones round the edge I should also be able to do the cut stones by the main door first, as these too need to be glued rather than cemented. That'll give a slightly smaller area to cover.