Friends and family regularly ask about our progress with the barns and we rather embarrassingly have none, that is to say physical progress at least. We mumble and mutter about our bat and bird survey and relate our difficulties with co-ordinating our structural engineer, architect, planning officer, builder, mortgage company and solicitor, and frequently find that the only statement that registers is "Battenburg survey! What's that?"

The short answer to  our progress question is that all our planning conditions have now been discharged so we are in the clear for building. Hoorah. A Mexican wave all round. All we need now is the mortgage to be granted, the building insurance to be set up and the builder to appear on site and get cracking. Surely that's not too much to ask after 18 months? (Ironic rhetorical question).