Planning and Plotting

With all the rain recently, I have been planning and plotting J

Our post box is next to the gate. If you read my previous post, you will know that there used to be a letterbox in the front door, but at some time in the past, it was blocked off and a brick ‘thing’ was built onto the back of the wall near the gate. From the outside (the bit the postman sees), it just looks like a slot and a gap in the wall (the gap was so the milkman could leave a crate with the milk in it – in the days when we used to get milk delivered).

From the inside (ie, the garden side), it has a simple door on it, with a bolt that can be locked with a padlock

Open the door and, voilà, you can access the mail

So what am I planning? The door frame is rotten and needs replacing; then the door needs a lick of paint. R made it some while ago and somehow it never got painted. It will of course, be olive green with a cream frame J

I have also had a close look at our finances and realised that we are overspending. Renovating a place the size of this takes a fair bit of cash! So I have been plotting and planning to have a ‘home grown’ business to help pay for it all. There are several ideas that I have started researching, though I have no hard and fast plans on this as yet. So as food for thought, here is am list of potential ideas, any one of which (or more than one) could eventually become my new ‘job’.

Creating themed gift baskets/boxes

Knitting string bags for shopping

Rag dolls (I have some lovely Amish doll patterns I could use – and they are free to use for sale, unlike some commercial patterns)

Aprons – gardening, cooking etc

Plants – herbs, wild flowers, cottage garden plants grown for sale

Sewing dresses for children – and maybe make a matching doll’s dress

Wooden key holders to screw to the wall

Cot duvets/patchwork quilts (small size so less time making them)

Papier mache bowls, perhaps decorated with autumn leaves and varnished

Making bags from fabric

Making cushions and other small household soft furnishings

Upcycle old furniture (done this kind of thing before)

Writing – articles, or write that book I’ve always wanted to write

And last but not least – photography – I love taking photos; just not sure if they will be good enough, so here’s a couple to show to see what you think

A couple taken in Yorkshire last weekend:

 And a couple taken in Italy, last year

Rain, rain, go away

As you might have guessed from the title, we have had a fair (or unfair) bit of rain lately, which means I haven't got on as far as I would like with things around the place. But that said, I haven't been altogether idle either.

On June 20^th, we had some warm and dry weather for a few days. So I set to and repainted my front door. I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture that would have showed why it needed doing. It is only two years since I last painted it, but at some point before we came here, someone had blocked off the letterbox with a rectangular piece of wood and attached it to the door with nails. The nails had rusted and were showing through the paint. The rest just looked tired; not to mention that when I did it last time, I hadn’t been able to find the exact shade of green I wanted, so it had been painted darker than I really liked. Now it looks fresh and welcoming – and is the shade of pale olive green I really like.

The next day I decided the door frame also needed a face lift. I started by washing it, but the dirt was so ingrained, that didn’t make much difference – except there was a bucket full of filthy water to show I had done something! So when it was dry, I repainted that too, in a lovely shade of pale cream.

Above the door is a kind of canopy to keep you dry when fumbling in the rain for your key that you forgot to get out of your bag before you got out of the car!! It hasn’t been painted since we got here and is really showing its age. And as it is blue and white, it really doesn’t go any longer with the olive green and cream door. But it has been a struggle to know quite how to paint it. I think I have decided to paint the bit that holds the supports to the canopy in cream and the matching bit of ‘cornice’ that runs along where the canopy meets the wall, plus the supports themselves. The rest will be painted olive green and if it looks too much, then I can repaint parts of it in cream, such as the four squares within the mouldings.

First though, it needs stripping. Some of it has been done, but there is still some way to go – if the rain ever lets up!

I sanded the bits that have already been stripped and made quite a mess on the top of the steps. To clear it up, I got the hoover out. No idea what the neighbours would have thought if they had seen me hoovering the garden!

 Meanwhile, I weeded the front path  and cleared the moss from the rear path.

Then I started on a brick paved area outside the old shed – that is, the place where the old shed once stood. It is covered in weeds and – the bane of my life – alchemilla mollis, or ladies’ mantle. It was planted by the former owners and no doubt they thought it would make an attractive addition to the garden. But they didn’t stay long enough to see it spread absolutely everywhere – and it’s a real menace to get rid of too.

Anyway, it is between the bricks on the path and the brick paved area. So far, I have cleared the part in front of the gate into the back yard

that's another door needs a lick of paint.

ended with a load of rubbish as well as stuff for the bonfire and compost heap

and made a small start on the paved area itself

The rest obviously is still to clear – some of those nettles are between 4 and 5 feet tall!

And then the rain started and doesn’t seem in any hurry to stop. It’s been four days now almost non-stop! Time for some sunshine, I hope J

Operation Summer House - Part 2

It has been raining the last couple of says so the weeds have grown considerably. The minute my back is turned, they flourish!! They need stripping from the soil, so as the weather was greatly improved today, I set about de-turfing the area.

