There is hardly a day goes by, when I don't write a blog post in my head while I am working, then by the time we come indoors and have prepared and eaten a meal, I am too tired to put it down on paper. So apologies to all of you who enjoy reading our blog, but in fairness I have never pretended to be the most consistent writer!
What have we been up to? Well, the garden of course. We have built the first raised bed in the second half of our courtyard garden, filled it and planted some flowers to add a bit of colour. David has started to build the barbecue and the outdoor oven. The foundations are done and he has started to build the block support walls. However, this has been abandoned at the moment as we need to re-grout the pool this year and he is busy on that job at the moment. So far we have emptied it, acid cleaned it and now David is preparing the tiles for re-grouting.
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The pool looking blue again instead of murky green but still some work to go before I can swim |
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My newly organised vegetable garden ready for planting |
We don't have much money for plants for the new courtyard garden, especially whilst we are still buying building materials. But I have bought some bamboo, a couple of grasses, an orange tree, kiwi a passion flower and a couple of other bits and pieces. I also raided the tubs from last year on the off chance that they would survive over winter and a lot of them have. They seem to really like our new Hugelkultur beds that I tried last year. I have also sown lots of flower seeds which hopefully will germinate and look pretty until we can afford more permanent plants. It is wonderful to see some colour back around us.
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Hooray - colour back in the garden |
Another second hand purchase we have made is a vacuum cleaner. We have an arrangement that I do all the cooking and David does a lot of the housework. I empty the bins, sort the dishwasher and keep the kitchen clean and tidy. David does all the hoovering and mopping of the floors which with four dogs is an every day job. The main reason for this is because I am renowned for breaking vacuum cleaners. I had a brand new Dyson and it only lasted for three weeks. I don't know why, but for some reason I am utterly useless with them. Recently David caught the early bus down to town and I did the housework. Of course I broke the hoover, although by now it was already battered and stuck together with glue and sticky tape. So when we saw that the people selling the water cooler also had a hoover for sale it was a must have. Although it was second hand it had never actually been used. It is more robust, more powerful and generally a lot better quality than our hoover. David says it is like having a Rolls Royce after a mini! I of course am not allowed to use it. A bit upsetting but there you go (haha!).
We have also bought an electric welder and we have bought the metal to build a fence between the new courtyard garden and the vegetable garden. After that we want to make a framework to go over the outdoor sofa for plants to grow up, and eventually the base of the kosk for the front garden, So it will enable us to get on with all those jobs too. Work, work, work! Who said retiring to live in the sun was going to be easy!
Another job I have done is to put screening on the railings around the front garden. This is for multiple reasons. To provide privacy around the pool now that they have built houses in front of us, as an attempt to stop so much debris blowing into the pool, to cut down on the wind that we get from the front, an effort to discourage the dogs from barking so much on the basis that they won't be able to see so much going on outside to bark at and to keep the passing goats from eating our roses. An added and unexpected bonus is that our roses look better with it as a back drop too.
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Screening on the railings is a big improvement for a lot of reasons. |
I recently enjoyed a day out on a Thai and Korean cooking day and have the certificate to prove it of which I am inordinately proud. We will both be going out this weekend because the Uzumlu mushroom Festival began today. It runs for three days and we intend going to have a look tomorrow and Sunday. Today is work as usual, but tonight we will be able to hear the concert music floating up the hill and we are looking forward to that. Sunday is also car boot day. The last one before the autumn when they will restart boo hoo!
But more of all of that later on..........
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