Hot.

It's been the hottest day of the year, that's official - 27C in London, 9 degrees higher than the Med. It wasn't quite so hot here due to more clouds but it was still deliciously warm with a welcome breeze. If only we had more days like this but naturally it is due to change soon.

My first job this morning was to open up the kitchen fireplace so that I could take photos to show anyone viewing the house. There must have been a bigger gap than I thought between having the chimney swept and getting a 'cage' put over the chimney pot as there was quite a lot of sticks and nest material posted by the jackdaws. I took 4 full buckets of debris out of the fireplace not to mention what went up the hoover.

Eventually everything was cleaned up, such a shame that the builder broke the slate hearthstone when we had the new floor just after we moved in.

It was a good opportunity to give the Kilim rug an airing. It's now back in place with the flag of Rohan in front of it.

After all that dusty work it was good to get back outside to continue my beaver style cutting down of the tree. I did have a try with an axe because it does seem very silly to be carving my way through a tree but all those branches sticking out made access difficult and wielding the axe did not suit my back. So down I sat and chipped away.  I'm about half-way through which I'm happy with as today I was working on the harder heartwood.Because I was sitting down it was much easier on my back. I was a bit concerned about getting blisters on my hands but luckily the plasters I wrapped around my fingers under the work gloves did the trick.