The richness of autumnal shades

 I'd felt that our rather insipid summer had seamlessly drifted into autumn with out the usual bang fizz until we were out last Saturday and my eyes were invigorated by some gorgeous colours.

So, inspired to seek out more eye popping colour I wandered into the garden and was pleasantly surprised.

Reds 

Rhus typhina

American Blueberry 

Acid yellows

Hydrangea petiolaris

Rosa rugosa 

Oranges

Geranium sanguineum

Cotoneaster microphyllus

The last of the calendula

Purples

Akebia quinata - Chocolate Vine

All the colours of the season - makes it feel right to think about decorating the window in preparation of Samhain (Halloween). The boys are up for it and it does mean we can go and collect leaves and cut up card and legitimately make a mess!

And you?

Today.

I took boys to school.

Drank peppermint tea and had fruit salad for breakfast.

I gardened...

....With the cats as they played and ran around the plants.

Felt the sun on my back - a rare and delicious feeling this year.

Felt a tiny bit melancholy - not sure why or what for.

I got mud on my face and dirt in my hair and it actually felt good to be grubbing around in the earth again, not been able to do that properly for a little while.

Listened to the blackbird complaining in the tree.

Watched my rose buds, willing them to open.

Need to spend more time with my boys.
Listen to them, listen to their stories, listen about what they got up to today.
They are growing up fast and I don't want to lose any time with them.

Feel the need to crochet or knit or anything - bursting to create but lack inspiration and time.

And now?

Sitting at my desk, freshly clean after a welcome shower. With a purring and tired kitten sitting on my lap.

Still to tidy the house before trudging off to work. A mixed blessing.

What are you doing at this moment?
What is keeping you busy?
Who is sitting on your lap?
What are you crafting?

Go on, share, spill the beans:)

Have a terrific Tuesday xxxxxxxxx

Little bit of this, a little bit of that

I keep meaning to stop and say welcome to some new faces, hi to some regulars and hello to any one meandering through.

Jane you asked about the yarn - it is the one I am using for *sshhh you know what* and is Nymph 4ply 'Wisteria'  from my shop - it's working up beautifully for that particular item (and if you are wondering at the secrecy -  I am crafting a birthday pressie for my Mom - for her birthday [obviously] which was about 2 weeks ago.......I am still perfecting the art of the item - I've managed the frogging back part really well so far.....) *sigh*

Lovely Lady - yes finally after a bit of a rocky start, the cats are almost as close as sisters or I suppose more like a mother daughter combo. It is funny to think there is only 6 months between them. I suspect that due to Pan's less than auspicious start, she will remain a small cat especially next to Lily's VAST quantities of fluff!
When she sits down, her fur wafts upwards just like a lady's crinoline skirt - in fact - remember the 1956  'King and I' with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr? Well, Lily's fur reminds me of Deborah Kerr's dress when she dances.

Hi Jacqueline -I see your sky scarf is growing beautifully, I am still recording the sky colours but must knuckle down and knit some rows - just need to finish my Mom's pressie first!

Hi Amanda  and Miriam Weaver! Welcome, nice to meet a new bloggers :) I am hoping this week to get over and say hi, it's been ages since I last has time to play on the lap top - combination of work, sunshine and the boys homework needs.

Thanks N (colouritgreen) your bwahahaha hit the spot!! Yes, I agree we do have loads of  'you-is-me-and-me-is-you'  similarities :)

My on a rather musical note posting seemed to have a toe-curling response from all of you but much more interestingly I was delighted at how many closet folkies are skulking around out there - woo hoo!

Any hoo, it has been nice chatting but the garden, the cats and the sunshine are all tempting me out so I will have a brief encounter with the vacuum cleaner, hang out the washing then spend some quality time with the weeds before going to work.......well, that's my day sorted!


Oh, before I go, one quick photo from our weekend.......... what do you do with a pack of boys and a thirsty garden on a hot day?  Well fill the pool and let them loose......garden gets watered and boys cool down - win win.

**In hushed tones**......

......Has winter arrived?

The tip of my nose confirms it...

My toes agree.

My fingers this morning, as I tried to open the hen's gate, were icy cold too.

The car's windscreen was frosty white.

Fingers of ice crept across the greenhouse glass.

The grass was crisp and crunchy.

And in all this cold crisp air, was the flash of orange from my Hamamelis (witch hazel).

Monday tomorrow. Not sure if I want this weekend to finish. Hey ho.

