<img class="alignleft wp-image-3591 size-medium" title="Clive and the bat box" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-1467505214672-225x300.jpg" width="225" height="300" />

Today we decided to give the garden clearance a miss and build the bat box. Clive had a book that involved all kinds of research into the best design to attract bats. I'm sure someone got a PhD out of this because it is a real belt and braces construction. It took most of the morning to cut out the pieces and Clive has a barn full of every conceivable woodworking machine you could imagine. By mid afternoon (phew it was hot) we had a bat box ready to be positioned in one of the trees overlooking the terrace.

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<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-3593" title="The Barn" src="http://i0.wp.com/pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-1467505250215.jpg?w=1056" alt="" width="300" height="225" />The barn is superb, yes it's a junk hole but it's the kind of space we all wish we had. Lots of room on two floors for working, pottering about and storage. Oh so much storage space but of course you can never find anything. We had a lot of fun today.
<img class="wp-image-3592 size-medium alignleft" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-1467505235773-300x169.jpg" width="300" height="169" />

The best transport around High Horse is of course the Mule. This beast will drive up tracks I'd have trouble walking up. I drive the wider paths but I leave the very steep and winding trails to Clive. Some trails have shear drops on one side and can be quite intimidating to anyone new to Mule riding.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-1467523562359.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-3598" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-1467523562359-150x200.jpg" alt="wp-1467523562359.jpg" width="150" height="200" /></a>Today was Tricia's birthday. She really enjoys cooking so this afternoon she baked herself a birthday cake complete with "frosting" (that's icing to us colonials) which was absolutely delicious. Here we have Tricia and Clive preparing to cut the cake.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-1467523562358.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-3597" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-1467523562358-200x150.jpg" alt="wp-1467523562358.jpg" width="200" height="150" /></a>We sat out on the terrace after dinner drinking cool white wine and indulging in huge segments of scrumptious chocolate cake. It couldn't have been better if it had been my birthday.

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