Skip to main content

Stig of the dump

What will the girls do when all the piles of earth have gone, and the house is back to normal? More to the point, what will the dogs do without their daily dose of additional dogs to play with, people to watch and mud to bring into the house?  

We on the other hand are quite looking forward to not having to sweep up the daily mountain of mud and sand that gets walked into the house by everyone, and constantly tidying up whatever corner we can that is nearing completion. The garden is looking amazing and it's definitely been worth the 6 weeks of upheaval. We both agree that this has been easier than having the house done which was pretty awful. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather which has been fantastic pretty much throughout. If we'd had the normal April showers it would have been just horrible - the mud would have been everywhere. This week the block paving outside the garage has been completed which makes that area look very smart. Once we've moved the piles of chippings, cement mixer, boards etc hopefully the whole front will look great. We've had an incredibly 200 tonnes of aggregate brought in which seems to have just been swallowed up by the garden. The girls have been having a lovely time this weekend scooting around the new paving and then around to the patio at the back.

While they have been playing various make believe games, I spent today sorting out the bed between the pod and paving. It's the first one I've been able to do and it was lovely to start to get some plants in, albeit it makes me realise how much planting we have to do and how much money is still to be spent before we finish. For what seemed like a fairly quick task, it took all day to dig the bed over properly, plant a row of Photinia to make an instant hedge and then add some more plants before topping off with bark. There is something so satisfying about gardening, I guess to do with being able to immediately see the fruits of your labour in a way that's so much more difficult with day to day work. Glenn was in his garage at the same time and it felt very good to have all of us in one place enjoying ourselves - life is good.

Next weekend we have the pleasure of Kerrie staying, home after a month in Thailand. She has had an amazing time and is full of her travels. It's opened her eyes to the fact that there is a great big world out there and maybe Taunton isn't the centre of the universe - finally! Perfect timing, she turns 25 tomorrow and the world should be her playground. It also made Glenn think that there could be an adventure to be had if we travel a bit further afield, so maybe next year we will. I think if we do it we'll be 5 - Kerrie definitely has the bug!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diary management!

This part of the summer is definitely typified by me trying to remember who is supposed to be where and when. Abi likes to be off doing something with someone while Izzy is happier to know she's close to home and so for the last week they've gone their separate ways. Abi has been down in Somerset making the most of Ben and Laurie being about. From what I can tell she's having a lovely time. Apart from the covert phone call one evening to tell me she was 'starving'  (Mum was cooking for the hordes and so it had been delayed), I've barely heard from her. The few calls I have had have very quickly ended in "can I go now" like I'm making her speak to me! Today she switches from Mum and Dads to a night or two with Kerrie - not sure who is more excited! Izzy didn't want to be away for that long so she opted not to go. She's very conscious that Abi and Laurie are joined at the hip when together and Ben has his own things he wants to do so she ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blame the jet stream...

Shed prep, with oversight from the dogs Apparently we have the jet stream to blame for the truly awful weather we are having right now. I blame our builder - if he had got his act together and sorted out Glenn's workshop roof as he promised, sods law the sun would be shining from dawn to dusk. Instead it's still pouring every half hour and Glenn is constantly worried about how much water is coming though the roof / walls / floor etc. Apparently he 'literally' just needs to put the ridge on the top and the gully down the side and it will all be fixed. We are literally at the point of wanting to do him some actual bodily harm. The moment he disappears the better. This week he was also literally going to clad the office ("done") and has failed everyday to turn up and do it (which in my book is literally not "done"). He was also going to have Gary come and finish the electrics (not done), whack down the paving slabs (not done), render the last of the bri...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...
Post a Comment
Read more