I was a little concerned about these little guys though:

If you can't quite see, it's a worker bee. From the sound, you would think there were hundreds, but using my eyes instead of my ears, I saw no more than half a dozen. It seems they have taken up residence in the soil behind where the playhouse stood. There are few enough bees these days, so I really don't want to disturb them, so I'm not sure what to do with them. Stripping the turf shouldn't be a problem as that doesn't dig down to where they seemed to have their front door. Just don't want to get stung. OH said worker bees can't sting; I have no idea if he is right, but I didn't want to put his theory to the test!

Stripping has commenced:

I lost count of the number of times we filled the wheelbarrow. The intention was to compost the turfs, but there were too many roots of nettles, ivy and buttercups (none of which I want to transfer to the vegetable garden), so they have gone instead onto the bonfire site. The resulting ash will go on the compost without fear of growing weeds where we don't want them.

 All the way back to the wall - well, one spade width anyway:

Just this bit left now:

Another spade width:

Or two:

Oh dear, what happened to the lovely blue skies?

Still, I got a bit further, before going inside for some lunch. The trouble with gardening is it makes you hungry and I really don't need the calories. How to balance a need for energy with not eating too many calories - hmm, I'll have to think about that one:

Like I said - too many calories:

But the sky behind is blue again:

OH took the previous photos - I don't have a selfie stick, let alone one that long!! 

He also cleared the last bit of the surface for me - it was riddled with ivy roots, making it very hard to skim off:

And then I started to lower the soil level. I had intended that this part would go on the vegetable plot, but the roots had run too deep to make that a safe or sensible option, so it went onto the bonfire pile. At least it will be sterilised before it gets onto the garden:

The plan is to make it a little lower than the concrete raft, then make the raft larger by concreting alongside the original raft; or maybe I will just put down some weed suppressing medium and cover with dolomite (a mixture of sand and gravel) and roll it flat. Not sure yet.

I stopped about here; don't want to do too much too soon:

I did have a bit of other 'help' too:

She seemed to have enjoyed herself, but she did get a bit mucky!! She's supposed to be white round her neck!

'Operation Summer House'

At long last we have decided to get rid of the playhouse. We no longer have children at home and the one we bought it for turned 18 last month! Besides, it was somewhat derelict – the roof was rotting and the floor was through to the ground in places.

  It looks quite large - till you stand a normal adult person next to it

A quick view of the inside - it still had a child sized picnic table in it, and a sand table and sand play toys

The local riff-raff had taken up residence in it as a den for drinking illicitly (and quite probably other things too). They left quite a mess and spilled alcohol is probably one of the reasons the floor rotted through.

Nearly done:

Gone! In a way it's quite sad to see it go, but it really wasn't doing any good any more and we can use the space for better things - like a 'playhouse' for grown-ups, ie a summer house! We intend to build our own, rather than buying one, so that's what this project is all about.

Next is operation clean-up

The rubbish was burned, but I didn't take a photo of the fire this time. I'm sure we have more than enough pictures of burning bonfires! The empty beer bottles went in recycling.

Round the edge of the concrete raft that the playhouse once stood on are (were) edging blocks. Each one is about 12" x 18" x 2". Believe me, they are heavy too! They went around two edges of the concrete area

One by one, I got them out and laid them across where they are going to be reinstated at some point. To the right of the line will be a flower bed - it has a tree at the far end and daffodils in there already. The rest is weeds. To the left of the line of blocks will be dug out flat and either grassed or concreted as a picnic area and will have a picnic bench on it. (It's bigger than it looks in this picture).

Digging the blocks out was no mean feat. Some came up easily enough; others I needed to dig a trench behind them and raise them out using the spade.

That's one edge done; now for the other side:

Good, got it out!

There were nine of them altogether:

Now, hopefully, you can see the size of the area. Concrete base in the foreground; grassy (read: weedy) area in the middle ground, then you can just make out the line of edging blocks laid in the weeds - beyond that is the flower-bed-to-be:

Ah, we still have to get rid of this stump - an old elderberry, self sown. It can't stay there

The soil is quite a depth and looks pretty good, apart from the weeds on top. The plan is to skim the surface, as if I was digging turf, put that layer on the compost heap, then use the under layer (hopefully without any weed roots) to fill up some of my deep beds in the vegetable garden

 The whole weedy bit will be levelled down to the same level as the path. Some of it will be concreted to enable a wider summer house to be built; the rest grassed (or maybe also concreted). At the moment, the front edge is held up by breeze blocks buried in the soil.

I took up the first three breeze blocks. They are full of soil and weeds. If I thought the edging blocks were heavy - these were heavier! You can see them, upside down here, further along the path. Well, two of them are along the path; the third is sitting up on the weedy bit. This is the distance to which we will definitely be concreting, for the base of the new summer house.

Still loads to do, but we are making progress: