New granddaughter.

We had visitors last week - hello Roger and Judith. The weather was mot good after they left but a little gardening got done. 

Flower border

Flower border

And some modelling got done over the weekend. 

Harbour

And today we went to Gloucester to visit Steph and Sean and their new daughter, Ella.

Proud Grandad.

 

Home again

Back home to a very wet garden, and no let up at all today.  A week away in the Lake District visiting Arthur. But an opportunity to do some modelling too. 

Houses for the harbour

Houses for the harbour

 

Not a day for outdoor gardening...

But a good day for gardening in the garage. More work done on the river banks and also on the walled garden.

Walled garden, with very wet glue

Work on the riverbanks and more water

 

Sheds and a greenhouse

Also created the blanks for the rest of the houses on the harbour - these will get covered in brickwork or render and roofed. 

Polystyrene blanks

 

Weeding

Maintaining the staus quo in the garden takes up a lot of time. Kate and i worked hard today just keeping on top of the weeds! But sometimes it seems worth it. 

Nice bit.

The walled garden is coming along too. 

Walled garden allotments

   

Feeling smug!

There is a self-satisfied grin on my face today.  On Tuesday the wheeled strimmer died. It had been playing up lately but finally gave up and would not start again. Today was the first opportunity that i had to take it apart and try to fix it. To cut a long story short i found that the exhaust valve sleeve had risen in the cylinder block and was preventing the valve seating propery, therefore no compression. After persuading the sleeve back into postion everything returned to mormal and we now have a functioning strimmer.

The valve sleeve is the ring behind the valve and should be flush with the head.

All fixed

The path through the wilderness if brimming with wild flowers.

Path

 

Green, green grass of home

Yesterday was aPales day so today i was back on the lawn mower. 

Cutting the grass

And spotting flowers as i go.

Flowering shrub

The summer house is disappearing now. 

Creeper

 

Back to work

After two weeks of "holiday" in Scotland it is time to do some work in the garden. Kate has kept on top of the weeds but there are always more. 

Blossoms are blooming

All around

Even the wildflowers are looking good

Yellow toadflax

And some serious work on the strimmer engine

 

Another glorious day.

Just right for enjoying the sunshine. 

Days like this and views like this make it all worthwhile.

And there was time for some packing and a little gardening. 

Walled garden

 

What a day for cutting the grass.

Sunny day.

Lovely

The new path down to the stream

And a bit of indoor gardening....

Allotments in the old walled garden

 

A better day.

Back to gardening. Dead heading and weeding. 

Even lupins need deadheading.

Other things are growing well. 

Border

The wildflower bit is thriving. 

Wildflowers

And the clematis and dahlias.

Clematis

Dahlias

 

What was I saying about sheep?

Different sheep. Different place. Same stupidity. 

Baa

Hedge trimming yesterday. 

Before

After

Today in the shed, while the rain cascades all around, i have started work on the walled garden that has been converted to allotments. 

This is the cover for the pop-hole in the middle of the layout.

I ahve also worked on the river. 

I am trying to convey the image of a tidal river at low tide.

I spent quite a few days on the Severn and saw it at all tides. The mud banks were quite spectacular. 

Stupid sheep.

The trouble with the other man's is that, although it may be greener, it is often the other side of a fence which is designed to keep sheep out. This one got his head stuck and had been there over night. It took one look at the bolt croppers i had brought to cut it free with and it wrenched his head out, leaving a quantity of fur on the wires. 

Stuck

The storms of the last few days damaged quite a few of the lupins. 

Downed lupins

But the rest of the flowers are thriving. 

Flowers.

 

Grim weather

Rain, rain go away etc.  Still it means work gets done on the layout.  Beach huts. 

Scratch built huts with primer

Painted

And an ice cream hut. 

Hut

 

Making waves

After a morning of computer work i started on the sea and river on the layout. 

Sea

The colour is wrong but i wanted to mix colour in with the polyfiller to give a background colour. It will get re-painted when dry. The river will have a polymer water running down it - i have painted the under colour which should show through. There will be vegetation on the edges. 

Sea

I also did some more work around the harbour. 

Cobbles around the harbour

 

Visitors

Bella and her three boys have been here for a few days. So there has been a lot of fun and no work.

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