July - in a montage (or 2 or 3!)

I've been gardening today and apart from feeling absolutely shattered I am happy happy happy (can you tell?!!). 

Years ago, Himself and I were watching some  mindless American sitcom (the name and story line have deservedly faded into history) but we do  remember one sentence the main protagonist said and it was..... 

I am very tired - but it is a good tired! 

Any way, in the spirit being on hols, I shall do a July round up in a trio of montages!!

Firstly - a mix-up of garden and garden festival pictures, the garden - despite my work-induced neglect - looked good but not good enough to win anything, but the boys did well both winning a second place in their catagories. 

Our knit and natter group took over a huge area in the local church and we displayed both flowers and our work and received loads of lovely lovely comments.

We managed to squeeze in a lot of family and friends time in between work and sleep - Youngest finished junior school (a mixture of sadness and glee) and won the Technical Cup which took us all by surprise and delight!!  

Our blondies (young hens) are growing both in size and friendliness - they don't get much choice with the friendliness as they are regularly seen firmly tucked under a boy's armpit (poor chooks). 

A tree house has been built and now is the centre of many a boy-game or just gentle contemplating of life as they lie on their backs and watch the sky. 

My Dad celebrated his birthday (from last year!!) with a helicopter flight and we went along to watch and share, we also took a picnic and spent a lovely day enjoying the sunshine and family. 

Poor old giddy dog has had more than her fair share (as she thinks) of baths recently as the boys have discovered the 'delights' of washing her in the wheelbarrow.....they fill it up with tepid water and she hops in (well she is instructed to jump in and she so well trained she does, despite really really not wanting to!) then she is lathered up until she looks like a meringue, rinsed and dried and then all three of them play up and down the lane until she is dry. 

Youngest has rediscovered his camera (strangely it 'appeared' in the greenhouse....) and has been taking photos of EVERYTHING! 

Our veg garden is doing us proud, we are harvesting a goodly amount for such a small space. Yesterday I lifted all the garlic and they are now drying. 

The black kale and the Chinese mustard have been featuring heavily in our 'garden soups' and the onions are excellent and won't be long before I have to lift those too. 

Our peas, although only a few plants - gamely gave us just enough to have as mange tout initially then peas in salads latterly while the butter beans have been delish raw as well as being chucked in soups. 

The potatoes are still quietly growing and I haven't had an investigation yet but the tomatoes and courgettes in the greenhouse are the best we have had so far. We've picked tomatoes every second day and have them in lunch boxes, in salads and on picnics.  The beetroot have been a bit of an experiment - usually I plant them individually and allow to swell, but this year somebody on television (for the life of me I can't remember if it was a chef who gardened or a gardener who cooked) said to leave them in little bunches and lift a whole bunch at a time and they are sweeter and cook quicker. They do cook quicker, but they are definitely fiddly to deal with - so the jury is still out. 

Leeks are growing nicely and the rhubarb is now resting after providing it's first good crop - it is still a young plant and I didn't want to frighten it too much!

Eldest's wheel barrow entry to the garden festival is providing us with salad and herbs on a daily basis - it has been so so successful that I will encourage him to do it again as it has turned out to be so productive!

Well, that's just a little taster of our July - not a lot was done, but so much happened! 

Tomorrow is the 1st of August - can you believe it?? This year has flown by - it will be Youngest birthday at the end of the month - it doesn't seem so long ago he was just a tot :).

Tomorrow we are celebrating our day by going off to the local tea rooms for the obligatory carrot cake and tea then for a walk to return for the boys to wallow indulgently in the huge paddling pool Himself bought for them today - we may have to crack the ice of the top first and beat back a polar bear or two....!

Right I am off to bed! G'night!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

ooh it's lovely to be back :)

Jack be nimble.....

As a non English***, English speaking person, born and raised in the 'colonies', I find the English language incredibly interesting and quirky. It is a hybrid, a mongrel, a mixture, influenced through time. I love sounding the words in my mouth, I love investigating where words originate from and how they have evolved. I am a closet linguist. As a child was taught and listened to nursery rhymes and later as a mother recited the same rhymes to my children.

So, just for fun, I am going to share some of the things I have discovered............

Jack be nimble

Jack be quick

Jack jump over the candle stick

It seems to be most commonly agreed that Jack was Black Jack, a late 16th century English pirate who was notorious for eluding and escaping from the authorities.

