Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category
Posted by Shirley Anne on February 18, 2012
On Monday we have someone arriving to install the roller-shutter door on the garage. It has been quite some time since we purchased the door so we hope it works! I shall be fitting the control panel this weekend ready for the door wiring to be connected via its plug. Earlier in the week I purchased an extract fan and transformer for the new wet room and I plan to begin work in that room this coming week. There is plenty of work to do but at least we have the room stripped and ready. I cannot make any more excuses for delaying this project. I didn’t want to work on it over the last couple of months for several reasons but now I am eager to start. On Wednesday I finished clearing away all the tree branches and shrubs we had cut down a few weeks ago. The weather, coupled with other things I had to do prevented me from finishing the task beforehand. We still need to dig out all the roots and remove the many large stones that had been laid there years ago. The whole area needs sculpturing and that will take quite some time to do but I am afraid it will have to wait a while yet. I might be able to do something with it in the meantime but that will depend on my other commitments. It is time to start the ball rolling. On Thursday when E went out to do the weekly shop I set about knocking the hole through the wall for fitting the extract fan. I set up the ladder to get on the new garage roof and I drilled two pilot holes where the hole would be on the outside but I didn’t remove the brick as I didn’t have the grill to fit over the hole. Apart from that it began to rain a little so I abandoned the idea. Instead, I went indoors and dug out the brick on the inside together with some plaster that had become loose over the years and which needs replacing. I had to stop work after this because I had other things to do but it has put me in the mood to continue as soon as I am able. Yesterday, Friday, E and I went out to lunch so nothing much got done in the morning. Maybe I’ll do something tomorrow instead. Watch this space.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Activity, Garden, House and Home, Time, Work | Tagged: Construction and Maintenance, Garage door, Home and Garden, Home Improvement, Roller shutter, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on January 21, 2012
Last Monday found me at home with no electrical work scheduled. It was a cold and frosty day as was Tuesday but I looked at the garden and decided I would do some work out there. Last year we did a lot of work in the garden, preparing and laying paths after digging up huge amounts of roots for the path that was to lead to the new greenhouse. I installed electrical supplies for the greenhouse area and later in the year another electrical supply for the new patio at the opposite end of the garden. Alongside that patio was an area of border which was heavily overgrown with trees and shrubs which we wanted to remove to pave the way for a flowerbed. To the right of this flowerbed and positioned in the corner of the garden was a raised area dotted with heavy stones originally set there by the previous owner of the house as a rockery but by now had become heavily overgrown too and filled with ivy from a neighbour’s garden. We wanted to clear the whole area last year but we had too many other projects on the go so we deferred working on it until this year. Well this year has started and on Monday I made a start at clearing all of the trees and undergrowth. It wasn’t an easy task as all the plants were intertwined. E joined me after a short while and we managed to cut down and remove much of the trees but we left some of it until Tuesday when I made an early start and removed the rest. It is Tuesday as I write this and there is still much more to do, not least of all digging out the roots which is going to take quite some time over the next couple of weeks. First of all we have to remove all of the stones to leave the soil clear to dig and hopefully then the tree roots and stumps. 
