Denise: J was out on in the garden all day Saturday and most of today, digging for the foundations for where we’re going to move the garden shop to.  The ground slopes slightly – enough such that the digging is quite deep at one end.  This part of the garden also doesn’t appear to have been cultivated for a very very long time, for the soil is poor in humus, compacted and very hard. The turf has gone on the compost heap, and the best soil has gone to fill in where the pond used to be – a lot of barrowing. Saturday was a lovely day, and today started fine, but by lunchtime the wind was getting up and the spits and spots turning into persistent rain. Eventually he had to give up, frustrated, as he really wanted to get that job done before the weekend was out, but he came in exhausted, wet and muddy: perhaps he should have stopped just an hour sooner. Since then the weather has deteriorated rapidly and we’re up to Severe Gale, the window glass bowing silently (they start creaking at Storm force, and start to cause alarm at Severe Storm!), and the roof creaking and even the internal doors rattling.  This is forecast to carry on for a day or two, but we’ll bide our time, and then finishing the work in the sun will be a real pleasure again. And it might even be nice enough to take a photo to show you a nice neatly dug rectangular hole in the ground!