A lot of mixed emotions as we visited the house for the last time today. Annoyed that the cleaners had broken the fridge/freezer and not, well, cleaned very well.
Sad to be leaving. Thomas was choked up, the kids oblivious. Tamsin workmanlike.
Monday, 31 August 2009
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
The Princess and the pea?
We are getting close and closer to lift off. I have managed to get both double beds in to the roof, and suddenly the house seems much emptier. We also had the good news today that the visas are ready, so full steam ahead on our plans for getting away earlier rather than later.
Saturday, 15 August 2009
I guess that this will turn in to the New Zealand blog (we are off in a few weeks). Part of the effort in getting to NZ is packing the house and some of the large abstract canvases we have on loan. We finally got the job done and Elizabeth followed my instructions and took as many photos as she could when we moved them in to storage.
Phew - this has been a big job but it is a huge weight off my mind. The only downer was discovering that I make square boxes, but the artist made parallelograms! The last box had to be partially dismantled before the painting would fit.
Phew - this has been a big job but it is a huge weight off my mind. The only downer was discovering that I make square boxes, but the artist made parallelograms! The last box had to be partially dismantled before the painting would fit.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Finally some proper produce
We have not had bumper harvests this year. The potatos were nice, the plums lovely but I forgot to photograph them. Here is a recent bean and courgette selection. I think that Tamsin needs tostart some food posts in here - we had the beans last night using a Jamie Oliver recipe with anchovies as the secret ingredient. Yum.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
I have had enough of yew
Worked very, very hard today. We have been charging around preparing to move to New Zealand and the garden has taken a little bit of a back seat. Today the weather was good, I was up early and I slogged from 9 am to 4:40 pm. A proper days work that ended up with seven large bags of choppings, clippings and prunings going to the garden waste bin at the local dump. Three (THREE) bags of this were shreddings from the shredder. We had to do this or they would not have fitted in the car.
Yesterday was mild by comparison; a toddle up the ladder and a prune back of the twisty trailing climbing fronds on the wisteria. Below is the result. I am quite happy with it but in reality I think it needs more wire to hang on to. I don't think we'll get that done before we go!
Looking through the gates you can see one of today's targets - the overgrown hedges.
First thing this morning was the front hedges, which we have not done for almost a year. Same job, but I am getting better and faster at it so it was all over in an hour or so.
I bagged up all the clippings with the 'help' of Harriet, which mostly involved racing up and down the pavement with brooms, me covertly sweeping when she wasn't looking. She is a trier though and I fear has my perfectionist tendencies since she would not be denied picking up the last pieces of tiny yew to put in the bag...
By now, Tamsin was working hard in the garden and I appeared bearing my hedge trimmer and attacked the four yew hedges, prickly rose (Alberic barbier) and the jasmine in the first level of the garden. I have now got four little branches growing in the corners waiting to be carved in to artistic shapes. I think we'll start with balls but it will be a long process.
Then on to the yew tree and the Ceanothus. This created loads and loads of debris that took a long time to deal with.
There was an interesting view from up on the wall and I took this picture of typical garden status on an average day. You can see the finished extension in the background.
By this time it as 4pm so off to the dump with E. in tow, discussing options for her birthday in a couple of weeks. Typing this at 5pm I am pretty bushed (ha ha). I have seen enough yew for another year, but I am very happy with the results. All I need to do now is mow the lawn with the flymo to suck up all the remaining debris.
Yesterday was mild by comparison; a toddle up the ladder and a prune back of the twisty trailing climbing fronds on the wisteria. Below is the result. I am quite happy with it but in reality I think it needs more wire to hang on to. I don't think we'll get that done before we go!
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| From The Surprised Gardeners |
Looking through the gates you can see one of today's targets - the overgrown hedges.
First thing this morning was the front hedges, which we have not done for almost a year. Same job, but I am getting better and faster at it so it was all over in an hour or so.
I bagged up all the clippings with the 'help' of Harriet, which mostly involved racing up and down the pavement with brooms, me covertly sweeping when she wasn't looking. She is a trier though and I fear has my perfectionist tendencies since she would not be denied picking up the last pieces of tiny yew to put in the bag...
By now, Tamsin was working hard in the garden and I appeared bearing my hedge trimmer and attacked the four yew hedges, prickly rose (Alberic barbier) and the jasmine in the first level of the garden. I have now got four little branches growing in the corners waiting to be carved in to artistic shapes. I think we'll start with balls but it will be a long process.
Then on to the yew tree and the Ceanothus. This created loads and loads of debris that took a long time to deal with.
There was an interesting view from up on the wall and I took this picture of typical garden status on an average day. You can see the finished extension in the background.
By this time it as 4pm so off to the dump with E. in tow, discussing options for her birthday in a couple of weeks. Typing this at 5pm I am pretty bushed (ha ha). I have seen enough yew for another year, but I am very happy with the results. All I need to do now is mow the lawn with the flymo to suck up all the remaining debris.
Monday, 20 July 2009
THe Hedges again
(Writing retrospectively)With all the focus on New Zealand and getting to the end of term, some serious hedge cutting needed doing. We could barely see the climbing frame from the rest of the garden and the neighbours were starting to get to the point where they wouldn't get much morning sunlight.
I tackled the job with some relish. The quiet shredder is a real bonus but it was only after this job that I realised that it is better to snip and shred than do one massive swathing slice with the hedge trimmer and pick it all up afterwards. I also think that next time I will lay out a tarpaulin to catch all the trimmings since it is a pain to pick them up from the bark.
This photo is a few days later and it all looks very neat. This is taken with the new camera I have bought for the NZ trip. Canon EOS 500D - I am going to learn how to use a SLR for once.
This last picture was taken a few weeks later (13th August). It still looks pretty good but odd little bits are sneaking out of the rigid formation! Got to dig out one of those rhubarb or they will take over. NOT a job I am looking forward to. I may well just drill it and put in root out if I lose the will to live...
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Extension Progress & more pot planting
The extension has windows we can look through in the bedroom and I managed to snap one before it got boarded up.
The triangular window is still missing. The joiner made it wrong once and is delaying the replacement. Our builder was incandescent on Friday about it when he went there after being fobbed off for a week and found it not in progress.
Also the bathtub is back in action - this time as herb garden after the old one was torn up for the extension (one of the duller photos in the World this one, but hey...) This includes Abigail's latest plant purchase and potting effort ;)
The triangular window is still missing. The joiner made it wrong once and is delaying the replacement. Our builder was incandescent on Friday about it when he went there after being fobbed off for a week and found it not in progress.
Also the bathtub is back in action - this time as herb garden after the old one was torn up for the extension (one of the duller photos in the World this one, but hey...) This includes Abigail's latest plant purchase and potting effort ;)
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