Very sadly our old grape vine did not survive the building work, so today Cat and Dad are cutting it down.
There was no sign of any life in any of the branches. We will replace this with another grape vine, it’s a great sunny and sheltered spot and we miss having plants growing up the front of the house.
All our garden furniture has been sitting outside next door for the last year, so it has a hose down and a good scrub.
Both our gardens are looking so rubbish it’s getting us down, so today we visited the local garden centre, grandly named The National Herb Centre, to smarten up the front of the house to make us feel better.
Colin sent us this photo, just at the right time, to remind us just how far we have come in the last year… It’s so easy to forget!
We have been looking for a very large pot to house our old rose and found this one at the garden centre that is perfect. It is actually fibre glass but looks pretty convincingly like a big old lead planter.
Our two slate planters are still next door, so with the help of the sack truck (and the owners, who arrived just at the right time!), we manage to move them to their new home either side of the front door.
Three weeks old and utterly adorable!
Baloo showing us how he ‘catches’ water. Brilliant!
It’s a definite improvement.
Another leak? Oh yes. The brand new outside tap (in the garage) is pissing out all over the wall already…
Ugh. Sunday morning and the whole tap sheared off the pipe and exploded in my face (after this photo was taken)! FFS.
The garage had become full (again) and we couldn’t get into it (again), so this morning we finally returned all the plug in heaters that were taking up a lot of space.
Cardboard boxes and packing material can also be cleared out now.
Cardboard boxes have all been flat packed and recycled to Laura who is also moving house very soon.
Colin’s first challenge of the day. Digging out the root ball of the old vine.
Not an easy task as this is solid clay and stone.
Some of the roots from the vine seem to still have some life in them, so we have planted them out with some rooting compound and are crossing fingers and toes that they might come to life…
It is already pushing 30 degrees hence the hood…
Thank god for the shade.
The wall that was behind the vine will need cleaning up and repointing, but this is now ready for the path to be laid.
A well deserved rest in the shade.
Colin’s next challenge!
Back to riddling.
We have washed the chair covers (that were black with mould). They are still a bit grey but will do until we find somewhere that does replacement covers.
Jasper’s preferred place to sleep.
It’s turning into rather a big dig!
The day ends with takeaway curry in the garden while watching the sun setting.
Well, the day hasn’t ended just yet, need to move Zanna’s new chest of drawers upstairs.
It is useful not having glass in the stair balustrade yet.
The top half.
The bottom half.
It fits perfectly!
