Hello there ..
thought its about time I caught up with you all.
We've been making the most of the nice days .. although the last couple have been a bit wet and dreary.
Mind you .. we can't complain .. we have had a super summer.
So.. one fine day last week ...
Hubby P set off for work ..
it was a quiet-ish work day ... no need for us both to go..
and so...
I made a start ..and cleared the narrow beds bordering the trellis..
trellis that has had its day...
it has lasted for years...
but is now wibbly wobbly and rotten at its feet.
I wanted to do this whilst Hubby P was out of the way ...
well you know how it is ....
it takes time to get the plants up and find new homes for them ... Hubby P goes at everything with great gung ho! ...
it would all be rushed ..
This way I could find .. and carefully move everything ...
just look at these interesting corms ...
nestled just under the soil waiting burst forth next summer.
These are what I know as Turks Cap Lilly ...
something I had not come across until I move to Anglesey.
They were growing like wild things ..
spread all around the garden of our first house.
I moved a few corms with us and they delight us every summer.
I went on to start removing the old trellis ... it almost fell apart in my hands.
We had talked of replacing like for like ... but the thought of treating/painting another load of trellis kind of put me off ..
and then we were lucky enough to come across this..
Lovely old slate ... lots of it in Wales and used for all sorts of things.....I have slate windowsills inside the house ..
and slate paths in the garden ..
I love it ..
its particularly lovely after a shower of rain when all its blues and greys shine and glitter dancing in the sunshine.
The pile of slate Hubby P stashed away some time ago is or was slate fencing ...
long slim lengths .. of interesting ... uneven widths .. quirky shapes and knobbly bits ...
all so 'very me'!
So with some of this ...
and a pile of that ....
and the magic of Hubby P...
It became this ...
The start of our very own 'slate fence' to replace the trellis ... no maintenance required ...
just the odd shower of rain to bring up its sparkly bits!
I decided to 'fill in' the garden bed ... the birds will tend to scratch about and I end up sweeping soil off the path ..
this way I can have a little platform or area to display pots and buckets of ever changing seasonal plants.
We hastened to get the bird table back up and running ...
it had to go on a new post ...
and of course the trellis which enabled the 'Geoffrey's' (our mouse family) to access the bird table for supper was no longer there!
What to do?
Well .... we used what we had to hand .. and Hubby P made a helter skelter type affair ... with some old rope ...
now if they will ever use it we will have to wait and see.
But the rope will look okay once its weathered a bit.
Birds are still a bit dubious ... it being different an all!
So give it a few months to weather and grow a bit of nice moss ( I painted the horrible concrete-y bits with yogurt to help encourage moss-y type things)... and it will look nice and rustic.
And whilst Hubby P was doing the boring mixing the concrete bit ... and before the showers ... before its too late ... I collected some fennel seeds.
I do like a nice cup of fennel tea .. helps settle the tummy.
So what have you been up to ....
have you got everything all safely gathered in ... the nights are drawing in and its getting cold .... anyone had a frost yet?
Bye for now x
