Caught with a wall off

The weather forecast for the week, and thoughts of approaching winter, led us to cancel an outing and a Sunday showing of the red Harry Hall at the local cyclists' mecca Cafe d'Lune [sic] http://www.alexbarnes1653.webspace.virginmedia.com/cafe/  in favour of further work on the allotment. Ominous chinks of daylight that I'd seen through the west wall of the shed were a spur to action. Conscious that summertime was over, I rushed up to the plot while Jenni put together her usual gourmet picnic and brewed a flask of coffee.

I confirmed with the tape measure that if I incorporated two further double glazing units I had just enough fresh cladding timber to replace the decaying tongue-and-groove. Windows increased the complexity of the task, but we'd be rewarded with enhanced daylight and a westward view across Morecambe Bay, a bit like this:

Unfortunately the available glazing is only a fraction of the area of the fabulous aperture above, but we'd still get something of the effect.

With rain forecast overnight, tearing off the old timber was potentially over-committing, but I took a deep breath and did it anyway. Then we had a brief, idyllic interlude in the warm sunshine, feasting on the goat's cheese and gherkin sandwiches Jenni had made, hard boiled eggs, fruit and chocolate marzipan to go with the coffee.

Now the pressure was on to get the job finished before nightfall. Having planned out the next season's planting on paper, Jenni got on with painting the fence. Meanwhile I, designing, measuring, sawing and drilling, made rapid progress - but not quite fast enough. Darkness overtook us with everything cut to size and painted, new window frames constructed, but the cladding and windows yet to be installed. So I fashioned an emergency skin of cut-open fertilizer bags and hoped that this would be proof against the coming wind and rain - until the next promised break in the weather on Tuesday.