However, the 'jumping over the candle stick' does have several origins accredited to it. Candle leaping was a 'sport' that folk used to play at some English fayres which had developed from an even older game of leaping over fires. This had been considered too dangerous and banned and was subsequently substituted by  candles.

Another theory goes back to lace-making school, where children were used as slave labour,  it was traditional to dance around candlestick used to light their workspace which eventually lead to jumping over the candle.

Candles were incredibly expensive at that time and while the wealthy could afford candles made of beeswax, the poor could only buy the cheaper candles made from tallow (animal fat). These candles gave off a poor light and an unpleasant smell while the very poorest people used rush lights, made by collecting, then peeling off the green outer layer of rushes. The inner tissue was then dipped in to animal fat.

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*** This statement caused a rather heated debate this morning - my heritage is English (as with all colony born people)  - our forefathers(and mothers!) originate from Europe but we tend to be fiercely proud of our country of birth, in my case Africa. Hence me me saying 'As a non English, English speaking person'.

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 This weekend was the village  garden festival, I will share photos and results tomorrow!

Hope your weekend was as sunny and warm as ours was :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

End of weekend waffling

Last year I entered the village garden festival and did surprisingly well but announced firmly that I would not enter this year.

Fast forward to present date: after much brow-beating by my Youngest I entered..... as did he and his brother.

So between us we have entered 4 classes - I don't hold much hope for myself as the garden has been bumbling along happily without much input from me as I seem to have been at work more than usual and the rain - oh the rain - there has been plenty of that..... But the boys have been working hard on their efforts - I will let you know how they do next week.

This weekend I took some photos of the garden and was alarmed at how little colour there is - plenty of promise, loads of tightly shut green buds but nothing really to show.

The photo of Eldest in the bottom left picture was not posed, he was there 'resting' after he'd been planting up his entry - an edible creative container.  It is the first time he has entered an adult class - fingers crossed!!

Youngest has decided to make a scarecrow rather than the usual mini-garden. He is making a certain Gallic dog from his favourite comic strip. He's not done this before and (apart from a parental finger to hold things or hand to cut something too hard) has made his entry on his own. This is also new territory so more fingers crossed!!

Well, was it just me or did this weekend whizzzzzzz by?

That's all for now my dears, hope you have a wonderful week filled with sunshine xxxxx

Holiday musings

It is nearly three weeks since our brief holiday romance with the Scottish Borders. My heart is still aching for the sense of liberation a coastal break can imbue. I know I am suffering from the usual PHD, but this time it seems to be lingering........ 

In a fit of longing I trawled through the photos this morning while I sipped a mug of tea and felt the need to share a few more holiday glimpses. 

One very hot day we wandered through the grounds of The Hirsel, where rhododendrons shuddered under the weight of their blooms. The gardens were filled with vibrant shades of vermilion, magenta, fuchsia, maroon, lilac, lavender as well as cheery splashes of yellow and elegant purple-flecked whites.  A heat haze shimmered on the sun baked ground and birds half heartedly chirped up in the lofty Scots pines.

We followed the grassy paths as they wound their way through the huge vegetation until we reached the welcome relief of the woodland. Cooler and damper where moss garlands languished on branches. The tactile  texture of the bark had me stroking each tree as I walked by. The deep strength and almost timeless quality of these huge plants was incredible.

On another, cooler day, we marooned ourselves on the island of Lindisfarne, where we walked around the coast, stopping to picnic or shelter against the rain. We watched seals as they watched us. We inhaled the salty air and collected smooth palm sized pebbles.  I fell in love with  the sea-scented lobster traps and the sturdy rough-touch ropes lying in wait for the next fishing trip.

The whole island seemed edged with a shimmering breeze-induced, dancing pink haze as the bobbing heads of Armeria maritima (sea thrift) nodded back and forth. I don't know how the bees managed to alight on their moving lunch, but they seemed to succeed.

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I am concerned.....I had hoped that reminiscing and sharing would sort out the dreaded post holiday depression but oh no! It has only made me worse!! I shall just have to go and put the kettle on, sooth my jangled heart and plan our next seaside sojourn!

That's all for now my dears, I will recover - do not fret :) Besides it's nearly FRIDAY! Woo hoo!

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Thank you every one who showed concern about my rose vs skull action, just to let you know that I am happily getting all scabby (urgh!) and brushing and washing my hair has been, well, an interesting side effect to the bashed head!  

Yes I have forgiven the rose, yes I have forgiven Himself and yes he can sit on his favourite bench again.......just need it to stop raining.

