A weekend of graft, and Monday

Welcome back and it has been a super busy weekend so let's get to it without any further delay.

The outside fix for the roof box

The inside fix for the roof box

Space in the boot for more stuff

The girls help me assemble the flat pack furniture

Saturday I was out the door to town a little later than expected for various reasons but my shopping was successful and I had time to try and get the roof box on Maisie before my call with my mum and my sister. Unfortunately I ended up spending about 40 minutes or so fighting to shut the box and it just wouldn't go. I stopped for the family call and while on that remembered the missing rivet and sure enough that was exactly the problem - the catch had rotated 180 degrees so was not engaging. I managed to effect a fix with a screw, a left over flat pack part and some scrap wood pieces; thank goodness as the new roofbox is quite expensive. Anyway with that fixed I finished up the rest of the packing and have plenty of space so that is good. After this I finished building the first chest of drawers and then assembled the second as well so that was my chores for the day. I was ready for bed by the end of the day!

The overgrown garden before...

... and after my weeding

This little critter was too slow to escape

More of the garden needing weeded

And now that is also weeded

(L-R) Tiny, Daddy Dog, Mummy Dog and Socks

Saturday was busy but Sunday was crazy. I was up and outside early to finish up the weeding that I began on Friday. It was a really nice session and I got everything done in about an hour or so, despite being attacked by hornets, though I did manage to kill a few of them. I worked my way all the way around below the patio, leaving only the flags and the poppies, and did about 4 or 5 wheelbarrows full of weeds. I was also watched from the lane by the four farm dogs, including Tiny here on the left of the picture.

Thelma grinning, Louise and Xena snoozing, in the sun

Happily on the mower again

Can you spot Xena, poised to pounce

Xena climbs on my shoulder

Taking up her station

Some flowers on the top bank

All mowed and looking lovely

I had some breakfast, rested a little in the office while the puppies enjoyed the sun, then I was outside again onto the ride-on mower to get all the grass mowed in one day if at all possible. I started out on the top bank and that took me a fair old time, Xena was in close attendance for all of it, hiding when I emptied the collection bag (I was putting the cuttings in with the chickens again) then jumping around when I got back on and finally following very close behind while I drove around. She did also do a lot of running like a loon around the garden as well. There were some lovely flowers in places and it is always a bit sad to cut them however it needed doing and now it's done I'm very happy how it looks.

My first tortoise sighting of the year

Looking across the freshly mowed garden

Lovely flowers in Angela's garden

My saved walnut tree is alive and well

A view of the house with the lawn nicely mowed

This was my reward

I took a short rest for a drink of water and then carried on down to the front lawn which also went really well. I saw my first tortoise of the year and also, sadly, Xena killed her first lizard. Not good. I completed all the ride on mowing, took a quick break again for a drink, then got the new push along mower and worked around all the bits that I couldn't do on the ride-on. While doing this I was able to enjoy the sight of Angela's flower garden next to the drive which is looking lovely, and also was happy to see the walnut sapling we transferred last year into the orchard is alive and flourishing. I did not get every little bit of the mowing done; there were some little bits by the vehicle gate and down the drive, but I was very tired and needed to start to cook my roast so I headed in and poured a very welcome beer which all disappeared over the course of the evening. A very tiring but super satisfying day indeed.

Bekir with the trap for the polecat

Fly screen fitted, and also drain pipe repaired

Halil loads up yet more buckets of sand

Xena watches as the lime is added

Bekir watches the water run in

All hands to the mixing

Slapping it on the walls

And so to today. Bekir and Halil were in on time and I went to grab them to ask to do a quick early job for me however they actually had something else on their minds first up; a polecat trap that they have set near the chicken enclosure. It'll be interesting to see if anything is caught. Xena was NOT happy with what it smelt like either. After doing this they did put the fly screen back on the woodstore window so I can now leave that window open to air it as the balcony is leaking very badly and it was very musty in there. After this they were back to their scheduled task with Halil carrying many buckets of sand up and then this was mixed with lime and water to create the mortar that they then slapped onto the walls. It's hard and slow work but it should result in a good strong finish.

Fully committed to the snooze

The chicken house is nice and clean again

A look, a poppy!

More slapping going on

It was a slightly less sunny day today, and we have had some rain late afternoon, however most of the day there was sun and the girls have slept all day on the sofa in the sun. At lunch I got outside and cleaned out the chicken house which was one of my chores, then got the push along and did a very little mowing. I was out again towards the end of the day to do the final patch and now everything is mowed and ready for my holiday. The first poppy has come out as well, by where I weeded yesterday, so I'm glad I didn't disturb those poppies. The men were just working away all through the day mixing and slapping and have made good progress there.

Louise got a shitty neck. YES!

A flash of gold which was the Oriole

And that's it, other than two very exciting things. First of all Louise today got a shitty neck; more signs that she is returning to her true self again. And finally I opened the window in Room 13 very fortuitously just as two Golden Orioles were singing and dancing around between the tea trees and the oak tree. I did capture one of them on camera, and stood for a fair while listening to them sing and filming it. A great end to this blog post.

There you go. Thanks for reading what was a quite long update in the end. See you tomorrow.