Compare these three photographs taken over the last two years. The first one shows the trees and shrubs before any work had been started on the patio. The second shows the corner of the garden to the right of the first photo in which I am currently working and was taken almost two years ago when we had all that scaffolding erected whilst work was going on replacing windows and such. The third photo shows the same area taken early last year and it shows the previously cleared flowerbed adjacent to the yet to be built patio just out of view to the left as well as the remaining trees and shrubs behind the plum tress in the raised area. With a bit of hard work we hope to complete work in the area within the next few weeks but that will depend on other things not least of all the weather. Work in the garden will keep us occupied for some time but I mustn’t forget the plans I have elsewhere in the house (the wet room) and the garage too.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, Gardening | Tagged: Garden, Garden design, Home, Home & Garden, Monday, Plant, Shrub, Tree | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on January 13, 2012
Image by jojo nicdao via Flickr
I haven’t really had much chance to see what is going on in the garden lately except at the weekend because my jury service commitment has kept me from home during the daylight hours. I remember looking around the rear garden on Sunday and seeing flowering plants in the border we created last Summer when we were working on the patio. It is pretty much sheltered from the prevailing westerly winds because of the garden wall which would help to keep them flowering for longer but it is January and not exactly the month to see flowering plants unless they are snowdrops. Daffodils it appears are sprouting up all over the country and there are some even as far north as Aberdeen according to one viewer on a television magazine program a day or so ago. It would seem that Spring has come early this year. Although it is still Winter we haven’t really had much wintry weather compared to what we are accustomed to. It is too early to say that we won’t get colder spells with snow and ice before the season is over or that it is too late in the season for it to happen but if we judge by what the plants are doing it appears unlikely. It it a good thing? Perhaps not. The reason I say that is the plants will be struggling to cope with the changes but more than that there is nothing to stop garden pests from flourishing in the mild weather. When the weather becomes cold it has the effect of curbing the growth or even killing off diseases and general garden pests that threaten a plant‘s developement, especially those we cultivate for food. The garden nevertheless looks fine and the grass is lush and flourishing too but no doubt so will the moss, clover and weeds! Our lawn isn’t that good! There will be plenty to do out in the garden soon enough not least of all replacing those plastic panels that the recent high winds blew out of the small greenhouse. Thankfully the large greenhouse has been unaffected but then it is a more professional affair with glass panels. I will be replacing the damaged plastic panels in the small greenhouse with glass in a few weeks time. There is much to do elsewhere before then.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, Gardening, Weather | Tagged: Galanthus, Garden, Home, January, Plant, spring, Weather, Winter | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on October 13, 2011
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As those who have been reading my many posts over the last twelve months will know, E takes care of what is grown in the greenhouses we have. I take a passing interest. I am not a gardener by any means and really only help out with the more heavy work of mowing the lawn, chopping up branches and clearing out debris. I like gardens but don’t much fancy working in them! E’s pride and joy is to see the fruits of her labour and being able to stock our refrigerator with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers from what is produced in the greenhouses. I have been eating tomatoes so much I fear they will be coming out of my ears soon and there are still plenty more of the to eat yet. A week or so ago I came across this specimen
Alongside is a more normal specimen, like the rest of them. Now I have seen many odd things in my lifetime but never a tomato that has a nose! It tasted good though – nose and all! The crop has been incredible and it is difficult to keep them fresh for any length of time although the fridge keeps them so for quite some time. Those that cannot be eaten raw because of the time element have to be fried or used in cooked dishes like chilli-con-carne or Bolognese but get eaten they do. This year we had so much cucumber that E had to give some away. One or two specimens grew to about three feet or about a metre in length and as you know cucumbers don’t stay fresh too long once cut into and really can only be eaten in a salad. I think that next year we will have to grow fewer cucumbers for that reason unless we can give them away. In fact as I write this there are still tomatoes and cucmbers growing in the greenhouse! There has been success in growing beetroot and carrots too. A couple of onions have done well but as this was really the first season for E to experiment with growing vegetables she has done remarkably well. The greatest success outdoors has been the potato crops but they are quite easy to grow. I am wondering what sort of crop we will get next time. The apple trees have produced quite a crop too and there are still apples on the branches. E has made several jars of apple sauce for use when having pork and there is some left for making pies. The rhubarb has supplied me with a few rhubarb crumbles and continues to grow as it is picked but the weather will soon put an end to that until next Spring. Altogether we have done quite well growing our own produce and we hope it will be even better next year.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Food, Garden, Gardening | Tagged: Apple, Chili con carne, Cooking, Cucumber, Fruit and Vegetable, Garden, Greenhouse, Home, Tomato | 3 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on August 17, 2011
I’ve not had much professional work of late but on Monday I had one small job to do. Whilst waiting to go there after breakfast I received another call for more work. The first job didn’t take too long and then I was off to the second job which I knew would take longer as it entailed installing new circuits. Whilst there I received yet another call to do a small job which I managed to get to around one o’clock and finished that in only a few minutes. The second job was a little taxing and I felt my energy draining whilst doing it. I think I do pretty well for a 65 year-old going on 66! I don’t look my age and don’t really feel it either, under normal circumstances that is! I know a few women of my age that are no way as fit as I am but I suppose the nature of my work keeps me exercised which must help. These days of course I do limit what I do in my work as an electrician and it is nice to be able to pick and choose what work I take on board. I have been doing far more work at home over the last year or so although over the last two weeks I haven’t done anything at home. Previous posts will reveal the reasons for that but I hope to resume further work that needs to be done in and around the garages over the next couple of months. I am quite an active person most of the time but I do like to relax as well. The weather at home hasn’t been that good lately and it has been raining quite a lot. This meant that I couldn’t get out into the garden but on Monday afternoon it was fine and sunny with hardly a whisper of wind so I took the opportunity to sit outside playing my guitar for an hour or so and then did some reading. With a drink or two of course! It’s getting harder but I manage…LOL
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Activity, Enjoyment, Exercise, Garden, Lifestyle, Music, Rest and relaxation, Work | Tagged: Activity, Leisure, Lifestyle, Rest and relaxation, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 22, 2011
Yesterday was a much better day for me than the previous one were I felt as sick as a dog all day. I managed to go shopping with E in the afternoon but my body was resisting all the same. As promised the guys came and began laying the paving in the front. They had finished the rear garden the day before when I wasn’t well.
