And in the Afternoon...

After a successful morning clearing behind the garage, I was inspired to continue the job.

The garage is about 30 feet long; the area that needed clearing was therefore 30 feet long by around 16 feet wide. I cleared about 10x16 feet of it this morning; this afternoon, I had a go at the rest, while OH was out. 

Looking from the corner of the garage towards the new patio area, but showing the bit that needs clearing behind the garage

Now I may be a modern woman, but I am not up to using the chain saw, especially when I am here alone - so the whole thing was done using a pruning saw, a pair of long handled loppers and a pair of shears. Nettles were cut down to about a foot or less from the ground, then pulled out by hand (hands wearing gloves, of course!)

There were several more elders that have been cut down as low as I could get them, doing it by hand.

This one is massive and will take a LOT of digging out!

Light at the end of the woods; I was quite relieved when I got so far that I could see the fence round the vegetable beds through an ever thinning canopy of trees. Up to that point, it seemed like I was going to continue forever!

The mound is now more evident and there is plenty of evidence of rabbits at work. The rabbit holes seem a little large - till you realise that my number one excavator, Storm, has been taking a look.

There were some interesting moments too. First, I found a bird's nest. Thankfully it wasn't inhabited and in fact, I don't think it has been used this year, which was a relief.

Then to prove the elderflowers are useful, a lovely butterfly came and sunned itself on one right by where I was working.

I also found this:

Not sure at all what it is, but a gall of some kind - an insect's nest.

The bonfire is now around 30 feet long and 8 feet high!!

So, the area still needs a bit of TLC - the stumps need to be dug out and the ground needs raking, to clear up the nettles and little bits that are lying on the surface J

You can now see the gateway to the vegetable garden/deep beds in the distance