Nah, it's not, it's the weekend! No work, no furniture shows, no visitors and nothing planned - a whole weekend off is quite rare at the moment you know - and the sun's shining so all's well with the world.
Here's the new water butt all plumbed in and everything - looks a bit Heath Robinson, but I quite like that. The overflow isn't really half way down (that wouldn't be good use of a huge barrel), but the wooden slats are widest at this point so better for drilling through and inside it's connected to a pipe which goes to almost the top of the barrel. On the outside it goes into standard orange plastic pipe which leads to a soakaway, but that would look horrible so we've hidden that inside and old piece of salt-glaze pipe we had lying around. We then cut a circle of slate with a hole in it which sits inside the lip of the old pipe with the overflow pipe going through it and then we've put a bit of soil on top and planted lemon thyme in it which should trail down and look lovely. Eventually the little wall here will probably be a course or two higher and there'll be some plants the other side of it, but that'll have to wait until we know what we're doing with the pathway there. This seems to be how we have done the garden (and the house for that matter). We can't plan it all in advance like a lot of people do - we get an idea for one bit and then when that bit is done it helps us decide what to do with the next bit and so on - seems to have worked out OK so far.
Now that we have two water butts, we thought it was important to monitor the pressure in at least one of them and so we have fitted a pressure guage to the one near the kitchen as it's easier to keep an eye on that one.
Not really! What would be the point in that?! Bob's dad used to work for a firm that made water pumps or something and when we were clearing his shed out, we found this lovely one and didn't want to throw it away and so we've had it lying around ever since. We thought it'd look quite funny on one of the water butts and make people wonder what on earth it's for and so here it is. You have to tap it as you go past and slightly adjust the handle just to make sure everything's fine - like they do on films. Well, it makes me smile anyway!
Oops a daisy! This is what underground drain pipes look like after you've put a pick axe through them! Bob was digging out for a bit more of the wall he and Ben started at Christmas and then said 'Erm, I think I might have hit a pipe or something' - guess the echoing, booming noise underground is a bit of a giveaway! Luckily, this pipe isn't being used at the moment - we just put it in in case we ever put any plumbing in the top barns - so there was no need to panic. It is now repaired which is a little awkward when the pipe is in situ, but it's done.
Guess what! Bob actually had a phone call from someone in Surrey who had seen his website (sheltonfurniture.co.uk) and wanted to order a chair! How exciting is that? It all seems a bit strange really - generally Bob has at least met anyone who buys a chair, so this is all a bit remote. Apparently though Shropshire is this chap's favourite part of the country and he has family not too far away, so he may actually come and collect it when the time comes.
We've spent the day so far in the garden with me part way though a mega weeding session and Bob sorting the pipe and wall out. I came in for a cool-down to write this and now I'm feeling the call of a nice cool bottle of cider from the fridge! Enjoy the sunshine!
. . . . .went to mow a meadow, one man and his dog chicken (cluck, cluck) went to mow a meadow.
As if having a lawn that keeps growing isn't enough, our end of the field keeps growing too! Last year Bob used the strimmer to keep on top of the nettles and brambles, but now that we have the lawn mower out and usable he thought it was time to give it a go in the field. I think it was hard work, but not as hard as using the strimmer and there weren't as many obstacles hidden in the grass as we expected, just loads of molehills. Course, the grass was a bit long for this little mower so Bob had to keep unclogging it, but it looks much better and should get easier now it's been done once. We are a bit envious of Rob, who owns the rest of the field, as he whizzes up and down on his ride-on mower - we can't really justify one of those, but it looks like more fun! Can you just see the stick standing to the left of Bob on this photo? Well that is to mark a wild orchid that we didn't know we had and it is now flowering - I wonder if they do much multiplying and one day we'll have a carpet of them?
We now have the second whiskey barrel in place as a water butt. The steps up the side of the house are now finished and pointed (at last!) and so we could roll the barrel into place at the top. For quite a while we were worried that the barrel would look too big at that end of the house as the walls are much shorter up there, but now it's there it looks fine and makes the steps look pretty good too. We had a scout around the local salvage yards to find cast iron pipes and bends to connect the gutter and the downpipe and they are all cut to size and we're just waiting for the paint to dry so we can connect it all up. Once that's done we can finally get rid of the plastic middle from a roll of carpet that we've been using as a downpipe for the past few years - well, it was free and it's done the job (not sure it was quite what the Planning Dept had in mind when they were specifying what the guttering should be made of though!).
We had a good weekend with Ben and I think he enjoyed relaxing, lying in (after being woken by the crows at 4am), a beer or two and home cooking - both eating and doing. He's a really good cook and enjoys experimenting so we invented a lemon truffle chocolate bar for a Father's Day present - worked out really well I think. I don't think he enjoyed the sudden attack of hayfever after a short walk which left his eyes streaming and him working his way through a box of tissues - living by the sea he's escaped quite lightly I think and forgot to take any tablets. I took him back to Aberystwyth on the Sunday and we sat on the beach with a huge icecream each which was nice. Talking of beaches, Bob and I are having a little holiday at the seaside in a couple of weeks. We're staying in a pub in Newquay in Cardigan Bay which comes highly recommended by someone at work. I'm really looking forward to it and we're hoping to see those elusive dolphins this time. My friend said they spent a whole afternoon sat on the harbour wall watching them play, including a baby!
