Bank Holiday Weekend

 

So this Off Friday I finally made it out for a very local walk around the Horsted Park and fields area. Took the TG-6 along and enjoyed a couple of hours outside without any rain!

Saturday and Sunday have been spent around Chez Ware, Dad put up some solar lights on the porch guttering, I'd aimed to do it myself but am too short to reach :-(

Here are the lights, lit up at night and a day time shot. Bought as a pack of four I've used three because the porch isn't too long and now I've seen them lit I think three is plenty. They also illuminate the inside of the porch after dark, which is quite handy once I've headed off to bed, they also partially light up the garden.

Uncovered the old mosaic table and storage box on the decking, the furniture will come later and put up the new lavender topiary balls. Also rust sprayed the nodding dog and spider and used a lanolin based rust protector on Mum's sewing machine.

Sunday, amongst other jobs, I have replaced the old metal spinners (that never spun) with the frame above and hung eighteen twisted spinners on it along with a couple of windmills - I love windmills 😍 This is to try and keep Annie from venturing onto the garage roof although she is rarely here and not normally left on her own up the garden. I also quite like watching them swinging about in the wind.

Not too sure what I'll get up to tomorrow, think it's still supposed to be dry 🤞🏻

Garden Renovations and B'day Flight!

 So this Saturday, following an uber wet Friday, why is it always wet on my day off, Dad and I joined Julia and James and their friend Dima for more garden works @ Chez Bailey. Dima spent the day moving the breeze blocks from the front of the house to the back and as we had James's 30th birthday flight in the afternoon Julia and I set to painting their neighbours garage wall that backs onto their garden ready for some batons and Dad and James tidied up the appalling brickwork on the garage extension done by the previous owners.

Then before 2pm we headed up to Rochester Airport armed with the cameras for James's 30th birthday flight from last year!

So here is a quick collage of some images off the 77D which I took along with the Sigma 18-250mm lens having lent my Dad the Big Gun 70-300mm Tamron lens. James thoroughly enjoyed the experience and got to fly the plane himself for the majority of the trip which he was pleased with and it had been something I particularly looked out for in the flight experience descriptions rather than it just being a flight trip.

And Sunday morning saw a nice chap from a local removal firm come and take away the old bricks in the garage, so it's all "bang tidy" now.

So pleased to have gotten them taken away after failing to find anyone interested in collecting them as free hardcore on the local Facebook page and then messaging a local chap only to be ignored. You snooze you lose mate!

Garage Works

 

So Dad popped round this morning to take a look at the metal beam in the garage just behind the door. Because I've not been shutting the door properly I've ended up banging it shut and bits of rust keep falling off the beam :-( Turns out all I need to do is twist the handle et voila the door shuts perfectly - doh!

Anyway, he sanded it off and painted it to help prevent it rusting further although to be fair it wasn't as bad as it seemed. We used some tarpaulin to keep the spray paint off the door.

Then after lunch I replaced some of the long screws used to hang my bits and bobs on with some tool hooks and then for those screws I kept I used some plumbing washers to provide a stop at the end of the screw to help keep the items on. I could do with some more of the hooks (which I think are meant for ceiling mounting) and the U shaped ones, but the additional pack I bought, the screw threads are bigger than the existing screw holes/raw plugs, so have put them to one side for now. Some are also for ladders which I don't really need as the ladder is already on the wall supported by a couple of old metal brackets.

Also tidied up the old fuchsia to remove much of the dead wood thus allowing the new growth to come through. Earlier in the year Dad wasn't sure if it was still alive but it's sprouting out now :-) It definitely looks better for the trim!

It's been nice to have a whole day of dry weather, it feels like we've had rain most days, sometimes all day. It's allowed the newbie next door to get some of the crap into the newly delivered skip although to be fair they didn't rock up until late afternoon today. And then they tackle all sorts of random jobs. Including pulling down the second old shed,,, It's now left yet another pile of old wood which will need to be cut into smaller sections if they want to maximise the skip space. Maybe dismantling the shed properly would have been a better option 🤔 This will be the 2nd year that she's had the house but has yet to move in - again focusing on getting a bathroom and kitchen up and running would allow her to move in and do the rest more easily in her spare time. I guess the bonus of living with one's parents is that there's no pressure to move out, even at her age, which I confess is hard to guess.

Right, almost another weekend over, think we'll be helping Julia and James again next weekend although not sure how much help I can be laying breeze blocks! And James has his birthday flight next Saturday afternoon so Dad and I will be there with the cameras trying to capture the memories.

More Yard Pots!

 

Called into Homebase on my way home yesterday to take a look at the pots which hang over a balcony or in my case, a wall. I'd realised that the double pot holder would fit on the slab by the steps when I'd temporarily hung the single pot on it whilst I cleared space to erect the platform so I could climb up to trim the plants where our old pond used to be.

So bought a blue double and single to match, freeing up the beige pot for maybe somewhere else, if it will hang elsewhere? Unsure if the hooks would fit over the new fencing or indeed whether I would want to hang a pot there?

Also bought two white aubretia plants to put in the double pot, I have a plant already in the single pot as it hangs besides Mum's sewing machine. So spent today, Friday, potting up the new plants, rescuing some forget-me-not plants which were growing in perilous places and as I'm desperate to get more in the garden I've potted one and put another three pieces in the front garden. I LOVE these little plants.

