November - weekend

What a weekend. I feel seriously broken and we’ve not finished yet. 

Saturday we worked in the garden. I reorganised the border alongside the gite, removing old roses, dividing plants and weeding. I then moved on to the new bed that we planted up late last year and this earlier this summer. It’s coming on beautifully and a lot of iris I put in this year and thought hadn’t survived gave me a lovely surprise when I removed all the dead leaves - nice green shoots poking up through the soil, hurrah. Rebecca managed to get the front lawn cut, it looks so much better. 

The boys received a gift in a care package from a previous kind guest. It certainly went down a treat! And they plan to have some fun with it next summer!

The mahonia is just coming into flower. I love these.

Today we have been busy in the barn and the old wood store. This week a friend has been over and spent several days cutting up the fallen trees and taking down some of the marked trees. He cuts and splits them into stackable lengths and we just need to find a home for them! It’s true what they say logs warm you twice!!

The old wood store is a mess that we have all been avoiding for the last three years. Years and years of rotted wood has made at least nine inches of compost over the whole floor, so we finally set to and started to clear the space. Rebecca and I working to pull out rotted wood then dig and rake our way down to the concrete floor. By the end of the afternoon we had cleared both sides so that Tim and Peter could start stacking the new wood and tomorrow if we can move we will clear the compost into a pile in the middle of the space to be used in the garden. 

Of course we had another bonfire to rid us of all the rotten wood and the branches from Fridays clear out. I also cleared and swept out the far end of the barn whilst we were having the fire. With all the wood still to bring in they should be set up for the next three winters. One end of the barn houses this and next years wood. Leaving the far end for events/workshops and the old wood store for any wood as it comes along. It’s been very satisfying but very hard on backs and hips. We are all very creaky. Two weeks quarantine will be just the rest we need when we get home!!

But not just yet, still lots to get on with.