‘Aye.’ He rolls his eyes. ‘It’s a chisel plough. In January, you hire a stump grinder and pull out the stumps of the trees previously cut. Then you hook the plough up to the tractor and plough the empty fields, and put down pre-emergence weedkiller, then in March and April, you can plant saplings out, but you have to be vigilant with the weeds. Larger trees can handle them but saplings will be overpowered and you’ll lose the whole spring’s worth of work and fields of stock for future years. That’s what the strimmer and the lawnmowers are for, and the …’ He runs his finger down the list until he finds my entry. ‘Gallons of unknown chemicals.’

‘Have you just come to make fun of me or do you actually want something?’ I get to my feet, pull my notebook out of his hand, and thrust the plastic handle of Gizmo’s extending lead back towards him.

Our fingers brush as he takes the lead, and instead of leaving, he reaches into his shirt pocket and hands me a piece of paper covered in his calligraphy-like handwriting. ‘I came to give you these. Phone numbers for the electricity and water companies. If you give them a ring, they’ll probably have you back on in a couple of hours. I’ve also put down the name and number of that builder I mentioned, and my Wi-Fi password if you need it. Reception’s patchy up here and I know you don’t have a landline, so hop onto mine anytime you want to.’

‘Wi-Fi! I could kiss you!’ I clear my throat. ‘But I won’t. Obviously.’

Despite his harsh words, he’s kind and thoughtful too, like last night. Never mind builders, electric, or water, I pull my phone out and type the password in, and squeal in delight when it connects to his WiFi, even at this distance.

I know my face has lit up because when I look up from my notifications, he’s looking at me with one of those dark eyebrows raised. ‘Has anyone ever told you that there’s more to life than the internet?’

‘Yeah, but, like … what? I mean, if you’ve got Amazon, what more do you need?’

The other eyebrow joins the first.

‘I’m joking, Noel. But now I can buy books on growing Christmas trees.’ I can hear the glee in my own voice when I glance back into the barn. ‘And identifying farmyard machinery.’