It’s just hot weather Spitty… 
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It looks like no egg I’ve ever seen. Inside or out.
In most Europe countries its an “aubergine,” which enough comes from the Arabic word Al-Badigjan. But it has many other names. In India, Singapore, Malaysia, or South Africa its called “brinjal.” There are many different names in other languages as well, for example “beringela” in Portuguese, “melanzana” in Italian, and “baklazhan” in Russian.
It looks like pretty much everyone in the world thinks it does not look like an egg.
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Update on the fire wood stacking, which I know everyone is thrilled to hear.
Good news is that after three sessions in the blazing heat I have managed to get about a third stacked in the small barn I have. The bad news is that the old barn appears to be close to collapse. One of the oak cross beams has a split and looks to be coming out from the stone wall … and the two walls are leaning at quite an alarming angle. I’ve braced the outside a bit which might delay things. But will the barn last the usual November storms?
This gives me a dilemma. Keep on stacking the rest of the wood - at least 8 hours of effort in this heat. Or get an order in now for a new wood store - it will need to hold 15 cubic metres of wood, so quite a big & costly one. And it will need a concrete base, plus digging out the area for that base, plus the assembly. None of which I fancy doing in the summer heat. And I don’t want to leave this wood outside in all weathers…
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Well, that really is a dilemma!
Perhaps it would have been easier for you to wait until Autumn to buy all that firewood @Lincolnshire? It would have been cooler and you would have had plenty of time to get your barn fixed.
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Probably better to make some temporary repairs to the old barn to see out the winter and wait for more suitable weather for preparing a new wood store, when it can be done in stages in your own time.
Usually haste cost more…
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That is another dilemma. Thierry, who supplies the wood, is in much demand. And as an ex-rugby player (prop forward) you do not argue with Thierry. The shape of his nose and the state of his ears tells me that he can handle himself. But his wood is excellent - two years dried oak, chestnut or walnut. And he is in much demand. Wait too long and no wood.
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Exactly my thinking. Plus, if the barn does collapse on my wood - I can still extract my wood from under the wreck and (oh yes) use the timber frame for fire wood. It is decades old oak. Then use the trashed clay tiles from the roof as hard core for the base under the concrete for the new store. It is a perfect plan.
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You’ve got it all figured out, good for you, I see you’ve been living there a long time. It’s amazing how one can get used to living in locations where you really need to “study” and make personal forecasts on how everything will evolve, thus learning how to deal with unexpected mishaps, maintenance, and also working on prevention. 
I realize that I have also developed a “suspicious” eye, looking around the house, the outdoor areas and immediately noticing anything broken or out of place, or anticipating future repairs. Something which may seem normal to you all but not for me, coming from a city upbringing. I didn’t even know how to light a fire when I arrived here thirty years ago! 
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I can very much relate to all that. Before coming to rural France I was very much in a city and my days tended to be about commuting, office meetings, flying to see client, staying in city centre hotels. Even my London flat was new built when I moved in, air-conditioned, underfloor heating, concierge office.
Now I’m up on the roof fixing moved or broken tiles. Building my outdoor kitchen area and pizza oven. I’ve become very familiar with petrol driven equipment - ride on mower, strimmer, chain saw, rotovator. I’ve got used to the yearly cycle of things - order enough fire wood in the summer and get it stacked under cover, harvest the veg planted early spring, later on cut back the shrubs & brambles grown too much over the summer, hunker down through our surprisingly cold winters, then prep the veg plot to begin the cycle again. With all the maintenance work dispersed across the year. This autumn will be stripping and repainting the shutters I failed to do this spring, buying and building that log store, re-cementing the tiles at the apex of the roof before the rains start. It is endless. But much better than commuting in London.
PS last two or three really hot days to get through then its back to 25-27 deg next week. Hurrah.
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Wow, you’ve just printed an image of where I live out here in the countryside, South Italy. All those jobs you mentioned, my husband used to do himself, learned how to use a tractor, chain saws, welding machines, you name it, he did it! Unfortunately he is no longer in this world, and I’m so grateful for having learned so much from him and together with him, I wouldn’t be able to continue living here otherwise, my daughter’s here now for Summer holiday, but she has moved up North for work, so will be going back soon. I have my son with me who gives me a hand, but I still need to call a tractor guy to do all the work my husband used to do, they were also friends so I do get a discount, as you know hiring land workers is very expensive.
