The weekend after digging and pouring the concrete footings for the new site of the greenhouse in the hottest driest April ever - of course the poor Engineer had to build his breeze block base in slightly different conditions. Typical.
There was a moment's panic from me when I saw how high the low wall was - and he had also planned to use the old metal base frame which the greenhouse used to sit on the flagstones on, which added another 8 inches in height! I had to demonstrate that I might need ropes and crampons to get in and out of the door, and so we reached a happy compromise and scrapped the frame base, bolting the greenhouse frame down on timber battening instead. I'll still need a step for true comfort but when that will happen heaven only knows...
So for now, and as tomatoes were desperate to go in, I just have weed membrane down on the inside. After this season we will decide what to put down on the floor.
The dedication of the Engineer! He climbed halfway up the tree to get a good overview shot of the veg patch to include the newly positioned shed and greenhouse...bless...
Greenhouse done, Phase 3 of the great reshuffle was begun - with some urging from me as I am sick and tired of the 'temporary' compost heap (which is now of course right in the way of the door of the greenhouse!) and squatting on the spot which needs fairly urgently to be my dahlia and sweet pea beds.
So the Engineer zoomed off with unusual speed and collected a load of enormous pallets from our friend whose business ships huge bits of kit around on pallets and is always happy for us to take them away - hurray, free wood!
The tarp which was covering the ground where the new compost heaps were to be sited was lifted and look who we found...
I did look it up - but now I can't remember whether this was the male or female slow worm - but whichever it was, the other one beat a hasty retreat into the hedge, while this one brazened it out for a good 10 minutes, obviously hoping we would put the cover back and let him/her get back to whatever they were doing under there in the warm and dark! Quite shocking, and in the middle of the day, too....
Once the resident wildlife was safely out of the way of hammers and stakes, it didn't take long at all really before these 3 beauties were up and ready for operational duties.
I am admittedly rather too excited about this than is probably good for me. But it has felt a bit like the season has been moving on too quickly and I haven't been fully functional in the workhorse department of the garden. And in a garden this size, that is no laughing matter.
I can now proceed with confidence, (and warp speed) to catch up with Spring before Summer suddenly appears!
In other news...
Under doctor's orders still for my recovering neck injury, I have been taking a daily constitutional first thing after delivering the children to school. This has tended to vary between 15 and 30 minutes, (depending on the weather!) and I try to alter my route slightly each day so that I don't get bored. Actually, I am starting to quite enjoy these little warm-ups to my day, and I have started to take my camera along with me to capture any particularly pretty sights I find.
Yesterday's walk provided many delights and here are a few of my favourites:
This stunning hawthorn tree in the front garden of this house just stopped me in my tracks - it's like a ship in full sail. I would really love to remember this image, to remind me to plant a hawthorn and leave it to grow into a proper tree, not just a (very lovely) addition to the chorus line of the hedge.
Onward to the Bank Holiday, then. Better start praying for a continuation of this amazing weather... x
