Out With The Old . . .

Long time, no blog. February was a strange month - my last working in academia - and after taking down the hedge, we didn't seem to do a great deal around the garden. Did clear up most of the hedge debris - Martin just needs to dig out the stumps now - I'll leave that to him and the chainsaw!

Anyway with the end of February, I finally finished with the University (well for the most part anyway - will still be marking for them!). On my last day there was the traditional coffee and cakes, and I was presented with a lovely bouquet of flowers, a standard Bay Tree in a pot, and a silver pendant set with quartz. There was a card and speeches, and it was all rather strange - I've been there nearly six years (plus all that time as an undergraduate, Masters and PhD student), and can't quite believe it's over . . .

Hedge Today, Gone Tomorrow

We'd been debating this one for a while - what to do with the hedge dividing off the square bit of garden at the side (where we've just put Greenhouse No. 3). Although it doesn't look too bad in this picture, the trees on the right hand side had died back considerably.


We started by taking down all the dead and dying trees, but then it just looked a little lopsided. So we finished by taking the lot down:

Must admit there is still one hell of a mess to clear up - it's a lot of tree! - but it has opened up the area considerably - room now for Greenhouse No. 2 maybe.

And We Shall Have Snow . . .

While the rest of the country ground to a halt yesterday we stayed relatively snow free on the West coast. Woke up to a whiter world, but not white enough to close the roads or anything - quite pretty though:

And got to see our snowdrops in their true setting:

Greenhouse Number Three

We decided last year to invest in a second greenhouse (a little larger than our existing model) especially as it was going cheap in Focus. We're planning to put it at the top of the garden in the sun trap near the wood store.

However a couple of weeks back we were offered a third, even larger, greenhouse (8 x 10 ft) for free - if we'd deconstruct it and take it away. There were a few panes of glass missing but not many, so we thought it was worth a go.

It took an afternoon and an hour or two the following morning to get from that to this.

Now we're at the stage of putting it all back together again. Well, Martin's been doing the work with a little help from his Dad . . . We've got the foundation's in, and the frame up - we'll need to wait for the right weather before putting in the glass itself though.

The Robin has been loving the construction work - all those nice juicy worms digging in the blocks turned up - he's even fatter if possible!

Catching up with the Weather

It's been a couple of weeks without a weather update now, so here we go . . . For the 12th-18th January my pictorial system shows a rather wet week; with the week just gone not quite as wet, but with showers most days.

The technological record bears this out, showing a distinctly mild fortnight, without any real frosts.

Return of the Woodpecker

The bird feeder remains popular with the local birdlife, but we hadn't seen the woodpecker in quite a while. He was back though yesterday and now in full adult plumage*:

*Only worked out that our first encounter was with a juvenile by looking more closely at the RSPB website, to find out why the crown of red feathers was now a patch at the back of the head.

One Year On

We've been here a year now - can't quite believe how quickly it's gone - although at the same time it seems like we've been paying the mortgage forever.* Anyway here's a montage of the last year (thanks for the idea Amanda!).

* We really thought the old house would have sold by now - but fingers crossed, new estate agent, new price (lower of course) . . . if only the media would shut up about how bad it all is, maybe we could actually sell!