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...

Our goose is cooked

Well, we've celebrated our second Christmas here at Cumulus with roast goose.  As it was just the two of us here for Christmas Day, we are now looking forward to a January comprised of goose curry, goose risotto, goose au vin, steak surprise (the surprise is that it's actually goose).  Tonight it's going to be goose noodle soup.
On the garden front, a Christmas thank-you to John and Paula for augmenting the orchard with a Badsey Peach, and to Marcus and Penny who have supplied not only a mixed juniper shrubbery but also some liquid juniper product to toast it in its new home.  Today some of the slabs on the west patio which were just fouling the bottom of the bifold doors have been lifted and replaced (we hope) slightly lower down.  There have been a couple of frosts and some rain since the earth was topped up over the gabions, so hopefully it's settled a bit and once the soil is a little less frozen I can replant everyone made homeless - they're all in temporary digs in trays in the greenhouse.