It’s a beautiful evening here but it’s been somewhat marred by our work. We’ve made another batch of paving slabs tonight and there is no doubt we’re getting better at the job the more we do it. The latest batch we’ve released from their moulds is, without doubt, the best yet.

The trouble is that we’ve just done a measure up of the area we need to cover – 22.25 sq m and discovered that it’s going to take us 33 batches of slabs before we’ve made enough to cover this area. Given that we can only make a batch every other day we are a bit depressed to discover that it’ll take us until September to make enough for what we need. Fortunately we’ll be able to lay half of it before that because the area breaks quite neatly into two parts but even so, it’s a dirty job that’s going to take us what feels like forever.

It is in these circumstances that I decided a shot of those gorgeous rambling roses are just what the doctor ordered. How can such a sight fail to gladden the heart?