Some faces to put to the names

The Boss - Philius The Pool Builder!

This is wonderful Pat, who does my garden, paints my house, cleans my gutters and roof tanks and generally looks after me. He also has an enormous wooden spoon - but I've never heard him say a malicious word about anybody.

We have agreed that from 1st July he will give me one day a week and just do whatever needs to be done. It's very reassuring to know I have someone so genuine and trustworthy to call on if I need help with anything.

PoolSaga Day 3

Unfortunately they had dug out too much earth and needed to put some back.

A truck was therefore summoned to do this and deposited a load of earth to fill in the deficits.

I don't know whether this was MY earth coming back from where it had been dumped, or not!

It then had to be barrowed to where it was needed.

Once the depth and level had been sorted out the earth had to be rammed down to make sure it was firmly compressed, with a kind of jack-hammer I've not seen before.

(This actually happened on Day 4 but it seems to fit in nicely here!)

PoolSaga Day 2

The balletic JCB driver did not live up to his reputation on the second day. He lost control of his fiery steed and mashed up (how I love that expression!) my fence big time!

Philius has promised to replace it, making it sound as though I shall be better off because of the destruction of the original! Problem is that the dogs are not now contained so they have to stay indoors and be taken out on the lead for 'bathroom breaks' during the day.

However we have a huge, stepped hole! This is where trust comes into it!

They measured, pegged and marked out the area that the pool would occupy.

PoolSaga Day 1

This was quite a scary moment - the JCB taking its first bite!

I had now passed the point of no return!

The JCB (backhoe, as they say here) comes onto my land and extends his bucket arm to draw up the next few scoops of earth.

Philius (standing on left of backhoe) is giving advice. You can tell which is Philius in the following pics - he's the one who never gets dirty!!!

He dug out slices of earth with the small end and then turned round and shovelled the loose earth to where he wanted it with the broad end.

I was transfixed both by the flexibility with which he simply swivelled his seat round and worked with the other end of the machine and also by the almost balletic precision with which he could place the bucket or the plough - he could move a small amount of earth in a small direction in the way you or I would use a teaspoon to straighten sugar in a sugar bowl!

There were a couple of tree stumps on the perimeter of the area to be dug out and Philius asked if I'd like them to remove these.

One of them had been a diseased Jackfruit tree and the other a coconut tree which was taking all the light and water from a neighbouring avocado pear. I love avocado so had asked Dixon to cut both trees down.

The JCB dug up both stumps with ease.

This is Philius (with his back to us) and Gibbs doing some measuring up as the digging proceeds.

End of Day 1. Note the depth they've dug down to - the height of the van!

As they hadn't finished, they left the JCB here overnight. There was nothing to keeep it in - the fence was down - but it seemed happy enought to stay here until tomorrow.

Danger! Men at work!

This is Pat and his son Manches (I'm sure you don't spell it like that but I remember it as the beginning of 'Manchester'!) painting my roof. Manches is the one waving to camera.

Roof is finished. The red roof below is the porch over Marcella's front door. This, and the roof of the gazebo, will have to manage with primer only at the moment as I can't afford to buy any more green paint!

Spot The Difference!

Hasn't Pat done a superb job here? He's now just started painting the roof, which caused a little discord. He wanted to paint it red, but I thought it would look like a Meccano house so I've bought the same green colour in roof paint, much to Pat's disgust!

He's always winding me up but is a very kind man and totally, totally honest. He also seems to have green fingers - and not just when he's been painting! I'm really lucky to have him around.

It's occurred to me that probably the majority of people don't know what my house looks like so here's a shot of the front and garage.

The white paint now looks decidedly shabby and needs re-doing. The bargeboards, or whatever the term here is for the woodwork round the roof, plus the green at ground level, will be repainted the same colour as the gate pillars.

Bit of Tarting Up

Pat, who cuts my grass, has rubbed down my gates, which were beginning to rust, done them with rust-preventer and repainted them. He's done a really good job as it's very, very fiddly work - the underneath surfaces of every bit of metal have to be painted.

I decided it was time the pillars were painted too and Pat and I decided on green. I had to have the colour specially mixed as all the standard emulsions are pale coloured.

When the house is repainted all the trim is going to be in this same green.