Sunset from Hill House, Mount Helen. February 2024

Sunday, April 30, 2006

An exciting few days

And they certainly have been an exciting few days.

On Friday I was working at Psalter Lane in the morning. Psalter Lane is where we teach the art, photography, drama courses. I like it out there. The students are very, well -- arty! I'd gone up in the car, preparatory to driving out to Clay Cross to collect the house keys. On the way out of the main building at lunch time I thought that perhaps I'd better visit the loo before heading off to the wilds of Clay Cross and turned back. And was somewhat surprised to find, sat on a wooden chair in the foyer leading to the loos (and other things) a completely naked young woman!! Having her photograph taken. I assume for someone's portfolio. Not something you run across every day, even at Psalter Lane!

Anyway. I trundled off to Clay Cross to collect the keys. Had a potter about, since I was there. Was very, very Roston Vasey-ish. Quite scary. Left immediately and went home to await the return of The Builder from work. (Thought perhaps I should wait for him before inspecting the house!!)

There's rather more work to do than we had first thought. Little bits of tidying and decorating. The plaster mouldings will come off the walls in the lounge and dining room. We're also going to lift the carpet in the little porch at the front door. We don't intend to use the front door and I want to fill the porch with pot plants (a tiny, tiny conservatory!). A gentle inspection indicates that there are tiles under the carpet in the porch at least. They'll do for the pots to stand on! We want to put shelves in the alcoves in the lounge room (and box in the electricity meter). We also want to hack into the cellar which has been boarded over. Might as well see what's there and use it if it's usable (or can be made so). I've decided that I probably don't hate the oh-so-cutesy tiles in the kitchen with mice or dormice or whatever they are dancing around grasping flowers and things - or at least not enough to do anything about them, We're going to have to tile or lay lino down in the kitchen, though. The laminate boards have shrunk. But that's OK. I don't think we're going to do anything upstairs. Or, really, in the dining room.

So into the garden. This garden is a project! A bigger project than I had anticipated. I knew about the fish pond. I hadn't realised quite how many small conifers there were that will need to come out.. And I had no idea at all about the enormous expanse of concrete there was at the back of the garden. Humungous, it is. And it goes down for ever and ever. In parts it's well over 30 cm deep. Sigh. I *hate* concrete. With a passion. And absolutely in a garden. Complete waste of space -- you can't do anything with the ground. And this is going to be hideous to try and shift. In fact, practically impossible. In the middle of all this concrete there's a perfectly horrible three-tiered raised bed, formed with breeze blocks. Yurk! I rather fancy that had I noticed all that concrete we might easily not have bought the house. It is fortunate, then, that I didn't notice it, for it is a nice little house. Has views and everything!

I was at work yesterday and, in a quiet moment, ran the concrete problem past some people on a web gardening forum I visit. They came up with several interesting suggestions. The concrete is no longer a problem so much as an exciting challenge. I think we've decided to take out the breeze block raised bed and put in one framed by railway sleepers. In this we'll plant the fruit trees and shrubs and things. Then we're going to make wooden squares (probably not with railway sleepers as we'd have to sell the house to be able to afford them all) for raised beds around the concrete. We can grow salad and tomatoes and other things in them. Then, depending on how much it will cost, we're going to cover the rest of the concrete either with pebbles or, if we can possibly afford it, with bricks. The barbecue can sit there too. I'm getting quite excited about this garden project. I'm hoping to make a start tomorrow (it's a public holiday and I'm not working. Though I fear it might rain :-( ). If it doesn't rain, I'm hoping to make a start on clearing the bed by the back door. I want to put a herb bed in there.

Yesterday evening was lovely. I lit the barbecue! We sat outside until quite late and ate chops and chicken and baked potatoes thrown into the fire in foil and vegetables done in the barbecue "wok" we bought last summer and drank wine and planned and plotted. The barbecue makes quite a good wood fire when you've finished cooking on it. Wonder if we could install a fire in the new lounge room. I wonder what's behind those green tiles ..... Forgot to watch Dr Who -- and it was the K9 episode. Oh well, I'm just going to have to buy it when they release the DVD.

Back at work today. Fairly quiet so far. We're hoping to go out and have a measuring session around the concrete and inside the house this evening. I also want to draw up a plan. I shall also take "before" photos of the garden. Assuming it's not raining!


Whoops!!! There goes April

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