Meanwhile I began to remove the plastic sheets we had placed over the paving in the rear garden for it had been raining overnight and we needed to protect the new mortar. I cleaned the area then set about filling in the edges of the paving with grass lifted from elsewhere. I used a spade to dig up the grass (it was growing where it shouldn’t have been) and a large kitchen knife with a serrated edge to slice the sods into strips that would fill in the narrow space between the lawn and the paving edge. After tamping it all down and watering it you can hardly tell that I had done it. I did several small jobs around the garden in between making and serving coffee to the guys. E was busying herself stripping wallpaper in the downstairs toilet/cloakroom, the one we are converting into a ‘wet room’. After a quick-lunch I was off again but this time onto the garage roof. Probably the hardest part here was getting the ladder down from its perch! Anyway I proceeded to fit some ‘Flashband’ tape over a couple of sections of fascia board where it was exposed and then I painted the boards in their top coat of gloss paint. In the photo below you can only see a small section on the top left above the passageway that had been painted, the other board runs down the whole right-hand-side from front to back. The area over and around the windows are to be clad in pvc (part of that is already done beneath the gutter). 
After cleaning brushes and myself (LOL) the next task was to mow the lawn. Much easier to do now as it is completely surrounded by paving! That task usually takes about 50 minutes in total then out to the front to sweep up everywhere. Several other small jobs later I returned indoors and cooked E a roast dinner while she did some weeding and bringing in the washing from the clothesline. I was somewhat exhausted when I sat down to eat but felt much better after my meal. I retired to the rear lounge and sat playing my guitar for a while. At this moment I am writing this post, something I do most days but I schedule the posting to early the following day. Well you didn’t really think I sat around at 6 o’clock in the morning doing it did you?
A couple more pictures for you……..If you click on them they will appear larger and you can see the open edges around the paving that I have now filled with grass. 
I always feel better after a hard days work don’t you?
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Activity, Garden, Gardening, House and Home, Work | Tagged: Activity, Concrete, Garden, Home, Landscaping, Lawn, Patio, Shopping, Tools, Work | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 10, 2011
We finally got E’s nephew to start the laying of the paving slabs in the rear garden, those that we had planned after the patio was to be finished. Yesterday saw all of the paving slabs cut and some of them laid into place ready for ‘pointing’ up later. I took a picture of what has been done so far. If you click on the picture for a larger image you can see some of the paving laid in front of the patio wall (one of the slabs is missing because they broke it and it needs replacing). The others are arranged in a fan shape and they will fit into the space cut out for them as you can see. 
When these have been laid that will complete the main works in the rear garden.
E and I have been preparing the area under the front bay window ready for paving slabs to be laid there. That meant rebuilding part of the dry stone walling and levelling out the ground . We had hoped that E’s nephew would have been able to lay the paving this week once he had finished in the rear garden but as things look at the moment I don’t think that is on the cards. At least the groundwork is done and the area doesn’t look too bad, as it did some weeks ago! I have placed a couple of pictures here so you can see what I mean.
In the first picture you can also see the retaining brick wall we had built two weeks ago and the garage with much work still to do on it!
