Log shed roof replaced! Greenhouse finished! Leaky pipe.
It definitely felt like spring arrived this week. We had some gloriously sunny days, and the days are getting longer (as is the grass….). Some of the bigger daffs came out, the camellia is flowering, and the birds have been singing their hearts out.
Tuesday was overcast and windy, and I spent the morning finishing off my secret project – not a Phil one, I hasten to add.
Work week went OK, and I had the usual VWW and Family Zooms on Wednesday and Thursday. Caught up with Carl on Saturday morning, David on Saturday evening, Hazel on Sunday and a last minute Helen and Hazel on Monday.
Got into the habit of doing my physio exercises too – essentially strengthening my hip / thigh muscles. Too much WFH sitting / inactivity on top of one too many heavy falls onto my right knee? Who knows.
Friday was the start of three glorious days off, and I made the most of the sunny skies doing the Tremorithic route in the morning, making notes as I went. Me at my (al)most poetical…
Beyond Bacton, banks of snowdrops and celandine
…and potholes
Sleepy sheep
Fair Oak – Cat’s back
Bob!
Slumbering duck
Three sheep. Thee planes. Sky trails.
Buzzard
Cwm Hill
DPD and Watson’s Fuel
New fencing along the straight stretch
Best blackberrying brambles gone!
Bin lorry
Snow drops on the wane at Yew Tree Cottage and Ivy Green
Canns Hill footpath
Three buzzards coasting high
Home
Thea!
Bob!
Bins!
Obviously I didn’t take my camera with me….
Lunch in the conservatory, then a couple of hours work on the greenhouse in the afternoon – evened up the patio slabs flooring with some extra sand, put down gravel around the edges and in the gaps, and glued the staging together – aka the shelves. Now I’m almost ready to start potting and sowing….
Saturday morning was a complete white out, but that didn’t stop Phil and I from heading out into the mist to replace the roof of the log shed. Actually, Phil did pretty much all of it so I can’t take any credit.
That took the whole morning – but the sun came out (my face is a bit pink…) and we ate our fried egg sandwiches for a late lunch sat outside on the patio, and spotted a bat flying around in the conservatory! It had either flown in while we weren’t looking or had been hibernating in there and been woken up by the warm weather.
THEN we finished off the greenhouse barcapping, and the two water butts were set up and inaugurated with a watering can full of water from the dustbin in the garage where we catch the water that comes in through the leaky roof.
Tea and hot cross buns on the lawn in the last of the sun at 5pm.
I felt like I’d earned my 6 o’clock beer and crisps.
A really lovely day.
Sunday brought another beautiful morning – frost, blues skies, birds singing and sheep baa-ing. I went over to Thistly Field and took some photos of the mist in the aptly named Grey Valley.
We went for one of the longer walks we do around the lanes, made even longer by meeting lots of people at the start and end and stopping for chats. Long chat with Ray before we’d even got to Canns Hill.
Lunch outside, then pottering in the garden and greenhouse – laid some more gravel, relocated plant stuff from the garage, hoed the veg patch / herb bed, rooted up the dead geraniums, mint runners (boy, do they go a long way!) and baby nettles by the big pond. Raked out leaves and gunk from the small pond. Lopped back the stumps of the persistent shrubs by the Thistly Field stile and the orchard verge. All very satisfying.
Phil took this photo of me in my greenhouse (family & friends only).
Monday morning we discovered water coming through the light fitting in the hallway, and traced it back to wet carpet in the bedroom next to the en suite. Called Dale….
There are times, and there will be more, when I wish I just hadn’t started something.
Flickred the week’s photos and wrote the weeknotes, listening to the occasional drip – drip – drip into the bucket in the hall, and as the mist came down. Feels like I’m in a horror film.
Dale got here around 10am and tracked the leak back into the roof. Hopefully that’s all sorted now. We just have to let the carpet and underlay dry out….
A cold morning, with the mist down. I did some “computing” – Wickes click and collect for Wednesday and a big online grocery shop. Cloud still very low in the afternoon, so a few odd jobs in the garden.
TV: The last of This Farming Life, Justified, TaskMaster (not entirely convinced).
Podcasts: History Extra, Witness History, Billionaire Boys Club (abandoned after 2 episodes – not that interested, plus too many ad breaks).
Photos: Herefordshire week 61 on Flickr.
Phil: w/e 2021-02-28.