This is day eleven of The Siege.

Or day nine if you’re only counting work days.

They’ve done a lot of work all right. They woke me at eight the other morning with a fierce racket out on the lane. There was a lot of heavy machinery doing something that actually make the house shake. It’s probably the most shaking it has had in its couple of hundred years but still no cracks have appeared.

I investigated once I had dressed, had my mugs of tea, smoked a couple of pipes, made sure Herself hadn’t wandered off during the night and mopped up several lakes that Penny had kindly donated around the kitchen. It seems that they have dug a deep trench up the middle of the lane. Most of the material they had extracted seemed to have ended up in a small mountain just outside my gate. Truly the siege had started.

Later that afternoon I went out to see what was in the trench. It was gone. There was just a line of gravel up the middle of the lane and a new manhole [personhole?] where there hadn’t been one before. The Gaffer was strolling up the lane while I was leaning on the gate so I asked him if they were finished. Apparently not. They have yet to remove the lane in its entirety and re-lay it. Bugger!

Since then there has been no sign of them. I know they are around as I hear the odd sound of heavy machinery every now and then but they seem to be up to something at the top of the lane. I don’t give enough shite to go and investigate. I went down to the village for a coffee instead.

It’s blowing a gale outside today. It’s one that slipped in anonymously before the Met Office could name it. They missed a trick there. The work is still going on. Today they seem to be practicing their reversing as there are lots of beeps modulating the howling of the wind. I’m still free to come and go should I so wish.

I think I’ll shampoo the carpets instead.

They’re beginning to stink again.