The green, green grass ..

Let's be honest; most things take much longer to do than we first imagine. This proved to be the case today when Luke and I decided to do some repair work on the shed. I hate to tell you this but when Luke cleaned out the shed yesterday in preparation for today's repairs he chanced across a desiccated rat! We inherited rat holes when we first moved in so we knew they were about and of course we had a live rat in the compost heap (quite possibly the same one as the now dead one) last year.
Anyway, after a day of moving, disinfecting and preparing we were ready for the repairs  Luke bought some lengths of shiplap to replace the rat chewed sides of the shed and set to work, sawing, nailing and fixing whilst I painted the fence panels that had been put up by Jack, our neighbour.

After two visits to the local tip with a car full of rubbish that the people who owned the house before us had left, I cleaned the greenhouse with hot water, disinfectant and good old fashioned elbow grease. Two hours later the glass was transparent again and my hands were like prunes.  Whilst I washed the panes I had some help from Sylvie. She pecked at the lichen on the frames and had a little dust bath into the bargain whilst the other hens sunbathed outside.

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Before.

Half way through.

 Thank you, Sylvie.

Sunning themselves in the garden.

Hope

For so long now it has not been good enough weather to garden. Added to that the sodden clay soil that disheartens the most green of fingers has refused to dry out enough to work it.
True, we have turned over the ground in the veg patch though so much soil improver has been added to it that we have changed the structure of it and it breaks apart more easily than the rest of the garden.
How lovely today to be able to get out and get digging!
With a couple of nice days in store we may finally have turned a corner with the weather and can finally garden again. Oh dear, that usually means digging into my purse too! The garden centre is calling!!

Duck or grouse?

Nothing to gripe about today with this wonderful sunshine. Whilst the ducks enjoyed their paddle, the flowers basked in the warmth.