New Decking Furniture!

 

So this is the new decking furniture for next year - a compact, bottle shaped stacking set for two which quite frankly, considering it's just me, myself & I most of the time, is plenty big enough.

The existing set will have a new home next Spring at Chez Bailey.

This is much easier to manoeuvre on and off the decking, I can easily do it on my own, no need to call in the cavalry to help plus it will take up far less space in the garage during the winter months.

For now it's allowing me to also enjoy this last minute.com Autumn sunshine:

Table is still wrapped in it's protective cellophane but it looks good on the decking, is easily moved around with the sun and seems low enough to the ground to prevent a build up of leaves underneath. Also I quite enjoy the decking being less crowded, I'll still pop the bistro table and chair up there no doubt next Summer but for now I can pop one of these chairs up there whenever there's enough sun and time to sit up there for a while.

Which is where I spent most of this afternoon :-)

Ordered a bespoke cylindrical cover to pop over it when stored away for the winter, gonna get a folding crate to hold all the knicknacks and lights for next year and then I should be able to store it all in a much smaller space next year. Maybe two crates given all the stuff I have!

And this time around I went for the grey rather than the black (which is in fact a charcoal grey) as I think it stands out a bit more than the darker colour plus you can more easily see the striped effect. Whilst the little cushions are handy for aesthetics in reality there isn't really the room for a back cushion - more useful to create a good photo and ambiance than practical.

Anyways, uber pleased with the latest purchase and I look forward to using it in earnest next year. 

First Dahlia Flower 😍

 

So this is the first dahlia flower I've had from my five tuber varieties I planted way back in the early part of the year. This is Lucca Johanna and is only the second plant to have grown and survived being eaten by whatever.

Considering how much I love dahlias and how expensive the tubers were to buy I am considerably disappointed in what has actually managed to grow and more importantly flower.

The front garden tuber has been dug up and I may offload the others, at least two more, to my Dad who seems to have a better time in growing them. If I'm going to have a pot plant I'd rather it be a hydrangea than a dahlia at this rate.

I'd such high hopes for these plants, imagining them flowering all over the summer and filling my garden with bursts of colour. Sadly that's not been the case. Some never grew at all (I admit to planting a couple upside-down) and the rest were methodically picked off by the local wildlife. Definitely buying the pukka slug pellets next year, no more of this watered down "kind to everything" variety. I'm sick of the buggers eating my plants like they are some sort of private salad bar 😭

Lets hope I have better luck with the Spring Bulbs!

40yr Service at Work

 

So this Wednesday, 13th September, marked my 40yr service at work - wow!

25yr spent in Software and the last 15yr in Planning.

Here's a closeup of moi as a fresh faced 18yr old, part of the 1983 HND in Computer Studies intake along with a group of apprentices and YTS peeps. How times flies eh?

My team pushed the boat out quite spectacularly with flowers, a card and two gifts both personalised by our talented Jane and both wonderful keepsakes of what is quite an achievement. The company will pay me £500 for the privilege in next month's pay "packet".

Having come close I think to potential redundancy on a couple of occasions I feel proud to have stayed the distance, in years to come service such as mine will be less likely as people change jobs more often and start working later in life.

Time to start counting down to retirement me thinks ;-)

Halloween Wreath

 

Chuffed with my Halloween Wreath from The Works which Julia persuaded me to buy on our latest shopping trip. I'm not a one for arty crafty stuff, I leave that to her, but I thought why not and for £3 it wasn't going to break the bank!

Set up my gardening table in the shade of the garage doorway on a stupidly hot Saturday and sat painting all the requisite pieces, having to dig back into the memory banks to remember how to mix various colours from the base paints they gave you.

After lunch I glued everything onto the ring, note that sadly they didn't supply glue which seems like an oversight, but I had some wood glue in the kitchen cupboard so no problemo for me.

And here's the final result - pretty chuffed with it, not least because everything stayed glued on after I picked it up! Gave it a couple of coats of clear acrylic and it's ready for the Halloween porch dressing.

Revamped Fuchsia Area

 

Having decided to bin off the fuchsia in the yard area due to what I believe to be fuchsia gall mite attacking it, Dad helped me to get rid of the remainder of the root, and gave me some spare chippings to put down along with the triangle of slab and pebbles.

Over Elm Court I bought a T-Rex skull and a couple of ladybugs and here it is, a much nicer space to look at than some manky plant which is being eaten by bugs too bloody small to see and not much in the way of bug killer available yet to see them off.

Also replanted this years pinks in the front garden having binned off one of the old fuchsias round there for the same reason.

Salvaged a small section which will hopefully be OK along with the new fuchsia but only time will tell. Sadly this disease seems somewhat prolific once it gets hold and many of the bug killers on the market right now simply don't touch it.

Also had a second wind on the double petunias and my Godetias are flowering :-)