Day 92...

It has been a day of one step forward and two steps back.  We are fed and watered and knackered!!

Dad rang this morning to offer his services in unravelling the jigsaw that was our barbeque.  Whilst he was en route John started to undo the packaging and identify the various pieces, once he had started he realised that each individual piece was considerably heavier than he had anticipated and under no circumstances was it something that Dad should even contemplate lifting. 

It also occured to us that because we were going to be erecting it on the garden (underneath which there is a veritable network of cables and drains - most of which undocumented) we should put down a base to spread the load of the completed barbeque.  So this was turning out to be a larger job than we anticipated - but then isnt that always the way?

And when I say 'WE' that is of course the Royal 'WE' because I am neither use nor ornament when it comes to heavy lifting.

So whilst all this was going on I decided to tackle the garden as everything seems to have grown about two feet since it was last given a haircut.  The worst offender is the tree that you can see in this picture.  We have no idea what it is but it has a very sticky aromatic sap and the bark is very fibrous rather than solid.  New growth sprouts out all up and down the trunk and from any of the stumps where we have given it a really severe prune in the past.  It is actually quite a nice tree but in totally the wrong place as the ever growing roots are far too close to the house.

Having done this I then decided to tackle the overgrowth which is on next door's driveway.  Dad had brought up his electric hedge trimmer so I thought I would make use of it.  The house next door is empty and likely to remain so as it needs a lot of work doing to it and John and I are fed up of looking at the overgrown front garden - I merely scratched the surface.  It isnt the cutting that is the problem it is getting rid of the waste as there is so much of it.

John ploughed on with the preparation work for the barbeque - he actually revealed some pretty decent looking soil!  You can imagine with the heat that this is hard work and dirty too because so much dust is disturbed when you move the shingle about.

More of the same tomorrow ...