Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

...well, it has been snowing thickly more or less everywhere north of here today and so our plans to feast wildly with my sister have been thwarted as they can't get out of their village.  No snow here, but it has given me a spare half hour to catch up on what's been going on since I last posted in September.  I have been getting a bit of gyp about this, so just imagine this post as the Archers' Omnibus edition for the last quarter!

So starting with the pic on the right from some time in October, with nearly half an acre, nobody can say there ain't mush room in our garden 😀😀

On a sadder note though, see below, the obelisk and below right what I found when I peered at it more closely yesterday. 





I think the kingfisher must simply have landed there and then died - he wasn't trapped in it, just sat there.  We've seen a kingfisher in the garden before, so clearly they are around.


Either that or it was a dastardly plan by the fish to get their own back.

More happily, here is an aside as to how some people in the village go down the pub on a Sunday lunchtime
and
beneath is a pic of Alan wrestling with Charlie's cultivator to rough out the Asparagus Bed.  Pics of the finished bed to follow...







 And here is the finished re-roofed stableblock






with below the weathervane in its full glory

Happy! Sing along if you feel like a room without a roof...*

...actually not any more, this photo was taken a few weeks ago when the first bit of re-roofing started.  Since then the middle stable has also been repaired - a fairly major job - and reclad, and after a delay for roofing supplies, now has most of its roof back on.  Two down, one to go...

*what was that lyric about, anyway?

Meanwhile the greenhouse has produced our best ever crop of tomatoes and cucumbers; lots of other veg doing well and between us and next door we've been feeding the village on beans.  The borders are looking nice and I've stocked up on plants from friends & relations to populate borders (thanks to Pat and Pete), the pond (thanks Rose), and the bog garden and hellebore bank (thanks Helen). 

Pond life - a fishy business

Carpomath:   If Alan buys 5 goldfish and I buy 2 shubunkins, how many fish are there in the pond?
Answer seems to be (sadly) only 6 large fish (cat? heron?) but (happily) quite a few very small fish :)

What a difference a day makes (reprise)

 Now doesn't that look nice!  A glorious summer's day...

...umm... well, at least the pond/bog garden is now completely full and we've retested the 'full' level setting and drain point.  Please may we have summer back now?

Breaking rocks in the hot sun...

...I fought the law, oh no, I filled the gabions.

And it has been hot work over the last few days!  The blue snake is the conduit for the pump cable; and the black snake is the hose which will carry the water from the pump round the back into the gabions and then out through a rill back into the pond.  Once, that is, we have found someone to do the stainless steel fabrication to make the rill base.  So I guess I'd better produce a drawing or two...
You can see the bog garden is now apparently all mud but the pond water level is a bit low so we have to find more topsoil from somewhere...




If you look at this view it looks pretty much finished.  Good eh?

Alan meanwhile has completely dismantled two of the the three stable panels that formed the end stable, we hope this will provide enough framework and cladding to repair the rest of the block.

Veg update - still got some of the last of the spring cabbage; french beans going into full production mode; courgettes en route; cucumber glut; garlic harvest very disappointing.  Salad stuffs various about the place.  Strawberry harvest (now over) was excellent.  International Kidney new pots possibly the best flavour we've ever grown apart from Pink Fir Apple.

Gonna tear your playhouse down

Finally the running-around level has declined just far enough to allow time for a post - and indeed for some post-worthy activity to have occurred.
We got back from the Worlds in Zbraslavice to find that the garden was coming on apace - particularly the weeds, which I just had time to wrestle into a bit of submission prior to departing for the Club Class.  We're very pleased with how the patio flower bed is looking:

July is planned to be a 'rest month' so it's back to heavy gardening again. But first, since the pond has become crystal clear, we visited Porton Garden Centre...












and here they are in the pond.

The excavation at the far end of the pond is for the gabion run to go across; this also provides some earth to fill the bog garden which as you can see still has water visible. We're filling the gabions with all the 'reclaimed' flint we've dug out to get to this point!

And in the stableyard, things are (literally) moving.    Stable:

Unstable.
No neighbours were harmed in the removal of this stable (but it was a close-run thing).

You can't always get what you want....

...this is for JP.  Next post due very soon!

