It was a bit daunting but the brochure showed a very attractive young lady with a screwdriver assembling them so I was hopeful that for once it could be a job for me.
The first set proved straight forward enough though they did require more than one pair of hands but they transformed the office from this ...
... to this.
Next it was the lounge and the first set went just fine though Dave was required to sort out a way to fix it all to the wall. It changed this:
... to this and it did look very smart and was lovely to get our books out again.
Then the problems struck as we found there were two uprights missing from the other lounge unit and the uprights for the dining room set were too short. So we had to wait for the replacements.
Still, having got the taste for emptying boxes, we decided to sort through all the remaining boxes in the garage that were still awaiting homes. Our friend Bev was visiting at the time but went away for the weekend so our previously tidy house turned into chaos!!
But, we got them all sorted, or at least away on permanent shelves, so that when she returned it looked pretty clear again. Eventually the extra pieces arrived and we were able to convert this ...
... into this.
And this ...
... into this.
We also had to get our woofer to earn her keep, so she set to work on the lawn and seemed to enjoy it.
And I bought and planted a rather lovely magnolia and positioned it strategically behind the tallest gum trees, assuming that was where there was the best soil and shelter.
The veggie patch was still in full swing and we had our first head of sweetcorn, which was particularly yummy. Just as well, as we planted 75 plants in the first bed and each seemed to have two heads on it and then another bed with 99 plants!
By the end of the month, some of the earlier beds in the veggie patch were getting past their best and just about ready for the chooks to move back in and tidy them up.
For our records, this was bed 1 (the first planted):
Bed 2:
Bed 3:
Bed 4 :
Bed 5 (the late sweetcorn):
Bed 6 (at its peak):
Our new herb garden:
The soft fruit patch:
And the climbers on the pergola, none of which are very impressive unfortunately. Still we'll give them another year to show their stuff.
And then, disaster struck. Late tomato blight!! Our fault I'm sure as we'd let the plants straggle everywhere and had been watering them by sprinkler. Such a pity as they were laden with fruit, but they all had to go and go quickly.
We called the chooks in to clear up the first bed, a task they took to with relish.
Oh yes, and we found the odd pumpkin or twenty to store away for the winter.
