Garden Fences and a Bonfire

So what did you all get up to over the weekend? Ours was spent out in the garden again.... bet you could have guessed that though. LOL

So what else did we find to do out there? Well, there was slapping some Cuprinol on the new fence for starters so, while DS shot off to Brigg Farmers Market first thing Saturday morning, DH and I were out the back with paint brushes in hand and a pot of Chestnut Cuprinol between us. It took us all flippin' morning to do just the first two sections of fence.... and one of those was a slightly shorter length! It was going to take us a month of Sunday's to complete at that rate, so we headed in for some dinner, a rethink and a nosey at the Screwfix website..... where we spotted a spray painter at a reasonable price.

Next DH headed to Alex's house, as she and our DS were back at hers after their shopping trip to the Farmers Market, and we'd arranged to pick up an old mattress to take to the amenities site for her. DH headed home, closely followed by DS: unloaded all the goodies from the Mini and put them away, then DH and DS loaded all the old conifer stumps and a tatty old suitcase into the back of The Tank (on top of the mattress) and headed off to the amenities site. On their way back they detoured via Screwfix to buy the spray painter and came home.

One drink and a read of the instructions later and DH got everything set up. He'd pulled his back a bit whilst hefting the conifer roots into the skip, so he had a rest up while I set to with the spray painter, just getting him to come out when the pot needed a refill (too tight for me to unfasten/fasten). Boy, does that little gizmo make short work of the job...... so wish we'd had that to start with, then it wouldn't have taken until 7pm to finish the job! LOL Here's what it looked like when we'd done:


Without the digicam flash it looks much darker than shown and, to be honest, I hated how it looked - nothing like the colour it seemed to be on the tin or on the website. It was too late to change our minds though, so it was fingers crossed that it would fade some as it dried out. DH came out and helped a bit later, as he felt better, so he did the top bits that I couldn't reach. When it was done we went in for a belated and well-earned take-out curry from The Gourmet.

The next day we got up a bit later than usual - yes, we had been shattered after such a long day and weren't in a hurry for a repeat! LOL I did pop out to check the colour of the fence and this is how it looks in full daylight:

Much lighter and more like the grey/brown colour on the tin. We need to give it a second coat, to make sure it's fully covered and protected, before we can start digging and planting, but as the fence weathers the colour will mellow off a bit and be more as we thought it would be. The sprayer will get more use too: the big wooden side gates need re-doing this year, as does all the woodwork on the workshop..... yes, we'll definitely be getting our moneys worth out of that new toy. :0)

During Sunday afternoon we sorted through some old kitchen cupboard pieces my Dad gave us for the workshop. These had just been stored down the side of the house with plastic sheeting over them so, being mostly chipboard middles, had soaked up the water..... I'd finally managed to persuade DH that, as they were now water damaged, they were no longer of any practical use, especially as there were plenty of other bits to choose from - and there's going be the old cupboards from our kitchen to choose from when the kitchen is re-done. So we started loading them into the back of The Tank, for another amenities site trip. It was flippin' hot work too, as it was a scorcher, but DS came back, thankfully, so he grabbed a pair of gloves and helped. We also dug out an old printer I'd found in the back room (I swear those dead electrical bits bred - or maybe DH just got better at hiding them! LOL) and there was a bag of old metal bits down the side of the house, so those went in too.... and off went the two menfolk to the amenities site. More clutter gone... YAY! Not much else got done Sunday as we were all tired and struggling with the weather.... the hay fever was being a pain, for DS especially.

More de-cluttering was thrown in too. Yes, more stuff has been re-homed courtesy of Freecycle: a glass chopping board/pan stand went Sunday morning(we really didn't need two!); a child's breakfast set and a trifle dish with matching serving bowls went Monday morning (again - we didn't need two sets!). Monday was my regular jobs day with a bit more de-cluttering thrown in to make the day more interesting (LOL) and Alex came for a visit later in the afternoon. I gave her first dibs on the Pyrex, as she does a lot of cooking and baking, and she's taken some (how on earth did I end up with three identical pudding bowls?! Oh, yes, that was it - wedding pressies) and she also fell in love with the Japanese-made photograph album (my Uncle gave me it many moons ago but I had a boy and it's a girls album, with a cute kimono clad girl on the front). It's all hand-made paper covers and picture..... she has plans to take out the sticky photo leaves and add scrapbooking pages instead. Better it be used and loved than sat here gathering dust!

Monday evening and we were back out in the garden again, this time to tackle all the dead conifer clippings.... yes, DH felt the need to indulge in a little arson... erm, I mean have a bonfire. ;0) Here's one of the heaps we'd collected:

The birdies were none too happy about having that little lot sat around their open air buffet stand, so it had to go. There was also the small matter of a rotten fence needing to be taken down, before it fell down, from the bottom of the privet hedge on the other side of the garden:

The only thing actually holding some of it up was the privet growing through it! So DS set-to on dismantling that, making sure DH had plenty of fuel to keep his bonfire going, and here's how it looks now:

He managed to take down just over half the length, which was pretty good going. The bottom of the privet hedge currently looks a bit scabby in places but we'd noticed that it was actually growing really well in some of the areas where some of the uprights had fallen off. We've got our fingers crossed that, now the sunlight can get at all of it properly, it will start to regrow properly all along its base. :0)

Here's DH and the start of his bonfire:

He's striking a real elegant pose there! LOL You can see the old shed behind him - that's going at some point, to make way for a little summer house retreat with decking around it, so we can sit out up there. Not sure when that will happen, but hopefully one day soon.... :0)

Today a Freecycler came round first thing for what was left of the Pyrex, which has gone to help her DD set up a new home after a marriage break up. That's one of the things I like about Freecycle - it's a good feeling when you have helped folks out like that. :0) It's also another scorcher today, so I'm taking full advantage of it and now have three lots of washing out on the whirlygig and took a couple of pics of the garden while I was out there, so you can see how it now looks:

The birdies are much happier and have been happily feeding away and scrabbling round on the floor for the dropped seeds. Here's the bonfire remnants:

That area will eventually be a pond and the hump behind it a rockery come waterfall area, close to the eventual summer house and decking. The slabs and rubble you can see make the place look unsightly but they will be used to extend the patio area outside the back of the house, when we get back to that job. And the triffids are still trying to take over the world. LOL

Inside the house I finally got around to tackling the rest of the bookcase in the living room, before it got too hot. Those feral dust bunnies were feisty little buggers but I carried on regardless and have now ousted the lot of them.... and there's another stack of books to go to the Hospice Bookshop at the weekend. The space generated won't be empty for long though, as it will soon be filled with some of DH's books that are currently in the little bedroom.... but at least the little bedroom is getting closer to being emptied and that craft room getting a step nearer to being a reality. Yay! I shall be putting my feet up this afternoon, cool drink nearby and good book in hand - my current read, Memoirs of a Geisha (heard a lot about it - now nosey enough to want to find out why).

And if you hadn't realised it by now, I shall just confirm it: still NO stitching whatsoever has been done here. It's now official: the mojo has been a bit previous, packed it's bags and is now away on holiday somewhere............. I hope it's having a good time without me. ROFL.

Thank you for the lovely comments and for putting up with all my waffle. Hope you're all enjoying the fine weather.... and getting a lot more stitching done than me. :0)