The sound of silence...

Colin's post on his 'Black Redstart' house guest meant me not posting a similar thing last week. We had them nesting in our barn, so when I went off to Paris last Thursday I left the barn doors slightly ajar so as the young birds could be attended to. The reason for posting now is that on my return I missed the activity and sharp call of the birds that had greeted me on a daily basis for the last week or so.Could the young all have flown the nest in the time I was away? Or had David's cat played a part in their destiny? Unfortunately I could not get up to check the nest as a friend of mine (you know who you are) has my extending ladder out on loan.

In the days before I left for Paris I had made a number of attempts to catch one of them on camera - with little success - quick little birds! 

Here is one of it just having left the top of the lucarne...

 here is one of it just having left the top of the barn door...

here's where it sat on the inside of the door,although not long enough!

Ah got it at last - hope the cat didn't! 

We progress

 After a week of no progress due to the weather, work on our barn roof has moved on a pace.

Today, Monday should see the front re-tiled using the salvaged old tiles before commencing with new tiles on the rear..It is important to maintain as much of the original appearance and authenticity as possible - I would have actually liked to see  a new roof with some undulation built in but can understand the difficulty  in achieving this look!

Raising the roof...

While we were away in Scotland work started on replacing our barn roof at our Barrou house. David,our neighbour was kind enough to take some photographs for us in our absence.

Bad timing?

The timing was slightly unfortunate as it was no sooner removed than the heaviest snowfall we'd had in years started!

So before they could start to put up the new roof they had to clear all the snow from the first floor. They continued to work in sub-zero temperatures to get the frames up so they could get a cover over it as more heavy snowfalls were predicted.

It was a good decision as no sooner had they the covers on, that more snow hit!