Où est l'été maintenant

Well, we're not sure where summer has gone - we reckon it's so appalled by the quality of the UK's EU Referendum 'debate' that it's pushed off until it's all over.

Anyway, the amount of rain we've had in the last few weeks has been a bit of a shock.
​Having boasted about how wonderfully sown and prepared the vegetable beds were we have now watched them gradually get washed away and flood ... even the 'toughie plants' like courgettes seem to have succumbed:

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Oska has not been sure whether the swimming pool is 'the pool' or whether there are other alternatives now:

But, as there have also been hot days, so it has been quite humid and some of the shrubs and plants are thriving and the delicacy of the colours is beautiful:

Right, that's enough Fotherington-Thomas 'poesy' - let's talk newts.When preparing the swimming pool and checking the skimmer baskets we found a lovely newt, apparently in good shape - so, we took him out to check he (or indeed, 'her') was really OK:

He seemed fine, so we took him to the pond and tried to take a 'photo ... but he was far too quick and flicked into the water and swam away. So, back to the pool cleaning - and then there, in the second skimmer basket, was newt 2 ... or 'Issac' as he now known (come on, you're being a bit slow ...). Issac was more amenable to being photographed and we got a good picture as he lay in the pond shallows before he too flicked himself into the deeper water and swam away:

We think they are the common smooth newt - well, they may be 'common', but it was nice to see them.  We will keep an eye out for them in and around the swimming pool - but it is not a chlorinated pool, so a short spell in the pool water does not seem to harm them. 
​Isaac said he's voting to stay in, by the way.
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Hot Update

Well, the main news these last couple of weeks has been 'bread oven progress'! Our two young neighbours, Remi and Charlie, turned up a few days ago to start work on cleaning inside the oven - which involved climbing right inside ... and a lot ​of dust:

Then work could start on renovating the bricks, securing any loose ones and making sure the curved roof was in good order:

It turned out that the more we looked, the more it was clear that the brickwork was in a very good state and the shaped floor and roof, and the air inlets were ready to go after comparatively little (if very dirty!) work:

So, the next job was to collect some kindling - very dry vine branches and various sizes of oak chippings. The key thing was whether the air was circulating correctly .... at first the little fire was a bit sluggish - lot's of smoke:

But then, the smoke lifts and forms an arch over the fire, against the roof and the flames get going in earnest and you can immediately feel the heat, even with this small amount of wood alight:

Each day now we'll light a fire in the oven, gradually building up the size. This will acclimatise the brick and stonework to the heat. When the full fire is lit it will reach @ 425 degrees centigrade - the optimal temperature for pizza making. If you want to know more about bread ovens and making and baking pizza there's a great website at ​www.traditionaloven.com// 

​So, we'll do our next blog post in celebration of BruelFest 2 at the end of June and hopefully you'll see the pizza oven in action and Bruel's first pizza margaritas being relished!

In the meantime, please have a think and vote to stay in the EU and then support how the UK may co-work to bring about the changes that are needed. Isaac knows you know it makes sense .......