Well, it is winter so you have to expect rain.

It has continued wet and cold so nothing much is happening out there. 

More logs got chopped. Including this tree in a tree. 

More work on the Australian layout too. The station is completed  

And the Goods shed 

 

Wet days.

When it is wet there is nothing to do but stay in and work on the layouts.  The Australian wind pump has been causing me trouble but i have a satisfactory solution now. I have mounted the motor at the top and fed one wire through the drive shaft and made the drive shaft the other power feed. 

Lots of foliage gone in as well. 

Be fruitful.

Today I repaired the fruit cage after the snow damage. 

Before

After

And i also did some work on the Australian layout. The backdrop is a genuine Aussie sky. Also started making eucalyptus trees. 

Guttering.

I did manage to get the guttering and the ridge done on the wood shed. Now we wait for better weather so i can paint it all. 

 

What a week.

Monday was too wet for anything except paddling and, in some parts, swimming.  Tuesday was mainly about dentists, antibiotics and paracetemol.  Wednesday was a Pales day so I was up at Llandegley.  Thursday was partly about going down to the station to meet my adoring fans and do some scenery on the layout there.  But a small amount of work got done, stacking the logs in the wood shed.

Ash logs stacked

Oak logs stacked

The oak logs will take much longer to be ready for burning.  But tomorrow is Friday some some work might get done. If it doesn’t rain. 

The morning after.

From this.....

To this...

Tree felling.

Two trees down! First one. 

Second tree on the way down - Neville just moving out of the way. 

Then Neville’s wonderful log splitter made short work of splitting the logs.

So we now have ash logs and oak logs. 

And a lot of clearing up to do. But the shed is intact!

Gardening

It was warm enough today to do some clearing up of flowerbeds. Not very photogenic so here is a misty view instead. 

Neville is coming tomorrow to help me fell two trees from the hedge by the road. Both are dying and in danger of dropping branches on traffic! One has the Ash disorder and the other has Oak die-back  

A fan has sent me a copy of the article that appeared in the Times on Saturday. 

 

Catching up.

It has been a while.  We went North to Cumbria for Christmas to spend time with Arthur. Helen, Steve, Immie and Jack came too. 

We went to the pantomime.

Pub lunch.

Christmas Dinner.

Skyping to Australia

Then we came home, just in time for some snow. 

The Robertson Christmas party.

 

And then I became famous! Including my picture in the Times. The Biggest Little Railway hit the screens  

 

But apart from fighting off the autograph hunters things have been quite normal.  Repairing the fruit cage.

Clearing up after the stable re-build. 

And there is always firewood to chop.