So, the crows are still a real nuisance and we're thinking of putting razor-wire on all the window sills so they can't land!! Not really, but we'll have to think of something like that. Yesterday evening we sat with a beer watching two baby woodpeckers trying to come to grips with the peanut feeder, Mum was helpful and gave them bits of peanuts, but Dad just argued with them and chased them around, poor things (maybe they forgot Father's Day!).
This has been day six of seven solid days at work - don't like!!!
Well, we didn't need to worry too much about watering the lawn! We had a couple of days of watering it morning and evening and then nature took over and we have had soooo much rain! Saved us a job I suppose (and undoubtedly did a much more thorough job of it), but we are a little fed up with it now. After the statutory three weeks of not walking on the lawn, we couldn't walk on it anyway because it was so wet. The grass was certainly lush and green . . . . and very long. The chickens stopped walking on it too because it was longer than their legs and they got soaked every time they tried. Eventually we had a night without rain and so I got on and cut it. Because I didn't want to do too much tramping about on it, I did it very quickly and not very carefully and it ended up looking a real mess. It reminded me of a little lad at one of the schools I worked at years ago whose dad decided to do a home job on his hair with the clippers, but the poor boy ended up looking like a badly shorn sheep with short bits and tufty bits. Anyway, the lawn has now had its second cut and looks much neater.
Elsewhere the garden is looking quite cottagey (basically, the geraniums have taken over - that's the more natural pink, blue and lilac ones rather than the bright red hanging basket types). Laura and I had a good old weeding session on this border which makes it look much better. So, now we need to sort out the bit between this and the lawn. The plum and damson trees have absolutely loads of fruit on them (all little and green at the moment of course), so barring disasters it should be a good year. The peas are growing well, we have loads of garlic, beans just shooting and tomato plants ready to go in the baskets against the sunny lounge wall.
We have had an incredibly busy time with visitors recently. Laura went off to Edinburgh to start the next episode in her life just over a week ago, but during her last week Jan (Bob's stepmum) came to visit on the Monday, then on the Wednesday Mum and Dad came on their way back from the Lake District. They stayed until Friday and then a couple of hours after they left, Carol and Graham came.
In addition to Graham wanting to do a bit more to the rocking chair he's making, they came to do the annual hillwalk in the next village. It is a lovely walk (although as it's name suggests, it's very up and downy), but this year it was very, very muddy. We did the 10 mile walk (there is an option to add another 6 miles in the middle up a very steep hill) but as the weather was pretty rubbish we didn't do that. Well, that's why the rest of them didn't do it, I just don't think I'm fit enough! Next visitor is Ben who is arriving tomorrow for the weekend for a break between finishing the taught part of his Masters and getting on with all the lab work for his dissertation.
While Laura was here we had a bit of a project going - to knit lots of floppy rabbits. She then took most of them to Samye Ling on her way to Edinburgh for ROKPA (the charity she worked for there) to sell at their summer teaparty. They looked quite cute all huddled together. For quite a while the lounge was a mess off various colours and sizes of rabbit parts. Talking of rabbits, we've finally put the first length of rabbit wire in the garden, all along the hedge. The rabbits can still get in (we have quite a lot more to do!), but it was funny the first couple of mornings to watch them trying to find their way out when we clapped our hands at them. The chickens were a bit put out by it too!
So, to the birds. As you know, I'm always going on about all the lovely birds we have around here, but I'm now ready to shoot these particular ones! When we first moved here, the crow/rooky things all lived on the other side of the quarry which is fine by me as their 'song' is not the most melodious to say the least. I think last year they started visiting this end occasionally which was still OK. This last week or so though they have become a major nuisance. They wake us at 4.30am with their version of the dawn chorus (which totally drowns out the nice tweety version). Even worse, two of them have taken to pecking persistently at the windows. Last year and the year before we had a solitary blackbird that used to do that. These two crows come together though and make a really loud banging on the glass. As we put string or mesh across one window, they moved to another until we now have stuff up at all the windows to try to deter them. It really does remind me of that Alfred Hitchcock film as they are very big close-to and could easily be seen as quite menacing . . . prisoners in our own home, bullied by huge black birds . . . . well, no it's not that bad, but we are both really tired and would love to sleep peacefully until 6am as we used to do!
All that said though, we do still have lots of lovely birds. The Jay and the Woodpeckers have got very brave and happily come to the peanut feeder even if we are in the garden. The other evening when Bob went out to say night-night to the chickens, there were two baby Tawny Owls just across the path from the door making very funny squeaky noises. The grown up Tawny Owl has visited the garden quite a few evenings, sitting in the little Ash tree in perfect view from the lounge. A few evenings ago, there was a lot of twittering just down the lane so I went to see what was going on and, after I'd stood very still and quiet for about 10 minutes, an ivy-covered tree exploded with baby Wrens. They seemed to be everywhere flying around and landing haphazardly on anything that got in their way. We have had baby Great Tits and Blue Tits on the peanuts and are now waiting for the Woodpeckers and Jays to introduce their offspring.