*sigh*

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Summer (?) solstice...... oh and ouch!

Happy summer solstice! Yes, I know, I have also looked out my rain streaked window and wondered about using the word summer, but as I have only one fleece on instead of the customary two or three it must be summer......but just to be on the safe side, I have lit the fire.

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Last weekend saw some sense knocked into (or possibly out of) me. Himself had been muttering dark sinister things about the rose at the end of the garden.

He was correct that it had taken over trifid-like and had smothered his favourite bench. He likes to sit there in the evening sunlight (when on the rare occasion we actually get some) on a weekend . But this particular rose had thwarted his plan and HE WAS GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!  

Himself 1 : Rose 0  

Next thing I know, he has rigged up a frame to force the rose up higher and away from it's original support so that there was now a space to allow pruning.

Look he says, I made it easier for you (me?) to sort that rose out - coz if I do it  - I'll just hack at it and kill the **** thing..............

So, armed with my secateurs I started to cut away. I have to admit to not feeling 100% safe beneath the frame so moved around to the back of the rose (which I have to say is an over 20 foot high rambling variety). Much pruning and trimming and pulling of dead stuff away later, I returned to to the front of the plant to see how things were shaping up. I stood and admired how much better the rose was looking then noticed a dead branch that I'd cut but not pulled out, leaned in and yanked....hard......

The frame collapsed. 

Fortunately my head and shoulder broke it's fall and it landed gently on the lawn. I on the other hand needed much mopping up and copious mugs of sweet tea. Ouch.

Rose 1 : Me 0

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Sunday - feeling a little bruised but not defeated I was pottering out and about in the garden (avoiding the sniggering rose) and look what was watching................

Through out the day this little chappie popped around with it's mum until she was fed up with it. It then shivered and cheeped rather sadly and even tried following us. We felt that the fledgling had actually left the nest through greed rather than being ready. So, Himself (armed with his longest ladder and sweaty palms), returned the fledgling to it's nest. One happy fledgling later - it's mum started feeding again :)

And on another sweet note - doesn't this look super yummy!

Well, that was our weekend, it had it's highs and it had it's lows :) Here's to the next one! (where's my crash helmet??)

Lovely to chat to you my dears, I've missed you, hope your week will be filled with as much colour and love as you deserve xxxxxxxxxx

Put your sunnies on!

I feel absolutely brain dead today -  due to an accumulation of nearly two weeks of double shifts, dancing till dawn last weekend and then when I do eventually crash on the pillow finding that I can't switch off but am too tired to use that wakefulness productively! Never mind, nearly the weekend coz today is Friday eve!! (that's Thursday to everyone out there in blog-land) and tonight is knit and natter here which I am looking forward to.

I have been wanting to share with you some gorgeous zingy-full-of-colour photos with you for a little while but for reasons already mentioned I haven't had the brain power to do anything, but today I am in need of some bright colour therapy and want some sunshine even if only in digital format.


While we were away Himself spotted an open garden being advertised in the local paper. He knows I love visiting other gardens and he is right.  I can find inspiration, feel envy, notice weeds, admire planting schemes, dream and aspire or just simply escape and enjoy.

On a squint-making sunny day we rambled around a huge garden with only the flowers and insects for company. We had the entire place to ourselves. There was no pressure to move on, we I could stare at the long border and sigh in Victorian style rapture, we I could inhale the scent of this rose, which I have to say was so heady and so all encompassing in the heat of the day that afterwards when we climbed into the car, I could still smell a hint of it's perfume. 

The old moss roses, although not as scented were just as wonderful to see.

The long border, not yet at it's full splendour was still wonderful. Filled with lupins, iris, geraniums, alstroemeria, aquilegia, hemerocallis, peonies and sweet peas. There were many more plants just waiting to burst into bud, but I won't bore you with the list as there were a lot of them! We chatted with the head gardener and he said that they hadn't started putting out the summer bedding yet. So imagine how glorious it will look at it's peak. I loved the way fagus sylvatica (purple or copper beech) had been used as an alternative to yew as a formal back drop. Delicious!

Another intoxicating old rose.

The beauty of this place was the freedom to wander around a garden filled only with plants and history and us.  This garden** is open all summer and we just happened to arrive on the second day and only had to share it with the sun in the sky. We did go on to another gorgeous place but I will save that for another day when I am in need of some more exhilarating colour therapy!

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**Garden -  Bughtrig

And...did you see it??

My front garden............what do you see?  