We've got a little list

Today is the end of the year's rectification period so we are updating the snagging list for final resolution.  And here is the pond with the first round of planting settling in.

Taking the pea

This time last year we had just finished erecting the greenhouse.  This time this year we've just harvested the first early crop of peas for our dinner.  Looking forward to the fig harvest later in the year - if you look carefully at the pic below you will see there are two fruit on the plant which is just starting to become a fig fan (as am I!).

All the tender stuff is now out in either the greenhouse or the garden.  We had a very severe frost a couple of weeks ago that took out much new growth, even on very hardy things like beech and roses - I've never seen that before.  Alan's spuds suffered in spite of being wrapped up in two layers of fleece - but they're putting up fresh growth at a rate of knots.  Growth is slowing a little due to the lack of rain - according to the newspaper just 12% of the average during April in our area - I don't normally water things but this is the exception.
House-wise, we are just coming up to the anniversary of signing off the building works so we're due a final inspection and snagging list as soon as we're back from Zbraslavice - Peter the Architect sent me a nice picture of the Pitts Special he's been building so if we're lucky we can celebrate this with a aerobatic display...

Ponderings

Just a reminder that this is how the pond looked in January - nicely full of water but otherwise unfinished.



And below is how it looks now.  Actually, it's moved on since this pic as we have started to fill the bog garden with earth. We also snuck out and got some water plants, doubtless fish will spontaneously appear now.














 And here is the proof that the stable roof works have commenced, and a quick view of the primrose bank.

Finally for today, a shot from a few weeks ago of the magnolia stellata putting up a grand show in its first spring.

Up on the Roof

Ever seen a thatched cottage with straw pheasants on the roof?  In Tytherley we take a slightly different approach.  I blinked a bit the first time I saw this...

Sound of Silence

...apologies for the pause in posting - somehow it seems to be over a month since we last posted.  Don't worry, we've stopped [paid] work getting so much in the way now, and there is progress to report along with pics of the latest gubbins.  And indeed, some will be reported shortly... Trailer deemed suitable for all ages: Thrill to pond action!  Hear about stuff growing!! And excitingly, finally the stable reroofing project is underway!!!

It's a Sign!

No longer do we need a bit of plywood with black marker pen!  You don't really get the scale from this, but it's 2'6" long x 9" x 6"  in old money (weighs a ton...) and it looks great.

Ready for inspection when Pat and Judy come to visit in a couple of weeks ☺

It's a Kind of Magic

You dig a hole in the ground and let the rain fill it up a bit.  And - Abracadabra! - it's got pond beetles in already  😀  Only a matter of time before fish spontaneously appear, I'm sure. 
We went to the pond shop to try to buy him some waterweed but it seems to be close season for weed - he'll have to live with 'liner sauvage' for a couple of weeks yet...

Any Way the Wind Blows

Alan's ordered-slightly-too-late-to-be-here-for-Christmas present arrives :)

Dark Side of the Room

Pink Floyd eat yer heart out - this is our banister refracting today's gorgeous sunshine onto the landing wall...

What a difference a year makes....

This time last year - January '16

Now - January '17

Perhaps the hard work in the garden has paid off after all...

And here is the pond.  The wet bit on the left is the main pond, the thin middle slice is where the central path will be - the dip currently with water in is space for the concrete base for the paving, and on the right is the bog garden.  The pond is now full to above the planting shelf. 

New Year, New... Hedge!

Shame it's a beech hedge, not yew - but sometimes life can just be poetically disappointing like that.  Anyway, Happy New Year, everyone!
Yes, today the replacement beech whips arrived to fill the gaps in the hedge we planted last year.  Given the forecast for the next few days I popped them in the ground pronto while it was poppable...  We also have some dogwoods and spindle - they don't have a home to go to yet so they're just heeled in pro tem.  The pond is filling up nicely - just reached the planting shelf level. 
It's officially spring as we've seen a snowdrop out at the other end of the village - they're only just poking their noses up in our garden though.  However we do have five things in flower: primroses, cyclamen coum, mahonia, pink hedge stuff (nope, no idea) and... rocket.  Why it's in flower now, who can say?
I will try to remember to get the camera out next time it's sunny...