Painting...

 Afew household duties involving touching up the paintwaor prior to a new gressing tanle arriving shortly.  Then some more painting in the workshop, working on the harbour area. The four bridges are in place which has led to the harbour being named Forbridge. 

One bridge

Two bridge (OK viaduct)

Three bridge

Forbridge

Forbridge Harbour

Steps

 

How green is my Valley?

Too green! Time to cut the grass. 

Mowing

 

Lupins

More lupins

The white strawberries are nearly ready to eat. 

White strawberries

 

Catch up

Still haven't got in to the routine of daily blogging so here is a roundup.  Wednesday was a Pales day, so an hour's drive to The Pales then a meeting with our new architects followed by the usual Meeting for Business.  Thursday morning was spent doing paperwork and emails generated by the Pales day! The afternoon was spent at Llandovery Station doing a little light scenery and a lot of sitting around drinking coffee in the cafe. 

Station layout

  This morning, Friday, i managed to do some outside work. A few handyman jobs and some weeding and pruning. But rain stopped play so i was back in the polytunnel and greenhouse for a while and then i gave up and came in for coffee. TGI Friday!

Weeding

Lupins

More lupins

Impending doom.

 

Still working in the poly tunnel

More clearing done in the tunnel. The bed on the right contains white wild strawberries so i will leave them alone until we have eaten the fruit. 

I found some ordinary strwaberries hiding in the foliage too!

Busy weekend

As the weather was not good i worked in the polytunnel. The compost in there is spent now and is infested with sheperd's purse and bundweed. So i am going to empty it completely and work in bags and pots.

1

2

Abbi came for the weekend with Oscar and Summer so a certain amount of trains were looked at.

Visitors

We walked in the bluebell woods at Dinas. 

Dinas

Dinas

And today, amongst other things, i have been at the Station adding more grass to the layout there. 

Station layout

The canal barge is out of position to allow for the water to dry.

In the garden

Two days of cutting the grass. Here are some other things that are happening.   

Lupins in flower

 

The broom hedge is spectacular

The arch by the tree house is coming on nicely

May blossom in the hedgerows

 

Back again

After ten days away visiting Arthur we are back in harness. Tomorrow will be a grass day but today was mainly planting a few things brought back with us and walking around seeing what has grown. 

Apple Blossom

It has taken a while to get this established but it now pops up all over. I call it Swan River daisy but I think it has many names. 

Signs of Spring

This clematis has gone from strength to strength. It now covers half the railing and is reaching for the sky  

  

These dwarf irises were a gift from a local gardener - ugly but kind of beautiful too.

Still gardening

A day to move plants around  

Moving plants

 

Protecting the lupins from rabbits. 

And some work on the metal bridge.

Gardening and modelling

I spent the morning gardening. Weeding, moving plants around and laying more membrane to cut down on the weeding.  The tree saplings are coming on nicely    

Trees

And it looks like a good year for figs.  

I have two bridges in progress in the layout - a stone viaduct for the canal and a metal bridge for the local line..

It's not all gardening...

There are jobs to do in the house too. Apart from replacing the firebricks in the woodburner i have had to work on the shower cubicle.  The plastic inserts that fit between the rollers and the glass have disintegrated over time. One door actually fell off when Jack opened it. Replacement larts were not available so i had to create new fixings. Using plastic washers and chrome dome head screw caps i have created an acceptable solution.

Old fitting at the top, temp. solution at the bottom

New fittings

I also pressure washed the low front walls which get covered in road grime. 

Still growing strong

It has been very quiet in the garden. The grass is getting cut but not much else is happening. There has been a lot of catching up since our return and a daily routine in the garden hasnt happened.  But there is still food out there...

Leeks, rhubarb and the daffodils too.

And things will slow down again as we are due to visit Arthur shortly.  But Spring is here.

Paths.

Making a start on getting things sorted.  Paths....

Today's efforts

The pond needed a Spring clean so on with the waders. 

Before

After

It's a start.  My main task at the moment is creating the photo album for the trip.

Back in the saddle

After our long break in Australia ( see www.travelsdownunder2017.blogspot.co.uk) we are back and trying to get ahead of the backlog. After the mail and the email the garden comes next. 

So grass cutting is the first priority and Kate has started on the weeding. 

The magnolias have done well, this Stellata is the only one in the ground and seems to have survived the winter well.

Another task will be planting the many saplings in the new wood area - the grass has been killed off to give them a head start.