Added a couple of metal rings which came with the wind spinner to the shaft, between the nuts and the blades in the hopes that I won't lose the nuts again. On Bank Holiday Monday I noticed that the wind spinner looked weird and that was because the back blades had fallen off! Had to resort to using a magnetic stick to locate the locking nut in amongst the bluebells. Also sprayed some WD40 onto the Home Bargains wind spinners in the vain hope that they might loosen up enough to, you know, actually SPIN. I suspect not, plus the grey coating is flaking off so might need to look for a plan B to keep Annie off the garage... Not that she is here much and not normally up the garden on her own.

The yard is looking very colourful now and I've not even got the knickknacks out yet - looking forward to the riot of blue that will be descending soon on the back garden as the bluebells and love in the mist come into bloom. It's probably the best time for the garden :-)

Easter Break!

 

So this weekend has been Easter, having taken some time off for Maundy Thursday and used up some unpaid overtime I looked forward to a slightly extended break.

Didn't bargain on it raining on Thursday but went for a local mooch anyway, with the Olympus TG-6 which is weatherproof, a joy to be able to carry a camera without worrying about it getting wet!

Went round the local nature park where there's the small hint of Spring popping up in blossom on the trees. Then walked back through Horsted Park and out onto the large central area of trees that sits between different stretches of road. There I found the usual daffodils, tulips waiting to bloom but think I may have been too late for the crocuses. Back through Horsted Park where I took a different kind of selfie - my reflection in a house window!

Good Friday saw Dad and I helping Julia and James with the next step in the garden renovation - laying concrete. A much better, sunny day and reasonably warm, especially once you got working.

We had a really good, successful day and the concrete was laid before we left around quarter past six. Think their friend Dima probably won the award for the heaviest lifting, running wheelbarrows of ballast from the front of the house round to the back and then digging out part of the trench which Julia's Dad had originally talked them out of doing (he's a busybody).

Saturday was more gardening for me, testing out the new hedge trimmer - awesome.

Sunday was quiet and I spent some time sitting up on the decking, albeit in a fleece, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

Bank Holiday Monday was the usual, requisite wet day - all day. Popped down to The Range with Dad and bought a few bits including some hooks for the garage walls, one of which was needed for the new hedge trimmer. Dad duly fitted the hook to the wall and repositioned another for me on the back wall to hold the snow shovel. Also fitted a C shape hook on the wall above the outside tap to hold the short piece of hose I use to fill up the watering can and water a few nearby pots.

All in all a good weekend for the most part, I got my garden tidied up again and spent some time with good folks working hard for a common goal.

A Busy Weekend!

So this weekend has been busy, mainly in the garden, completing the edging and planting new plants.

Friday was a total washout weather wise and so didn't manage to achieve much but Saturday saw some reprieve from the rain and today (Sunday) was sunny albeit a tad chilly at times.

This collage shows the propped up daffs which were starting to list/flop quite badly due to the windy weather. Three canes and some garden wire looped around the canes provides a much needed limit to their movement.

Dad came by and helped, well mainly did, the edging along the end of the lawn in front of the garage. Muggins here managed to snap off the last stake and so today he managed, with quite a bit of faff, to remove the remaining piece of stake and fit a metal replacement. Going to be buying some purple slate to cover the dirt and also top up the garden above where the pond used to be. That already has the slate and could do with some more to fill in the gaps. Probably need to measure up the areas in order to assess how much I need to buy.

Planted the old pinks (dianthus Oscar) in the top part of the garden which freed up the pot to replant the new one (Cottage Pinks) so it sits properly in the metal tub which hangs on the wall by Mum's sewing machine - looks good to see some colour just outside my window. This new one is a really pretty, paler pink than Oscar.

The middle decorated pot was a donation from Dad, one he no longer has a use for. I've used a shallow dish and some oasis to support/fill the dish so that it rests just inside and then added multi-coloured glass nuggets to those from the old pot which I was using and which was badly cracked. So badly in fact that when I picked it up to try and tip the nuggets into the new pot it shattered in my hands! The stone & stake solar lights complete the pot. The right hand image is the new lavender, planted to replace an old Hebe which up'd and died over the winter. Managed, along with Dad's help, to get the old root out and then planted the lavender and the few uprooted bluebells after he'd gone.

Sunday saw Dad back again with a couple of Hellebores that he was looking to offload, they spread quite readily and he'd got too many now, so I said a couple would fill the gap left by the sedum which I dug out the other week, mainly because it's not producing the bracts in the Autumn/Winter properly and when they grow up all the leaves drop off - which for an evergreen isn't right!

So these are one of each colour of the Hellebores, they all seem to be either a white or pink/purple colour and these should eventually spread out a bit to further close the gap.

It's been a very productive weekend and the garden is almost where I'd like it to be, for now. I posted a video to Facebook of the evolution of my garden. Mainly because a colleague remarked about how "Mediterranean" it looked last summer when it was too hot to do much and I languished on the decking! I said the video shows how sometimes it's looked more like a jungle!

This for example...

Or this 🤣

Each shows how obtrusive the laurels grew to be before they were tamed back to the point they are now.

This was last summer, post their trim and reshape and with the furniture out on the decking. I can't believe how much use it got last summer, me not really being an outdoorsy type!

I'm aiming to keep the laurels regularly trimmed by a local chap who really knows his stuff, that way they provide a focal point and shade without becoming a dense nuisance.

Of course the biggest makeover last year was the garage roof replacement and subsequent removal of the old shed. I'd begun to realise what an eyesore it had become and it was time for it to go. The new garage roof, being light in colour, floods the garden with light and has opened up the whole space really well.

Next weekend might involve further garden shenanigans but at my daughter and son-in-law's house - they are just revamping their garden space and we've all volunteered to lend a hand, or two! Especially as it's the Easter weekend.