More patio +++

Tomorrow morning* my builders are coming in and will be turning this patch of (not-so-very) verdant sward into a tiled patio. Why? Well, more a case of why not?

Apart from being a place to dump the water at pool cleaning time, it is just a patch that requires mowing and looking after - so we decided to get it patio-tiled to match the terracotta around it, but also to put in three semi-circular beds for the plants you can see, and a round bed in the centre which is intended to take my "new" lime tree.

There are a variety of other tasklets to be undertaken while they are on-site, but this is the main one. Yesterday the builder and his chief brickie turned up and quite subtly talked me into making the patio flat, rather than sloping as with the path in the lower part of the picture.

It does make more sense and will make the centre bed look better - and hopefully should only result in about 6" of a wall between the left hand edge and the sloping path by the wall. That´s the plan. I guess I will think it is a good one until the first time I trip over / fall off the raised bit (maybe a lurid yellow painted stripe as a warning?).

"We" are hoping to take the turf from the left hand side and re-use it in the "orchard" - more in hope than expectation, as the area has proved a plant-graveyard for years (but my new gardener has brought some evil stuff to help feed the grass and kill the spiders and weeds, plus some stuff to fumigate the citrous trees.) If he proves right on those issues, he could well end up maintaining my grapevine which has been neglected for far too long.

More to be reported as it happens.

+

I had mentioned to them the possibility of rain on Monday and Tuesday, but was assured it meant nothing to their work, but then

* Pouring down on Monday so they called and deferred the start. Shame they didn´t come at 1230 when it became beautiful for the rest of the day.

Then they called at 0735 on Tuesday saying it was likely to rain, so deferred to tomorrow (again).

Called and booked some firewood, but bloke called later and said they thought it would rain later, "so not today".

What on earth is going on down here? Are we going to get some biblical storm, or just the couple of hours of light drizzle shown on the weather apps?.

But then the woodman turned up - seems his whatsapp text had a few typos and my translation app didn´t spot them (!). Good job it wasn´t a spanish medical issue.

++ well, a week has gone by and all the turf has been removed (and relayed and trodden down and watered etc) and the rebar and cemnt went down all day Friday. Beneath that they installed me a tube between the pool-house and the "parcela" next door which will allow me to shove the water out of the way when I clean the pool - water that peviously went on the lawn. I even had to spray the concrete over the weekend as well as the turf because the weather was that good . Today we start on the real patio tiling, so more pictures anon.

This was (almost) close-of-play at 1530 on Friday. Timed to perfection for a 1600 finish.

Now mid-week of second week and it is taking shape

... and this is what happened to the old turf (needs some serious treading-in)

.... and while I was there, I heard a noisy bee on the grapefruit blossom