An even better day today - we finally got electricity!! Also broadband. And we are considering a new and different wall system... This is perforated clay blocks, which fit together with a very thin mortar like glue, go up like babies' building blocks and have built-in insulation. Reasonably green and sold by the likes of Natural Building Technologies (as Ziegel blocks). The thing about them is that they are already used extensively on the continent, in places like south Germany so we would not be trialling a new system.

In Britain we have become obsessed with the need for cavity walls but the more I look at it the more I think this is something from the past (need to avoid driving rain getting through the old solid brick walls) and that there are a number of good non-cavity alternatives.

Again, we await the price. I expect them to be more expensive, possibly quite a lot more expensive, than concrete blocks. But the house walls could go up in a week, so we'd save on bricklayers' labour.

I promised a photo of the robin. The birdtable, outside our kitchen window, is a social centre, especially when I put bread out. What is it about birds that they much prefer white bread to good wholegrain bird food? Anyway the robin was there and I took these photos but on account of my camera packing up they were taken with my phone, so not very good quality. You can get a good view of the site though and I'll keep taking pictures from the kitchen window so you can see the progress.

Foundations - we have a bloke to do these, he comes with good recommendations. We are looking at the piles going into the ground in about six weeks. Wahey!!

I am planning a sort of bird hotel along that old brick wall to the right of the picture. The BBC has a good website http://www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/nestboxes/ which tells you how to make them.


There really is a robin on this table! Honest.