Just to prove that Gavin can actually make tea!!!

And so our babies are learning to fly and starting to have a look at the outside world. We had to put the screen up at the window to make sure the parents could get in and out and the local cats could not get in.

We now have five baby birds and the parents all flying about in our kitchen, while the little ones get strong and able enough to go off on their own.

It has certainly been a priviledge to be part of this process. It will no doubt be pretty quiet without them!!

We like to think that this is Dad just keeping watch on his fast growing family!!

Walls for ground floor rooms are now going up apace!!

A couple of these pictures were taken precariously from nearly the top of a long ladder balanced against the main truss beams holding up the barn (which will in due course hold up the upper floor!!)

We did not really intend having much of a kitchen garden (In France known as the Potager) this year, but I managed to clear some beds and so decided I might as well get on with it!! The soft trees are all settling in well and we will be having a great autumn crop of raspberries and some blackberries, which we are looking forward to!! I then had a couple of prepared beds with nothing in them!! A bit of a waste!! So we have also managed a few salad items and are about to enjoy our first tomatoes!!

We have also received some lovely homegrown vegetables from localfriends and neighbours in exchange for some of our eggs - now, to me, that is a really good deal!!

Hopefully you can see that the little guys are getting bigger all the time!! They are just about bursting out of their nest now!! I have loved having them with us and watching their progress, but think I will be glad when they have flown the coop as there is quite a bit of newspaper on the floor and cleaning up to do!!

And now we even have doorways!! Progress indeed!! And while I am sitting here writing this Gavin is starting work on filling the spaces between the door frames with the blocks that will make up the walls.

What a bargain!! These are each 1000 litres rain water storage units, which we plan to put under the terrace at the back of the barn to save rain water during the winter to use in the garden during the summer. We managed to get each one for one third of the original listed price!! We were thrilled. In fact, so thrilled that we actually drove all the way back to the store to see if we could get two more, but we were too late!! Hopefully there will be other opportunities for such bargains.

All the ground floor joists are now set out as they need to be and we almost look as if we have a ground floor now!!