54) The cold continues.........

Neil makes a hole in the roof for the first skylight (in my studio)

A couple of inches of snow and all our artisans disappear like snow before the sun.  No electricians or plumbers this week, but it has allowed our English builder, Neil, to get on with fitting the Velux skylights (with me standing in as builder's mate).

A rather proficient builder's mate

You will observe that on the first day (top picture) there was a lot of snow on the roof.  By the second day most of it had blown through the hole into my (soon-to-be) studio.

The tiles are removed in preparation for the skylight in my studio

It was unbelievably cold, with a wind chill factor plunging the temperatures on the roof to levels where frostbite became a real possibility (it was minus 16 C on the Wednesday).

On top of the world (or the roof at least)

Still, we were undaunted, and it was very beautiful up there on top of the world........

Still smiling, even at minus 16 C

Once we had one in there was no stopping us, despite the cold.  By Thursday all three skylights were in - one in the studio and two in the landing.  And what a difference it makes........

53) The Big Freeze

It's very beautiful but........  The gritter lorries have not yet done our road so we are more or less stuck.  Yesterday we ventured out but we got stuck on the drive on the way back.  Luckily we have copious quantities of wine and also a reasonable amount of food.

The ice pattens on our bedroom window are also very beautiful, but we are beginning to get rather bored with the cold - this will be the third winter we seem to have been constantly fighting a battle against the a lack of heat.

........ and it's not just the isolated pane that has ice on it , it's the whole bloody lot.