Weeds? Yes, weeds -  in particular those two dandelions bottom left?  

Look again....what else do you see? 

The distinct lack of colour but the beginnings of life. (That was a hint...)

See what I am trying to show you? 

Yes - well done you!! 

oh - sorry was that a no? 

Ok, more help needed.

See it now?

Need another and better visual clue?

How about this one.................

Aah, village life.

Just must remember to ask the window cleaner to leave the front of the house this week, don't want to disturb  progress! Hope I am around when they hatch, **thinks against a 24 hour vigil with camera** It's lovely to see the double take on people's faces as they walk by :)

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Do chickens snore?

I walk down to the hens. Time to close them up for the night. It's dusk and the bats are out. Next door's barbecue has fizzled out, all that remains is a lingering hint of scorched sausages and charcoaled burgers.

I pass by my kitchen garden where I have worked all day. The pricked out spinach seedlings, still a bit sorry for their move are beginning to perk up while the onion sets look like they have been in situ all their little lives.

I look up into the darkening sky as a bat flits on silent wings above my head, twisting and turning around the greenhouse then disappearing over the hedge. I turn and follow the path along the lawn. Toys nestle amongst the columbine and carex grasses where they were abandoned during an earlier game. I must remember to tell the boys to collect them in. I stop briefly to look at the borders, and sigh at the thought of the enthusiasm of the weeds and the slothfulness of the perennials.  A day like today induces a wonderful surge of springlike growth - but it seems the nettles and the dandelions are quicker to capitalise on the warmth and light than the plants.


I duck my head under the tree who's branches reaches across the path as I enter the next part of the garden. I can feel a slightly furrowing of my forehead, this area is in desperate need of rejuvenation. Perennial mounds of various shades and shapes are growing, threatening to take more than their allotted space. Here the weeds struggle to find elbow room between the heavy weights such as the rudbeckia and giant scabious. I stop to muse the annual angst I have of which part of the garden to tackle first, when I hear a strange sound.

I stand statue like, straining to hear a warbling, rattly sound. All  I can hear is the distant sounds of a dog barking and a car driving.
Nothing.
I turn back towards the hens. That sound - I hear it again............ a rattly, short snorty sound, then a whistle, not a human tune but a reedy bird sound.

Rattle, whistle, silence, rattle, whistle, silence.

I stop again, to concentrate on the sound.

Rattle, whistle, silence, rattle, whistle, silence.

The sound appears to be emanating from the hen pen. I walk a little quicker, but as silently as possible. As I reach their shed the sound stops briefly. I hear a hen-grumble, a rustle of bedding and then it all settles down. Then as I open and step into the pen, that sounds starts again.

Rattle, whistle, silence, rattle, whistle, silence.

By now I am at the door, carefully as I can, I open it, and peer in..........there in the gloom 4 pairs of little beady eyes stare back at me. One of the hens gives a little chicken-chuckle, a bit more settling down then silence. Nothing. They stare at me as I stare at them.

Still nothing.

I begin to feel silly, they begin to feel uncomfortable. I shrug, wish them a good night, switch on their light, lock their door and leave. As I close the pen gate.........................


Rattle, whistle, silence, rattle, whistle, silence..................


Which begs the question................do chickens snore?

Sowing and Growing, Cooking and Eating, Walking and Breathing

Growing and Sowing

I have to admit to a feeling optimistic delight every time I go into my glasshouse. Daily, no - hourly, the seedlings seem to grow, transforming the pots of dark soil into mounds of verdant micro jungles all jostling for space. Some of the larger seedlings have been pricked out and potted on and they need even more elbow room. Outside I've got a large cloche type cold frame covering my square foot garden where beans, garlic, black kale and spring onions grow on, it won't be long before I fill that too. 

Oh yes,  there's still the potatoes to plant (soil is a bit cold), the spinach and onions to go out, the parsley and leeks, the garlic chives and ....................hmmmm my garden isn't small but it is too small for my enthusiastic seed sowing! (And I've not even started to take into account all the ornamental seeds I've sown too)

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Cooking and Eating

Ages ago I made 'veggie Cornish pasties' which is a bit of an oxymoron and is a recipe that needs a name of it's own, but it was rather tasty and I promised to share the nuts and bolts of it (not to worry they are not ingredients!).

The original recipe came from here but I did my usual and fiddled with the recipe to make it our own.

