… with this idea that I might be able to finish this wall today.

You can see that the smaller pipe that will be the aeration for the composting toilet, that’s in place, but there’s no sign of the larger one that will be about 6 feet above it, and I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to do it.

I’ve come up against a solid lump of ironstone and while I was able to drill over half of the wall thickness, I didn’t even make 10cms today.

This lump has a triangular point that is sticking out right into the path of the core drill and the inside of the core drill has grounded out against it.

I’ve drilled all round it with a long SDS drill and I’ve been pounding away at the triangular lump with an SDS chisel and point, but the hole is too deep to do much good and the triangular point is stopping the chisel and point from having a good grasp of the rock.

What I can see me having to do is to grind off part of an angle-grinding disc so that it will fit down the hole, and I’ll have to see if that might do anything. It was really frustrating, I can tell you.

Of course you might be wondering why I don’t go in from the outside.

I must admit that at one time I was ‘arbouring thoughts about that but with not having a small arbour any more, I need to stand off the wall about 1 metre.

With this enormously heavy and powerful SDS drill about 7 metres off the ground on a ladder, you can see that it’s not really possible.

But I had another good night’s sleep last night with the fan going all night for a second time (it was 27°C up here) and the much-maligned and totally underrated Percy Penguin put in a rare appearance in my dreams. My subconscious is clearly trying to tell me something. And awake before the alarm went off, I was all set for a good day’s work on the computer – at least until Rob came around.

But just look at this. Those of you will remember that my good friend Liz died in March 2009 and I bought some fruit trees to plant in her honour.

What with one thing and another though, they’ve remained stuck in the buckets in which I originally planted them and so they are pretty cramped, but one of them has actually produced a fruit.

How astonishing.

But what else?

Ahh yes! When I knocked off I had a look at the water filters and, as I expected, they were choked solid with muck and all kinds of things.

Anyway, the sandbag, the puzzolane and the stainless steel filter have been thoroughly rinsed and cleaned, and the fibreglass mesh has been replaced.

Now it passes water even better than I do, and that is saying something.

All I need now is some rain. But not until I’ve finished this blasted wall, please.

In other news, there’s talk of a furniture removal from Le Quartier up to Gateshead in the very near future. I can’t really spare the time but I would really enjoy the trip.