All in the garden is lovely

Hello there .. thought I ought to say a quick Hello .. 

sorry .. 

I am a bad blogger ..

It just seems work has hit a silly  pace .. 

and I struggle to make time for sitting at the computer .. 

I am missing you all so much !

So a photo heavy blog ... if you have the time to wade through it .. just a bit of what we have been up to ...

Hubby P has has a few interesting calls ...  

people are having a clear out .. and/or houses need to look at their best .. to be fit for sale etc.. so he goes along to help clear.. and brings home all sorts of goodies..

On one trip he came home with .. what he said was a load of firewood .. helping a dear lady .. on crutches poor thing .. to clear around her outbuildings .. to tidy up for sale.

As he unloaded his firewood .. riches unfolded before me ....

just look at this lovely old oak ladder/steps...

it was one of two.. the sort you see allowing Ramblers and the like to climb over walls..

They had seen much life .. 

and endured nasty weather on a Welsh hillside ..

 just look at all the pretty moss growing amongst its old wood.

I had a plan and knew straight away where they could stand .. somewhere quite and tranquil to end their days..

As you can see there was plenty of room for both ladders .. and my plan was to see what two would at least look like ...

but as I went round the corner to enquire of Hubby P where the second ladder was ..

Oh no!

Hubby P was in his .. sawing up for firewood mode .. and the other ladder was in pieces...

My fault .. not explicit enough instructions!

(...it must be said ...Hubby P is rather well trained after all these years .. he ususally follows instruction very well..)

Not to worry the one ladder is looking rather nice ..

I am slowly finding nice bits and bobs to grace its rungs .. a few little plantpots .. and the odd interesting pebble ... it will evolve over time..

The sunshine is bringing all the flowers out to play ...

just look at this wonderful .. almost black tulip.

And in the depths of the foliage these little ferns were enfolding .. like creatures from another world.

Lots of baby plants .. all wanting a share in the sunshine..

The beginning of the week we decided we just had to make time to do some urgent repairs o the house ... 

Some things we have put off and put off .. but really .. things are getting desperate..

Our large porch .. we rather grandly call it our conservatory .. has done us proud for many years .. but badly needs attention ... a lot of it is rotten and needs replacing.

So .. Monday morning in true Hubby P style .. 

he goes outside .. 

and rips the side off .. 

takes a look at what wood he will need ...

and goes to the wood yard ..

Comes back .. and starts building...

Now the planks of brown wood we already had ...

with this 'cladding' in mind. 

The wood is pitch pine from an old Welsh chapel ....

 it will weather well ...

 going a soft silver grey colour in a couple of years ....

 and gets harder as it weathers ... 

so it should last .. and look good.

It will take us a while to get these jobs done .. as and when we can find the time .. but at least we have made a start.

I'm just hoping the weather stays warm and dry.

So that's been us really ... and work of course ... if you like to read about the work stuff you can see more over at the Graig Trading facebook page.

But for now I will say bye ...

.. and leave you with a handful of lilacs ...

can you smell their delightful scent ..

 it sweetens the night air as I tuck up the chickens for bed...

xx