Our loo view.

This is the large Oak at the end of our garden. Lovely to look at, isn't it?

Chicken love.

I had to show you this pic. Luke thinks they seem to be worshipping at the alter of the statue (which he abhors!)
The chickens seem to like it though.

Gardener's delight.

A day off today and how I have looked forward to it but sadly, as soon as I finished the work I'd brought home with me the rain started pounding. It stopped at two and I nipped out and used the now redundant space where the courgettes would have grown had not two of them been decimated by those pesky slugs to put in three rows of rocket. I've done an artisan veg patch whilst Luke hasn't been looking. I've got some rows going one way and some the other. Next year we may actually have a plan but this year, with building the fence we have not had lots of time to devote to the vegetable patch. In fact it's been mainly me working on it this year as once Luke put in his potatoes, onions and garlic he hasn't had much time for himself. I spoke to my Mum at long last today and we chatted about her onions. They seem to have onion mould which I'd seen on Gardener's World this month. It's not about veg-husbandry because even the very experienced gardeners have fallen foul to it this year. It does mean that you can't use the same ground for onions for four years although it is fine for most other vegetables. Thankfully, our onions are looking resplendent in their beige or scarlet jackets.

The beetroot, spinach, ornamental cabbages and pak choi are all coming up now. I'm just waiting for the parsley to start emerging. Soon the delicate lavender flowers of the beans will turn to shards of green bean but I'm not very hopeful for the sweetcorn which doesn't like being planted out so late.

In the greenhouse, huge marigolds threaten to take over the place, coming up way past waist height. The glossy fruits of our aubergines are looking magnificent but the tomatoes have yet to ripen into cherry bright fruits. Love apple is the old name for tomatoes, I read that 35 years ago in an old girl's annual and have never forgotten it. I even won a quiz with it once - that and being able to spell omelette. You see, my year of training in catering came in handy for something!

I've also transplanted six strawberry plants which I'd had in a pot. They grow much better from runners than they do from seed and now is a good time to divide and space out so once I'd moved a couple of decorative plants to admittedly temporary homes I had some extra space by the red currant to put in another small bed of strawberries.

We've been enjoying the fruits of our labour recently with the enormous Polka raspberries, picked straight from the cane, rubbed half heartedly in a pretence to clean away any wasp and fly trace and then popped straight in the mouth. Put like that it sounds mightily unhygenic but that's the gardener's delight – to be able to snack as he or she works.
Here is a bee enjoying itself on the verbena.

Aerated!

I'm  not aerated but my compost now is. I've been turning over the compost which loves to be mixed and have air added to it, I've added a few grass clippings and some egg shells, pea pods, carrot and potato peelings, cauliflower florets, broccoli stalks (first cut up) and soft strawberries and have layered those into the compost as I forked it back into the compost bin.

We have friends coming over tonight for dinner, hence the veg peelings but Luke is still struggling with the toilet cistern that he has been working on for about four hours now. Let's hope he gets it sorted before our guests arrive as we only have one loo!
I've yet to vacuum and mop the floors but the food is ready and hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine so we can spend our Sunday outdoors putting the featherboard on the fence and then - hoorah!! - it will be done; that side at least. It's been our Fourth Bridge, never ending, so it seems.
So today has been more of a clean up with me getting the front tidied, pots moved, the steps swept and the deck out the back brushed. Up at the back of the garden I have used the tiny ceramic pots to edge the back of the veg patch.

Footnote: the computer crashed as I was typing this up so I didn't get to post it till Monday but happily I can report the loo was repaired in time for our guests, the Beef Wellington cooked perfectly and we had two whole tablespoons of our own peas between four of us! Luke bagged up a load of our potatoes for them to take home and all was well.

Knowing our boundaries.

One weekend we are just going to put our feet up and relax! For now, we'll get our relaxation between 8pm and bedtime because with late summer nights there is always a job to be done.

Have we completed the fence? Have we heck as like! But we are on the way. Luke has managed to put half of the featherboard up in one day. The garden is 22 metres long and each panel has ten cms space so it's a long process. As you know we were spurred into action on the arrival of the new neighbour's dog. Whilst we were banging in nails and sploshing on paint yesterday he was happily wandering through the unfinished gap and sniffing around the deck. Who knows, maybe he cocked his leg on the lengths of wood we have laid out on the deck; after all he did choose the post Luke was working on to do his business by. For a small dog he has a lot of character!

The hens were busy out all day but tend to swap gardens, preferring the safety of Jack's whilst the dog is about. Another full day to work on the fence and we will be dog proof. As Luke commented, “Then all we'll have to do is fox proof the back!”

 

I followed him down the garden as he banged in nails, paint and brush in hand. Stupidly I didn't stir the paint well enough and put the unmixed, thin liquid on a dozen of the panels before stirring it with a proper bit of wood as opposed to the cane I'd first used which wasn't up for the job. This resulted in a green stain on those panels whilst the rest had the mixed, thicker and deeper verdigris colour applied. Of course I had to go over the original ones which took more time but I almost caught up with Luke.

Still only half way but the end is in sight, Hooray.

Jack had offered me the loan of his hedge trimmer and after checking I couldn't break it and telling him boldly I would buy him another if I did, I took it into the front garden to straighten up the hedge.Merrily I strimmed along the hedge until suddenly there was a flash of light and no power coming into it. Ah well, I thought, I must have burnt it out. That is until I lifted the chainsaw itself to see that I had sliced through the actual cable! Oops.
Luckily my Mum had taught  me how to change a plug so after five minutes with a screwdriver and a stanley knife it was good as new and I set off to finish the job.

I spent a restless night before waking to Monday morning again. My next day off has rain forecast so maybe I'll get that lazy day I'd planned. Then again, there's always the housework to do....,.