Day 40...

It is Gin O'Clock here (sometime after 6.00pm) and probably the best part of the day but John and I are a little too tired to take advantage of it having had a full day in the garden!

My wild life shot for today is the visitor we had in the garden late last night.  Our garden is fairly well enclosed so we dont quite know where Mrs Tiggiewinkle came from or if she is still somewhere in the garden like under the shed but when I went out last night at around 10.00pm I saw her scurrying across the path.  She looked to be heading for a tray of water we were using to soak some dirty rollers so I quickly moved it and replaced it for some clean.  Cyprus hedgehogs are really small with very long legs and very, very long ears.  Our outside lights are probably providing her with a veritable smorgasbord of delights as no end of beetles and other creepy crawlies hurl themselves to their death around them.

We woke early today (surprise surprise) and decided to tackle the garden.  John was keen to get into next door's field and eliminate the bramble that keeps popping up in our garden and which has the most humungous spikes. 

Although the temperature was heading to the upper 30's John kitted himself out for the task - Boots, Overalls and Trev's modified old machete - you never know if there are snakes in undergrowth like that and we had also purchased some mega-industrial strength weed killer - just to make sure we kill it off completely.

Whilst over in the field John took advantage of liberating some stone which we have used to edge round the garden area.  I started with the patch in front of the spare bedroom window.  This is the one which has had the most work done to it and where I am currently growing my cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes along with the lemon and lime trees which seem to be surviving even though we have been told that they don't do too well up here - this is strange as we see a lot of lemon trees in the village!

Spurred on by how good this looked I moved across to the area which is going to house my herb garden (on the left).  You can already see that I have a bay tree and wild thyme growing around the bottom.  I want to add to this sage, rosemary, mint, basil and dill/fennel probably all contained in the ornamental rings.  On the right I want to have some indigenous plants so geraniums, lavendar, osteospurmum that sort of thing.  Behind the bay that area is going to be devoted to a proper vegetable garden next year - quite a lot to clear from there until I can get that underway so I am hoping that when Trev comes out he will fancy giving me a hand.  I need to check what will grow here so that I am not wasting my time (or Trev's).

Things are beginning to come together and whilst on a roll we edged around the swimming pool and John got Bugsie out to try and clean the bottom.  The pool is beginning to look quite good - it is bracing but refreshing - it is just a bit of a shame that it is in shadow from about 3.30pm onwards but when it is really hot we dont really care either way!  You can see that John is now embracing a different kind of headgear - Liam must have asked for his hat back!

I said that I had purchased some geraniums at the garden centre yesterday.  They are a real scarlet colour with really big flower heads and look really cheerful outside the bedroom door - I know I will probably spend my life watering them but the ones growing around here get no TLC at all and manage to survive!

We shall be bringing the Stephanotis up shortly.  I have checked with Alkisti and she tells me it should be fine up here.

This afternoon we could hear bells and looked across the hedge to see the local goatherd with his goats bringing them across the field grazing.  He must walk them miles and for a very long time because having seen them John and I went for a walk into the village for a drink and two or three games of crib and when we came back they were still there.

Our new sheds were delivered this afternoon - we have purchased a new pool pump house and a 6ft x 6ft shed - we are short on storage so that should help.  Dad is coming up tomorrow to help John erect them and Mum is coming up with Eileen for lunch - not sure if they are coming together.

It is weekenders (Friday night) so we are going for a movie - cant think we will manage to see it all!!