Gardening time

Tuesday 13 May

Woke up, sunny.  Got up, made tea.   Got robed and went into garden.  The temperature dropped 10 degrees and it started raining.  I went indoors, closed all the doors, lit the lights and the fire.  Within 20 minutes the sun was out and it was reasonably warm again.  [This pattern continued all day so we kept the fire going and ran out to the garden whenever it was not raining.  Only consolations 1. it is colder in the UK 2 I am no longer living in the caravan and have all the house to wander around, as long as I avoid the mice/rats - lots of poo near the poison so I am a bit wary]

Anyway, Lynne had a lie in so I decided to give the 2 rooms from which the fireplace had been removed a clean.  Used the Karcher, several brooms and finally cleaned the floor 10 TIMES.   Honest!  I think it is probably the first time in about 10 years that the stairs have been cleaned as the house was empty for 5 years before we bought it and I've never bothered.   It's not spotless now but it's a lot better than it was.  I'm quite proud of myself.  There are many homeless spiders now.  Sorry chaps but I've got my own problems.

Snug, all clean for the first time in how many years?

Fireplace all gone

Fireplace all gone upstairs too

I realised that the removal of the chimney breast means that there is an opening to the roof space.  This is the roof space which has not had a new roof yet and still, therefore, is home to an unknown number of bats who can wander through the house at their will.  So I am not the happiest bunny in the world, especially as the high tech solution for stopping them returning [ie a curtain hanging from the rafters] is starting to sag somewhat and they obviously go where they will.  BUT not my bedroom as the door is firmly closed all night long!

We did a lot of weeding,  I spent some time working on the lavenders and it was so good to see that the moles have taken that area as their latest playground.  So lots of lovely soft soil to put around the plants.  Then the gardener came and did his usual apathetic attempt at gardening.  I did get him to cut the top of a corner of the laurels belonging to next door.  Madame B had had the hedges cut but that corner was a good metre higher than anything else.  He cut the corner but left the cuttings lying around.  Oh well, I never actually asked him to put them in a pile. 

After he left I spent 10 minutes moaning about all the things he hadn't done.  I need to deal with this but I'm thinking it through.

Later in the evening I had a walk around the garden.

Watching the moon come up over the winegrowers' co-operative

Still no suntunnel, or estimate for the garage, or shower cabinet.  So, all in all, things are going pretty slowly here.

Wed 14 May
Lovely day out, only spoilt by argument with Chris over Skype in the evening.  I hate Skype