Going, going, gone.

And good progress fitting the new gate.

Broadening our horizons.

As we will shortly be bringing a twenty four feet long caravan onto our 'pitch' we decided to widen the gateway. The decision was made much easier when we discovered we had a spare field gate that was exactly the correct size.

 By removing the concrete pillar and one leylandii we gain a lot of width. 

Tomorrow the stump and the pillar!

Farmers use bailer twine to tie things, retired IT guys use network cables!

More work at the cottage

and lots of telephone work following the change of car. 

A day at the keyboard.

No, not composing more tracks for my "Greatest Hits" collection but doing Quaker IT work. So here is a nice picture instead. 

At the cottage.

We have decided to remove the wood burner from Glyncoed. It has to be checked every year, the chimney has to be swept every year and past tenants have burt all the wrong things in it. We are replacing it with an electric "woodburner" stove - they use far less wood and don't smoke!

Fire gone. 

Apples.

These are eating apples going in to storage. 

These are not nice apples that are manky or tasteless. 

This is the first attempt at an apple press to turn them into Apple juice. 

It looked nice but didn't work well.... 

Second attempt...

That is a section of concrete pipe for the drum. It worked better at coping with the incredible pressure required but the frame is not strong enough - you can see the top bar ( hardwood) breaking the fittings.

Attempt three is in the planning stage. 

Back to work......as I like to call it.

It has been a good year for butternut squashes....

And the pumpkins did well too..

We've been away, again.

We have been in the Lake District for a few weeks.
Photo album is here - http://cghr.co.uk/united-kingdom/lake-district-2014

Visitors gone

Work at Glyncoed is now completed. 

A bit of tidying up around the garden today. But also time to put the blackberry and elderberry wine into a demijohn. It now has to sit for SIX MONTHS!

Theses rather nice pink Michaelmas daisies have started to flower. 

Visitors again.

Helen, Steve, Immie and Jack 

Carving pumpkins - I know it is early but they were here and so were the pumpkins. 

And Jack wanted monkey bars so we improvised...

Good news and bad news....

The good news is that the hedges along the road edge have been cut by the contractor who cuts the farm hedges ( we slip him money for a pint )...

The bad news is that it means it is time to cut the leylandii hedges that hide the garage. 

Grass day.

Pictures of cut grass are not interesting so here are some butterflies. 

Autumn colours.

The trees have not started turning yet but there is still a mass of colour around the garden. 

My favourites at the moment are the various patches of Michaelmas daisies which are a magnet for all manner of bees, butterflies and other flyng things. 

Maintenance.

The wheels on the trailer were about to fall off as the plastic hubs had worn away so repairs were needed. 

And the blades on the mower were very blunt. Getting at them involved making a ramp so I could get under. 

When Neville needs to round up the sheep he has to build a fence behind the stable to trap them so I have erected a short section of fencing to make his life easier. 

Progress on the car park bed.

The rotavator makes it easier but not easy!

Beauty in unexpected places! I used the last of the chicken pooh on this bed so I had to clean up the blue tarpaulin that has been covering it for the last few years. Pressure washing the muck off produced a very acceptable abstract!