One day…………
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, House and Home | Tagged: Bay window, drystone, Garden, Patio, Soil | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on June 9, 2011
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I went to do my job yesterday morning and to my surprise I was back home by 11.30. There was no sign of anyone having been to do the paving but it appears that E’s nephew was having staff problems. The guy he works with doesn’t work on Wednesdays for reasons best known to himself and a sub-contractor E’s nephew uses occasionally didn’t turn up to carry out work he had given him elsewhere. This meant E’s nephew was hard pressed to fulfill his own commitments including our job. He did call and he did some levelling of the ground, removing soil in the process but he was unable to start laying the paving slabs. Hopefully he and his friend will turn up today to continue with the work. After they have completed the work in the rear garden they will start laying the paving slabs in the front garden. This meant that E and I had to rebuild part of the dry-stone walling we had demolished when clearing the area for a brick wall to be built a few weeks ago. So before lunch, E and I set about doing that and also laying a completely new top layer of stones along the length of the 6 metre long wall. We then began to level out the soil above. As it was almost 2 o’clock we left off working and returned an hour later when we transported many bags of soil from the rear garden and placed that on the raised ground contained by the dry-stone wall and levelled that soil out too. We also did some filtering of the soil in the lower bed in front of the wall. Much more needs to be done in this bed but it is slowly taking shape having been neglected because of the volume of work we have been doing elsewhere. After our evening meal both E and I were in the rear garden and I happened to glance over the garden wall whilst standing on the patio. Our neighbour was riding around her garden testing out her bicycle. I waved to her and she came closer and asked how we were getting along with the patio. I invited her to call around and see for herself. We hadn’t met socially before and we didn’t even know her name even though her garden adjoins ours. Her house is on the main road which is about 100 metres away so although we are neighbours we are not exactly close! To my surprise she took up my offer and called around five minutes later. She was very impressed by what we had done in the garden as we showed her around. It turns out that her house was built in the year 1872, fives years before ours and that the ground on which our house is built actually belonged to the owner of her house at that time and was used for the stabling of horses. The land was sold off to pay a debt and our house was built there in 1877. Her house, which is now split into two homes, used to be just one very large house before it became a semi-detached property in 1920. I often wonder what it must have been like in the area when these houses were built. Local history is fascinating to me. So many changes have been made over the years to the various properties around about, including ours!
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, General Chat, House and Home, Work | Tagged: Bay window, Brickwork, drystone, Garden, Landscaping, Patio, Plant, Soil | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 26, 2011
I have soil erosion! The soil in my garden is slowly eroding my sanity! Now that most of the patio is completed, (we need only to paint the concrete), I set about doing more soil filtering in the vegetable plot. Whilst other works have been going on we have not been able to filter much soil. On Monday E planted out onions and carrots in the vegetable plot but she needs to plant out beetroot soon. I spent most of yesterday filtering out the main part of the plot but although that area is now complete the soil level has dropped and will require another cubic metre or two to make it level enough for planting. If you can imagine a square in four sections we have completed approximately three of those sections. The remaining section (quarter) has bags of unfiltered soil and some debris stored upon it but it will not be finished until we can build a small brick platform on the concrete base on which the water-butt will sit. That’s the way things are, one job awaits another before progress can be made. I am pleased to say that the major works in the rear garden (this time around – there will be more later) have now been completed. There are some minor jobs to do as we can fit them in. It has been hard work all along the way but it certainly has been worth it to see the difference it has made and to make working and relaxing in the garden a much more pleasant experience. E’s nephew and his mate have given us a date for the completion of the paving stone pathway around the patio and the laying of paving under the window at the front of the house. That will be 7th June if all goes to plan.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, Work | Tagged: Concrete, Erosion, Garden, Rainwater tank, Soil, Vegetable | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 25, 2011
The patio is nearing completion now. All we need to do is to paint the concrete but that has to wait until we get delivery of the paint and a day or so of dry weather. Yesterday I completed the electrical installation. We now have three twin power outlets and three lights all fully working. In the morning I popped out to look at a job and when I returned we both applied the sealant on the concrete. After lunch and an hour or so later I applied a second coat of sealant. Normally three coats would be applied but as we are painting the concrete that won’t be necessary. It was another sunny day yesterday and still quite windy but it gave me the opportunity to finish off the electrics whilst E began planting out her onion and carrot plants she had been nursing in the 
greenhouse. 
