The race is on for Lammas now, Just 4 more whole days to finish the bread oven in time for the ancient harvest festival. Over the last couple of days, I’ve finished the brickwork for the plinth and filled it with clay and rubble:

This was filled nearly to the brim, and then the last 2 inches was just sand. Next I used block paving blocks to form the eventual oven floor, making sure it was nice and level;

Drawing a chalk line to mark out the perimeter of the oven cavity;

and piling on six bags(!) of sand to form the dome, that will eventually be scraped out to leave the oven cavity:

Finally I puddled away with the mixture of mud (from the allotment), sand, and water,

and started slapping on the first layer around the dome:

More puddling tomorrow, I hope the weather holds! More to follow in the next couple of days…

Tom.