October 2011

Long time no blog, but that doesn't mean things were not still happening on our new section! It was October, the month of the breezeway deck. Following the very slow progress last month, and my very harsh comments on it, the deck fairly shot up! The piles had all been finished and were correct in height to the millimetre so the woodwork was a piece of cake and grew by the moment. There were bearers ...



... and joists and dwangs ...

... (quite a lot of them) ...

... and then decking with lots of pretty melteca samples from the kitchen showroom as spacers.

And it grew and it grew and I was even allowed to put in spacers and take them out again although I caused so many hold-ups when actually drilling holes and putting screws in that I was soon relieved of those duties. BUT I had drawn up a plan of the whole deck so that all the joins were staggered and as little as possible of the decking timber was wasted and most of the blemishes on the wood were avoided. And for the most part he stuck to the plan and soon ...



... it was looking very fine. Ahhh, apart from the designer chair of course and the step that wobbled. But they are tasks for another day.

The garden was going well and the next magnolia flower appeared.

And the willow hut, or not-willow hut, sprouted well and promised much.


Still not sure if it really is willow though - some leaves looked round, green and shiny while others looked long pointy and shiny. We shall see.

Joanna's cherry tree looked lovely (in a sparse sort of way) ...

... and one of the smallest camellias in the new hedge actually managed a flower.

Our friendly eastern rosellas were frequent and quite noisy visitors and seemed to enjoy the flowering tree lucerne.

And the vege patch was abundant. Lots being the keyword with so many wonderful healthy broad bean plants that imminent gluts seemed likely to be the biggest problem.

The strawberries were looking good and were covered in new black netting soon after the start of the month so all we had to do was pick and eat.

Bed 1 - almost ready for the chooks and new planting

Bed 2 - mmm more broad beans and a lot more besides.

Bed 3 - mixed veggies

Bed 4 - another mix but rather a lot of broad beans

Bed 5 - another mix of winter veggies - a bit younger than the previous beds

Bed 6 - OK, full of broad beans, we had become too exhausted to plant anything else.

The trees surrounding the vege patch were doing so much better than the trees in the orchard and we could see lots of pears ...

... and even more apricots (yummmmm).

Actually just over 50, which were counted very regularly.

And the flaxes around the outside were just about to flower.

And Little Grey took up duties watching out for stoats - why waste an egg on bait if you have a willing and able worker!