In the photographs you can see the three lights and three power outlets together with the switch for the lights (the smaller of the two boxes on the left under the archway in the first and third photos). The third power outlet is shown in the first photo behind which is the light on the other side of the wall. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, Gardening | Tagged: AC power plugs and sockets, Concrete, Garden, Paint, Patio, Planting out, Sealant | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 24, 2011
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Monday was one of those days that looked very promising but sadly turned wet and windy after a brilliantly sunny morning. I was windy all day through sunshine and rain and then sunshine again. Yes, the day became sunny once more after lunchtime. E and I had been out shopping for one or two items and then we visited a couple of places in search of a supplier of paint suitable for outside on concrete. We had seen a supplier over the Internet who had what we wanted and the price was reasonable but we wanted to see if we could buy it locally. Unfortunately no-one could supply our needs so we returned home, had our lunch and then went on the Internet and purchased the paint we had seen previously. It should arrive within a couple of days. We have decided to paint the patio concrete floor in a grey colour so that it doesn’t look out-of-place with the surrounding brickwork and paving stones. We need to seal the concrete first and we have the correct sealant to do that. Had we done that early in the morning it would have dried out long before it began to rain around noon but we missed the opportunity. Today is promised to be dry and sunny so we will do today as soon as we can. First of all though I must fit the final power outlet and light which shouldn’t take me long to do. After lunch and after ordering the paint yesterday I set about installing the second power outlet and light and managed to finish doing that before we went back indoors for our evening meal. We took the opportunity to do as much as we could whilst the weather was reasonable. Let’s hope we can do what we have planned today before the weather changes once again.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden | Tagged: AC power plugs and sockets, Concrete, Materials and Supplies, Paint, Patio, Sealant | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 21, 2011
Yesterday morning I had to go and do an electrical job a short distance out-of-town but I didn’t need to get there until 9 o’clock which was just as well because the on the previous night I had very little sleep, less than three hours! By the time I got to bed I was walking about like a zombie but I had a really good night’s sleep when my head hit the pillow. So there I was yesterday morning, fit as a fiddle and rearing to go. It was very sunny yesterday morning although it was windy and not very warm too. I had it in mind to do some work on the patio when I returned home so when I did get back an hour later I collected all the materials I would need and put them in the patio area. I wanted to start ‘second fixing’ the electrical work, fixing the sockets and lights but before I could do that I wanted to give the wall another coating of sealant. The top part of the wall had not yet been coated even once so that needed doing first, however, when I climbed the ladder I noticed that many of the joints in the capping stones were not properly filled with mortar! I suppose the bricklayer thought ‘out of sight, out of mind’. I was disappointed that he’d left the job in that condition just because it was out of sight. I mixed a bucket full of mortar and set about correcting his poor workmanship. I had it done in a half-hour. In the meantime E had joined me and she got on with coating the walls with sealant. That meant that I could get on with the electrical work. The weather turned from being sunny to being showery, not a lot of rain but enough to stop us working. It was intermittent rain and it looked like it was on for the day so we collected everything and went back indoors for a late lunch at 1.30. I decided to take a trip to the supplier to purchase some stock for the van whilst E went to do the weekly shop. She normally does that on a Thursday but she had been in Birmingham for a day or so. When I got back home the weather had changed for the better so I decided to carry on with the patio electrics. This time I took a garden ‘brolly’ with me, you know the type, those that fit into a table but without the table. I was seated on a garden chair doing the sockets so it fitted easily into the chair and gave me protection in the event of another shower of rain. It did rain just the once and then stopped for the rest of the evening. I managed to install one of the twin sockets, a switch unit for the lights and one of the light fittings before coming back inside for my evening meal. I have two more twin sockets and two more lights to fit which shouldn’t take me long when the weather improves. The Sunday weather forecast looks promising! I shall be taking today off from working and in any case the weather isn’t that good for working outside. I was full of aches and pains last night, probably due to working outside in the cool, windy and damp air.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Activity, Garden, Weather, Work | Tagged: Birmingham, Garden, Home and Garden, Patio, Rain, Sealant, Shopping, Weather | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 20, 2011
Yesterday saw the builder finally finish his work on the patio. The previous day he laid a fine concrete (granno-mix) screed over the main concrete base because of imperfections in the floor finish. However he ran out of materials before he could finish the job so the first thing he tackled was to complete the laying of the screed. At the time of writing I am not sure whether this last portion of screed has been smoothed out enough to blend in! I’ll have to wait and see. After he had laid the screed he laid the steps beneath the archway, replaced a couple of bricks in the front garden and cut a paving stone I’d asked him to do for me as a favour. He left the site around 11 o’clock and I tidied up. The previous night I got very little sleep, about three hours and I got up at 4.15! It was one of those nights, tossing and turning and not being able to sleep properly. Perhaps I just wasn’t tired enough but throughout yesterday it became increasingly difficult to stay awake! There wasn’t much for me to do as I now have to wait until everything is dry before I can work in the patio. I did get a call to do some electrical work but I deferred that job until today. It would have been too dangerous to chance driving when I was feeling so tired. It was a nice sunny day yesterday and I spent the afternoon chilling out in the garden playing guitar.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, Rest and sleep | Tagged: Concrete, Patio, Screed, Sleep | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 13, 2011
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No builders today but the job is still not finished. I am guessing they are acquiring replacement stones for the patio, or there was another job elsewhere! Maybe they will turn up today, especially if they want paying. Such it is with the building trade.
