Progress.

They came, they saw, they had fun. Bella and Noah, Joseph and Finnlay. 

 The boys wanted to make things so we made helicopters and planes from offcuts of the poystyrene.

 There were several bonfires  

Joseph had the honour of being the first visitor to use the new small gate into the sheep field. It will henceforth be known as The Joseph Gate  

And today it was dry but cold so i got on with painting the stables/woodstore in timber preservative 

New gate.

Today’s work involved removing the old fencing from near the stable and putting the small gate in place of the metal gate on the far side of the sheep field. This gate had a broken post so needed fixing. 

 

A day off!

Today was meant to be a Quaker day but the meeting was cancelled so I spent the day in the shed working on the Australian layout. I have fitted the return track behind the main scene and added the small fiddle yard to the right of the layout. 

Last week....

Last week was packed with visitors, Abbi with her three children then Helen and Steve at the weekend so this week is a chance to do things before Bella arrives at the weekend.  The front gate fell apart in the postie’s hands so needed to be replaced.

  The debris from the felled trees needed clearing before the grass starts to grow.  

 

We have changed the fencing around the stables which meant installing a new pedestrian gate - luckily we had a spare gate so that has been fitted.      

 

 Lots of plants planted up - by growing them in pots we avoid having the rabbits dig them up.

   

The fencing around the stables  

And the frogs have arrive and started laying. Masses here and even more further down stream.  

   

Catch up, again.

So the car has gone and we now have this A Toyota Auris Hybrid. Even less reason to look under the bonnet.   

 

  Then a family get together for my sister’s 70th birthday. 

 

  And now we have the first of three sets of grandchildren.   

And there is always homework that needs doing. This time it was mountain building. 

All gone.

The caravan has gone...

The snow has gone....

And so has the time!

Busy days.

Yesterday was the village coffee morning and the afternoon was spent helping a neighbour with his computer.  Today was a caravan day! We have decided to sell the caravan and a prospective purchaser is calling on Tuesday to collect it. So it had to be cleaned and emptied. When the caravan has gone we can pick up our replacement vehicle - we dont need the big car now so we have bought a Toyota Aurus hybrid!

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.