It’s the end of another day of hard slog – ten wheelbarrow loads of concrete mixed, poured and made tidy. DM said after we’d finished the job that we’d worked well together. My jobs were measuring the quantities of sand and gravel for the recipe and manning the mixer. I swear it’s just like making a cake but on a massive scale. You make sure the ingredients are in the right proportions then make sure the consistency of the batter is just right, then you tip it out! DMs job was readying the mixer for the next load by sloshing out, adding the waterproofer and measuring the cement. He then spread and tamped while I was loading up the barrow with the next lot of raw ingredients before he wheeled it up the garden to the mixer for me. That’s the bit I find most challenging. It’s heavy and it’s uphill.

It’s true to say that has not always been the case – he often says he hates working with me on projects like this because we shout at each other a lot. The reason is that he’s on the spectrum and likes every t crossed and I dotted before he starts whereas I start a job optimistically thinking that it’ll all work out OK in the end and if that means a bit of fiddling about in the middle then so be it. That drives him nuts.

The job is 2/3 done – the other part will hopefully be dug out and concreted all in a single day as it’s a smaller amount of work. Basically we are going to have to get it done in a day because the weather forecast is that the weather will break on Saturday so we must have the second pour done and the slab at least half cured before the rain comes. It’ll be covered over anyway but we need to give it a fighting chance of not being damaged by the change in weather.

So photo is step outside the back door, point the camera skywards, taking advantage of the glorious Hydrangea (October Bride) in full bloom coupled with the cloud formation and shoot. Shameless 3 and make no mistake it’ll carry on like this tomorrow if I feel as knackered then as I do now.