I had lifted all the plywood sheets that we had placed over the soil whilst the walls were being worked on so yesterday morning I had the chance to plant the half-dozen gooseberry shrubs we have been waiting to plant for weeks. I was amazed how well they had thrived considering they had simply been left on top of the ground for so long. So the first job I tackled was to plant them behind the wall of the new patio. I then began the laborious task of filtering or sifting some more soil in the vegetable plot. E joined me after I had planted the gooseberry shrubs and we soon had a routine going. I was literally in a hole in the ground making it larger and then sifting the soil before putting it back. After three hours doing that it was lunchtime. E was going for the weekly shopping after lunch so I carried on working. I didn’t return to the hole in the ground at first but went into the front garden to remove a large pile of rubble that had accumulated whilst the front wall was being built. No, it wasn’t rubble that the builder had left, it was rubble I had placed there ready for it to be placed behind the new wall to be covered over when the groundwork there is underway. Then I returned to the hole in the ground and did more sifting. So I was feeling rather tired last night and my arms were aching a lot. I am not sure what I will be doing today. The weather forecast is for lots of rain this afternoon so if I do work in the garden it won’t be for long.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Garden, Work | Tagged: Brick, Garden, Gooseberry, Patio, Plant, Shrub, Soil | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on May 12, 2011
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The guys duly turned up yesterday morning and two of them proceeded to build the wall in the front of the house. In the afternoon they returned to the patio area and completed the brickwork there. Late in the afternoon the third guy returned and began to lay the natural stone capping to the walls of the patio. Unfortunately he wasn’t particular as to where each stone was being placed as there were different colours of stone. Those coloured pink or sandy-coloured happened to be thicker than the normal grey coloured stone so he decided to place the greys on one wall and the colours on another! It looked ridiculous and i told him so! I told him that all the stones have to be grey and that the job will have to be continued on the morrow, that is today. He removed the coloured stones and replaced them with the grey until there were no more grey stones left. The rest of the job went well. The owner of the firm will be completing the work today hopefully.
In the evening our eldest son and his wife stopped over for dinner, spaghetti-bolognese, which we thoroughly enjoyed. During the meal we chatted about their proposed move to stay with us for a year or two. They are in the process of selling their house, partly for financial reasons and partly because they wish to get out of the area in which they live now. With the housing market as it is of late they want to start afresh by saving for a decent deposit before proceeding to buy another property. We discussed the possibility of installing a shower in the main bathroom, something we don’t have at the moment. It would be far better to strip out the bathroom as it now stands and start over. More cost, more work, more time. I know it will be worth it in the end but at this particular moment in time all I want is a bit of peace! I can ill-afford to spend anything else on the house for the time being as I have spent quite a lot on the house over the last twelve months, about £30,000 to be exact and still there is more to do! Ah well, I can’t take it with me but I do want to make sure E is financially secure should I ‘pop my clogs’ so to speak. LOL
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Family, Garden, House and Home | Tagged: Bathroom, Construction and Maintenance, Masonry and Stone, Patio | Leave a Comment »