1. I used onions, courgette, carrot, potatoes and mushrooms.
2. As per the instructions I chopped, sliced and diced.
3. The vegetables were cooked over a medium heat and
4. The grated cheese and stock was added.
5. I cheated and used ready made short crust pastry and instead of making Cornish-pasty rounds I made a single large pie. The veg mix is lovely and moist and the pastry collapsed last time so this time, I lined a dish (not necessary could just grease instead) and made a double crust pie.
6. So, a quick photo before it was guzzled, with home grown salad (first decent crop of this year!) chips as a concession to  Youngest and who proclaimed himself most-starving-one and garlic bread - discovered hiding in the freezer. Yum.

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Walking and Breathing

Youngest has been away for a week at an outdoor activity centre in the Lakes, so he has had less energy than his usual firecracker self and our regular weekend yomp seemed to fizzle away. By Sunday evening I was pacing the floor feeling quite out of sorts. I kinda threw a wobbler and insisted we went out for a walk as soon as we had finished eating. Strangely all my normal walking conspirators were reluctant, preferring to podge out.

 It took a fair bit of firm talking to, to get the boys (all 3) to move but once they did, their dour moods lifted and the walk took on a refreshing cleansing feel to it. 

The evening sunlight gave everything a warm golden glow and the sky was full of dramatic flame coloured cloud. There were lambs everywhere, frolicking in the gentle warmth.

It was like meditation, my breathing connected with my footsteps and my feet connecting with the earth - wonderful.

As usual, our weekend was over in a flash. 

Here's wishing you a magnificent Monday (in the words of my fav sis in law) and a wonderful week xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hearts, hens, sunshine and sheds!

Today's hearts 

come with love 

(and mucky fingers) 

from my boys 

while we were in the hen pen 

for today.....

we built...chickenham palace!

For those of you who regularly meander through my day will recall our sad loss of two of our hens to a stoat.

We had promised ourselves and our birds, that come summer we would improve their pen and rebuild their hock and with that in mind, last autumn I started to move the compost heaps to allow us to move the hen pen to a more sunnier part of our rather shady garden. Then both winter (and her accompanying snow) and then the flu stopped all work. 

The stoat attack made us realise that the girls had been rather vulnerable and we had to get on and do their 'relocation relocation' before summer.

I managed to source a larger shed for them (had to scout around the tinter until I found one that was a good price), and was delighted when I also found an exceptionally good deal on a shed LED solar lighting system. We had been weather-watching since the shed arrived and  this weekend was the first decent day we could get out.

Over breakfast the four of us chatted through the plan and the more I thought about it the more complicated it seemed to be turning out to be.....

let me explain.

In autumn, as I previously mentioned, I had started to move the compost heaps from the north side of the garden over to where the hens are now (the south east side). But, while munching on toast, we decided that with a bit of judicial pruning we could get more light in the original pen therefore not having to move it, reducing an huge amount of work.

Then I thought about it a bit more.....

• The new shed needed to be constructed in situ as it does not fit through the hen-pen's gate
• the old hen-hock would also have to be dismantled in situ as this one doesn't fit through the gate either
• BUT!!!
• the part-moved compost heaps needed to be emptied FIRST and their contents returned to the original compost corner BEFORE we could do any construction/deconstruction work
• however, the remaining original compost heaps would need  to be emptied BEFORE-BEFORE the new un-composted material be returned to the now waiting compost bays (keep up keep up!)
• the new compost bays would also have to be dismantled in situ,  before any new shed building could begin
• we would have to sacrifice one youngish tree, prune the hedge quite severely, and tidy up an acer so to let in more sunlight
• the brick base for the new shed would need to be built
• Himself wanted to extend the life expectancy of the wooden floor and wanted to paint an extra waterproof layer on it's underside
• I wanted a thick thick pond liner layer to be laid on the inside of the shed floor to make it more hen poop-proof  so I could  continue using a substrate layer of shredded paper (I get an unlimited supply from work, which once the hens have had their use - goes on the compost heap)

I put the kettle on again............. and thought .....this was going to be a long day.

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Now, at the end of the day, after we have eaten, compared all our aches and pains, (even snuck in a sneaky nap on the settee) we are rather chuffed with our efforts, but boy are we knackered!

And the hens loved the idea that they were able to roam free round the garden ALL DAY!

And if you survived all that, and still have strength for some more - follow this  link to see what hearty happenings happened heartily last year!

Thats all for now,

it's been lovely chatting to you and sharing our ( very muddy) day,

 g'night xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx