Our Guests Arrive.

My oldest, Kimbo, arrives tomorrow (Dover willing), and will stay for a week or so.

He has booked himself into 'The Tower' (I know it's not a pukka tower, but we call it that anyway).

It has no electricity; light comes via Candles. It is a very peaceful room with big glazed double doors that look out over perfectly tranquil countryside. Kimbo loves it.

The interior is very basic. One bed, a cupboard, a couple of mirrors, and a few candlesticks. The beams are Oak, and the floor is of hand-made thick rustic 20 by 20 cm terracotta tiles. There is one side window which looks out over the front of the house, an oval oeil de boeuf  window behind the bed, and a faux Arrow Slit window (which I made).

I do remember some twit saying to me that building our Tower where we did would ruin the garden. In fact it's made it into a far more interesting lay-out. I cannot now imagine life without it.

We built the tower ourselves. I had a builder do the basic foundations and build block walls to a certain height. Then I continued the walls upwards, put in the extremely heavy ceiling timbers, built the decorative genoise, constructed and tiled the roof. I plastered the interior and rendered the exterior. It was hard work, and we learned as we went along.

And this is the corner that you can see in the mirror above.

It was a fun project, and a legacy of which we're extremely proud. It's very nice to know that Kimbo prefers to sleep there than anywhere else!