Building the first arch: the surrounding wall

Having built the arch, the next step was to build up the wall around it, which involved lots of fiddly jigsaw-type cutting and fitting of blocks.

Coating the wall blocks with coloured render so they look more like stone and less like breeze blocks
A local cat, unfriendly, who hangs around all the time but we don’t know its name
Tinky, a friendly and vocal local cat. But today he wanted to go about his business.
Tea, an essential ingredient for all building works