A frustrating day

It’s been a frustrating day.

First, it has rained for much of it, so next to nothing done outside. OH did manage to cut the wayward branches off the pine tree on the rockery, so we no longer have a daft branch trying to take a closer look at the lawn.

Before

After

The debris

Then I got started at last on my dress – and found that the zip I had bought was the wrong one. So I went out to get another – but they didn’t have one; and neither did anyone else in town. So tomorrow I am going to have to go to the next town (larger) to get one. I did make some progress however, so will post about that in another article J

While I was out, I thought I would save some time tomorrow by doing the shopping today instead. I decided to do a stock-up shop as I had a £9 voucher – only to find it was out of date when I got to the till L

To cap it all, we have been invaded – wasps have taken up residence in a disused bird box.

Looking forward to tomorrow being a better day J

A new tidying project - part 1

A new tidying project - part 1

So today I embarked on a new clearing project in the garden. There has been a corner of the garden that has a pile of rubbish in it for some time (dead leaves, dead weeds and lopped off branches).

To give you an indication of where it is, the path that leads into the sunken garden, where I tidied last week, is to the left of a rockery. 

Very tall pine trees stand on the rockery 

One of the pine trees needs a little attention

...which make the sunken garden very private/secluded and make the area to the right of the rockery (the east side) very dark, dry and acidic

Further to the right is another wide bed (full of shrubs and brambles) and then the garden wall is behind that. 

That's mostly brambles you can see there!

A huge laurel bush stands level with the rockery with a small area of lawn between them – if you can call it lawn!

One rather overgrown laurel bush!

First I cleared the pile of logs (from the laurel when we trimmed some of it last year - or was it the year before?)

Then the pile of twigs

Believe it or not, there is an area of crazy paving under this lot:

After that, I brushed up the debris, put it into the wheelbarrow, using a large shovel, and carted it all off to the bonfire area. There is a ramp to the left, leading to the top of the sunken area; to the right, there are some steps, which lead behind the laurel and along the back of the shrub bed. The area is now clear and you can actually see the ramps, steps and paving:

At the back of the paved area are some steps, leading to... - I'll just leave that thought hanging for now J

I guess the ‘lawn’ does need a bit of TLC J

That's honesty (lunaria) photo-bombing my picture J

Continuing the Fence

Continuing the fence

Hi, I’m back! Did you miss me?

OH has done all the outside work today – he has finished refilling the trench for the wire netting... 

  

and dug another trench for the short side of the fence:

It might not sound like a lot, but the long side is 66 feet long and the short side measures 16 feet, so it is hard work. He has also dug over much of the future herb bed:

 

Meanwhile, I was doing some spring cleaning inside and cleaning up the kitchen after having had a visitor J

A short note to all my readers

Just to let you all know, I need to take a couple of days off from writing posts, as I am having a visitor until Tuesday, who obviously takes priority over anything else I do. I will write something if I am able, but I doubt I will have done anything relevant to the blog title.

So ‘hang in there’, as they say; normal service will be resumed after Tuesday J

Dressmaking - Part 2

Dressmaking – Part 2

I am the world’s worst coward when it comes to cutting out patterns. So I have put off actually getting started making the dress for nearly a week since choosing the patterns. But events have conspired to force me into getting it done as soon as possible.

The Summer Ball has been cancelled L But, there is another dance in aid of the British Legion – and it is this weekend. So rather than having a week and a half to make the dress, I now have only two days!!

To compound the problem, the table I normally use for laying out my patterns and fabric is unable to be used at present, so I have had to compromise. I used the bed as a table, covering it with a huge piece of cardboard as a flat-ish surface. Anyway, it seems to have worked out all right, though I made the initial mistake of covering the cardboard with a cloth, before realising that I would be likely to pin the pattern to the dress fabric and the cloth. So that had to come out again.

All pinned - well, almost all. The improvised 'table' meant I had to cut it out in parts, so three bits here and the fourth done afterwards:

Anyway, the dress is now cut out:

It will need to be re-pinned and cut out a second time for the lining fabric. 

Both are now done. It's the way the light falls that makes it look two different colours:

All that remains is to sew it together J

Building Fences – Part 2

Building Fences – Part 2 

The mesh needed to be buried in the soil along the fence edge. So it was necessary to dig a trench first. This was hard going, as the vegetable area was laid on an old track bed, so not only were there lots of roots and weeds to dig out, but there was the stony track bed to contend with as well.

The completed trench:

We had to roll out the mesh along the fence line - that stuff is heavy! Then we cut it to length, plus a bit in case of any mis-measurement. 

Then it was raised up to lean against the posts, before the staples were knocked in. 

We only did the top one for today as it was getting late; the rest will be added tomorrow and the trench filled back in, to hold the buried netting down and secure the posts.

Along the short end, we have not yet dug the trench, though the weeds have been dug out.

At the end nearest the garden fence was an old rhubarb plant. Its root had grown so much out of the ground that very little of it was still attached to the soil. A piece had a small leaf and stalk growing from the top, so we have put it in a pot, to be re-planted when the fence is completed. Maybe it will grow, maybe it won't, but we had to give it a chance!

To complete today's work, a further piece of netting was laid against the short end just to protect the vegetable plot from the rabbits. That will also need to be completed tomorrow. 

Nearly there J

Flowers

Flowers

Just thought I would share some of the flowers that are currently in bloom in my garden J

Alliums: 

Aquilegia:

 Peony:  

Phlox: 

Australian Holly (I call it the Daisy Bush): 

Poppy:

Foxgloves:

Ceanothus (Californian Lilac):