Lack of Stitching

There's been a distinct lack of stitchy progress this last couple of weeks and it's all down to the nice weather and the garden, so you can blame that for the total lack of stitching updates.

So what have we been up to? Well, we did the severe pruning bit on the conifer hedge last week, with a couple of trips to the amenities site thrown in to add a little variety to the proceedings. It soon became obvious that as the week wore on we wore out, getting slower and slower - it was a BIG relief to get those final bits lopped. This was the result by the Friday night:


We were surprised by the amount of dead wood there was, so it looks like we made the right choice...... quite a few of those conifers wouldn't have lasted too much longer anyway! It's also amazing just how much bigger the garden suddenly looks without them looming over us.

Saturday morning we were over in Doncaster, combining a visit with my DSis with some serious shopping. We got some bits and pieces we needed for the house and I have some clothes for my holiday that actually fit! LOL The nice surprise: I'm down from size 22-24 clothing to size 16. WhaaHooo! DH was happy too: he got some new goodies from the Black & Decker shop for his workshop (am hoping that's a sign that more DIY jobs around the house will be done! LOL), shorts, a shirt and some smart trainer shoes for our holiday. Back to DSis's after the marathon shop and DH managed to put up a new vent for her a little later in the afternoon. When we got home that night we unloaded everything from the car into the house then abandoned it and went to bed - we were shattered!

Sunday we were up early to make a start on the next stages in the garden. First up was taking down the old chain link fence and here's DH taking off the clips, ready to do this:

Garden Pete and Corus Pete (our neighbours) soon joined in and the fence removal and conifer winching started in earnest. There was also some old bricks to come out of that bit of garden (put in to try and stop the previous neighbour's dogs from digging under the fence to get into our garden) and some of those horrible asbestos looking sheets that the old owners of our house had put in everywhere as edging strips - I moved most of those out of the way, leaving the heavier stuff to the three fellas. It was a hot and sunny day and all of it was hard work but by the end of the day that fence was down and the conifers out:

As it was still in a reasonable/useable state I popped an ad for it on Freecycle: I'd had a response within 15 minutes and within the hour a chap had come and taken it away. One happy chap got a free fence to keep his kids safe - we were saved another trip to the amenities site. That's what I call a result! :0) One result I wasn't so keen on: I got a "lovely" sunburn.... thankfully copious amounts of After Sun cream helped greatly and now I'm going a lovely shade of brown and no peeling in sight. :0)

We stacked the conifer trunks across the other side of the garden:

They had to wait until Garden Pete got his chainsaw back from the repairers - he'd kindly offered to chop them up for us, to make them easier to dispose of.

During the day time last week and this I've been continuing with the house clear out and have re-homed: a deep fat fryer (my DSis's); a small Orek vacuum cleaner (not needed now I got me a Dyson LOL); a backgammon set; A Tupperware beater jug and microwave dishes set (to the same Senior who took the Popcorn Maker for his neighbour); a wooden box and small metal filing cabinet drawer (same person took both - a local nurse); a mincer (to the chap who took the dog tether for his deaf dog) and my old sewing machine (to a very nice Canadian Physics teacher who has just bought a house around the corner). Not only is it clearing space here but I've met some really nice people and had some interesting chats with them. :0)

There's also another bag of bits and pieces to take down to the Hospice charity shop this weekend and the final lot of children's books (they were hidden under a pile of other stuff, so got missed first time around) for Alex to check on Monday, to see if they are any use for her school's library - if not they'll be going down to the Hospice Bookshop next Wednesday, when I go to the Clinic for my next visit with Jan (weigh-in day!).

Tuesday turned out to be a lovely day, weather wise, so DH and I were back out in the garden after tea.... this time it was to make a start on painting the metal fence posts with dark green Hammerite paint, in preparation for the new fence going up. We managed to get six of the posts done....... four more left to do but the weather hasn't been fit enough since.

Wednesday I was back at the Clinic for another Food Sensitivity Test and had a good day - will write more about that in my other blog though.

Today (Friday) the wood for the new fencing was delivered next door and Garden Pete and his repaired chainsaw paid a visit to the conifer trunks:

Yup, that's all that's left - Pete had had a chat to a chap who lives just across the road who happily took the logs away for his log burning stove. Brilliant! That means we only have one trip to the amenities site to do tomorrow, instead of two. Plus the weather is OK tonight, so DH has made a start on painting those last four posts...... so I'd better shift my butt, get changed and go help before I hear something like "slacker" and "it's alright for some" being muttered. ;0)

Thank you for visiting and I hope you all have a lovely weekend. :0) As it's Father's Day on Sunday, I'll be thinking of those of you who also have angel Dad's (((((((((hugs))))))))).