On Monday 23 October - at last! - Robertson's Building contractors began work in earnest on our new Ladies' Guest House, to be known as St. Joseph's.

The site had already been prepared some weeks in advance: now the men and machines moved in to dig trenches for the actual laying of foundations.

Within this site runs an underground tangle of pipes and cables of all sorts. In order not to disrupt any of those, some of the digging had to be done using compressed air and water, with the waste earth sucked up by a vacuum machine.

Behind our Wood Chip Store cum Tractor Shed another site is being prepared, suitably Southwards-facing, for the installation of a set of solar panels, which will be connected to the new building.

From all appearances so far, there can be no doubt whatever of the professionalism and competence of all involved in this project.