That was the week that was

And mostly it has been wet. It has rained every day since last Sunday. Although Monday and Tuesday had dry bits.

Garden report. I have uprooted one of those large conifers! The one that dedded my garden fork. Took to it with the spade and (eventually!) it gave in. One large conifer down, five to go! I have also chopped more or less down that Yukka plant style thingy that was blocking the path and hiding the fishpond. I intend to dig the root of that out. Plus I've started on another conifer, also by the fish pond. If all goes according to the present plan (which it won't) I'm intending to put the raspberry canes along there. It's been too wet to get out and dig things up since I started on the second conifer. But you can see that progress is being made. And you can more or less see the fishpond now, which is nice. You can see even more of it since The Builder started taking its fence down

I was at the house on Tuesday by 07:30!!!!!!!!!!!! We were expecting the delivery of a wine coloured sofa in the same style as the lilac club chairs we've already got, together with a complimentary wine coloured club chair, and the delivery slot was 07:30-13:00. Meant I had to take the whole day off! So there I was at 07:30 and pondering what to do. Carry on with the painting, I suppose. It does make a difference, having the walls a yellowy colour rather than that strange mushroom colour. The room is much lighter and looks bigger. Argos came by at 09:30 and dropped the furniture in a HUGE box over the front wall then went away, leaving me to unpack it and lug it all inside! Don't quite know what I'm going to do with the box though. I've abandoned it in the driveway.

Last week, when we brought Richard out to the house and he took us back across country, we drove past what looked like a simply super nursery on the Cutthorpe Road. Once I had got bored with painting I ambled off there to inspect it. I can see quite a lot of our money heading into their economy. It's *fantastic*. I didn't buy anything. I'm not really quite ready to start a wholesale planting of the garden. But I will do; oh I will do. I dropped up to the nursery on Manchester Road in Sheffield as well. I'm looking for some bog sage (and spectacularly failing to find any). I did find some penny royal mint for the pond though. In the end I had rather a good day, even if I hadn't really intended to take the whole day off until Argos rang about the delivery. Just pottered for the rest of the afternoon, went back to the house in the evening with The Builder for him to carry on with the painting and for me to carry on in the garden (the dog next door has nearly stopped barking at me now, but still barks loudly at The Builder. I gave him - the dog, not The Builder - one of the bouncy balls I found in the fishpond. Bribery. Always works!).

Since then I've been poorly sick again. That coff that I had before Easter decided to stage a return. I've never entirely shaken it off but I woke up on Wednesday morning with nearly no voice and a Mimi-style cough. Had to stay at home on Wednesday and Thursday, tempting though it was to go into work, stand in the middle of Level 2 and to cough and cough and cough and cough all over the students without covering my mouth so that they would all get it just before their exams!!!! I did that on Friday instead. :-) I went out to the house with The Builder on Thursday evening and, while he was putting the second coat of paint on, I had a BATH! There is no bath in the Mudhut. I do enjoy the occasional bath. I have now bought some bubble bath for the next time. After my bath (I bathed my sailors, my boats and my buckets and spades while I was about it!) I stood at the kitchen window and watched the birds. I've taken over the seed hangers and something has found them. They were nearly empty. And the blackbird clearly knew that underneath the seed hangers would be dropped bird seed. He didn't hesitate once on his way over to eat them!

We had a night in on Friday. We had fresh asparagus and fresh sprouting broccoli, together with spring cabbage in a stir fry with prawns, rice noodles, honey, a tiny bit of chilli and coriander. Then we had ice cream. Haven't had ice cream for simply ages. We drank wine and watched the gardening programs on telly, and dozed and planned and chatted. Felt quite decadent!

It's still raining. I am at work. The Builder has gone to the house to carry on. For time is beginning to draw in. We don't move in for another fortnight, which seems like ages away, but tonight we are off to Portsmouth for Rebecca's 8th birthday tomorrow. Next weekend we are away Saturday to Tuesday in Devon. And we can't go every evening in the coming fortnight. There are other things to do as well.

I have been told off for not updating the blog this last week. Sorry. I'll try and do better in future!!!! At least in the next couple of weeks I'll have things other than the house to tell you about.