This week's sponsor is the Great Crested Newt. It is on account of the GCN, or possibly just a single GCN, that we have got on so well in the last few days.

It goes like this.

There's a bloke I know from work who specialises in restoring barns. He was cracking on at a site with several barns round a courtyard doing a very nice set of conversions, when someone saw The Newt. All work immediately came to a halt until the RSPCA or the RSPCN or whoever it is can come out to check that our newty friend is happy in his home and that the new development will not undermine his newtan rights. (I have a picture of him lying down in front of the builder's van like Arthur Dent in front of the bulldozers). Bad news for the barn converter, but good news for us because his very helpful apprentice carpenter has been freed up for a few days. He and R have been going hammer and tongs (hammer and nails actually) at the Heraklith render board and the house is gradually beginning to lose its blueness and take on a much more oaty colour, sort of like muesli without the interesting bits in it. The following are a whole load of self-explanatory and probably quite boring photos taken since Wednesday, interspersed with some slightly more interesting shots of the arrival of the lime render. The plasterer comes on Monday, he'll be here about two weeks and after that we can take the scaffolding down and THEN the house will look something like!