I’m an ex Londoner too, born and bred!
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I can see why you live where you do Lincs, it’s like rural England used to be, and now it’s getting spoiled and will never return to what it was.
You have adapted well to your new found lifestyle, and I hope you keep your health and fitness to be able to live the life you have chosen.
The UK problems seem to be many and complex - and not being addressed by government after government. Its one of the reasons I left and I think the May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer series of PMs very much vindicates my decision. Which is not to say that there are not problems here as well. But it can be good to find your own problem might be limited to not being able to get the blasted chainsaw to start. I’ve put a new chain on it and everything. And Thierry, the man who delivers the fire wood, can be a bit careless when cutting the last few bundles of 1m wood in half. I’ve a few logs still 1m but with half a cut in them and I’ve quite a few where his cut left a 65cm log and a 35cm log. First world problems.
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I think the rot set in with Blair, and I even voted for him…
Is the chainsaw petrol?
If so check the plug for a spark, and then the fuel supply.
good luck…
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Blair was a game of two halves - it seems many forget the first years of growth, investment in public infrastructure and positivity. The second half on the other hand …
Yes, petrol (stroke) chainsaw. The spark was new last year. It was the old trick of sitting it somewhere warm and dry for a few hours. Then trying the pull with the choke out only once or twice. It now starts but it is way too hot for chainsaw work this afternoon. Easily over 40 deg
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Lincoln
The way I try to beat the heat here. I’m up and about before the sun comes up, around 5 and do the labor intensive work first. I can last until 11 or 12 o’clock. If there is something that has still be done in the evening, I’ll go out around 7 pm if it has to be done quickly or just wait until the morning. In the middle of the day I’ll go pick it up in the afternoon and leave it in the truck or on the trailer until evening or in the morning.
I believe that it’s always a good idea the get hay, firewood etc. early in the year because when it gets closer to the time it’s needed, the prices go up.
I don’t know how y’all do it, but I use 18 inch long firewood, so I have a 18 inch chainsaw blade and make measuring quick and easy. Two stroke chainsaws can be touchy after a few years. 4 stroke are nice but they are normally bigger and cost a lot more.
I get my logs 12 to 20 feet long, I’ll haul them home to cut to length here in the afternoon. The cutting to length I’ll do in the evening and do the splitting in the morning. I store my wood in the open.
If I had to repair a shed or building, I determine what I need and pick it up in the afternoon, unload it in the evening and start tearing down the shed or building in the morning.
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I think I now know what it is to be mansplained at.
Anyway, just been cementing in the dodgy section of wall in my small barn around the beam and support. That will stop the stone work crumbling, which should stop the beam moving, which should mean that it is safe(ish) to stack my wood.
I refuse to get up at the coolest time of the morning - just when I’ve got properly asleep. Yes, yes, yes lots of people do that round here. But then lots of people have aircon to cool their bedrooms overnight. I live on a budget(ish) so my bedrooms have neither cooling for the summer nor heating for the winter.
Take it any way you want, I was just stating how I beat the heat.
There are indoor AC units that don’t have to be mounted in the windows now. That cost anywhere between $100 to $1000 and ceiling fans that help keeping rooms cooler.
Another stonkingly hot day today and another forecast for tomorrow. Then it cools back down to mid-twenties temperature. So absolutely no need for air-con. Not even in my old Renault Kangoo. I use rural France cooling - open the car window and drive like a maniac.
Besides, there is no task that can’t be put off to a more suitable day. I’m retired in the country. Why create pressure and pain?
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The Prob Is. Getting so Bronzie Bronze.
Border Control could cart me orf >> Rwanda.
All da way 2 an Ice Cold Bath,
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Although I’m bronze, I don’t think anyone would mistake me for anything but a Yorkshire Bloke…
Not with ‘On Ilkley Moor Ba T at’ on me bum…
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