3rd June

I have been asked by Liselotte to make her a sign.  She is clearing an area in her garden in the hopes of attracting a local hedgehog or two to live there.  We seem to have a resident hedgehog in our carport - on a couple of occasions when I have gone out at night he, or she, has been running around.  Cypriot hedgehogs are super cute as they have very, very long legs and even longer ears.  Most people only ever see them when they have met their maker on a road which is sad.

So Liselotte gave me a bit of wood and gave me free reign as to the design but basically it was to say Hedgehog Home and was to be rustic and that is what she is going to get.  I decided to burn the letters into the wood so that it would be permanent and would not fade.  It takes a bit of time and the smell is nice at first and then a bit overpowering but the rend result is great.  I hope she will like it.  I got on with it whilst John went off to the woodyard so that we could start a project he has had in mind for quite some time.

John has decided that the gazebo which houses the daybed needs some work.  I agree as the curtains are not doing it for me - we need shade so the curtains are a good idea but they look messy.  So John as an idea which he is keeping close to his chest - I have to just be his gofer which is always a recipe for disaster.

John went off to the woodyard and in the meantime Nicky and Mark arrived as they were doing some work on the house opposite.  He came back with the car packed full of wood and was itching to get on.

 So we removed the offending curtains and binned them as they were so brittle they weren't worth keeping and then started with the corners of the gazebo.

By the end of the day we had managed not to row and to have completed one corner of the gazebo which was not without issues as we had put up one side before realising there was an issue, taking it all back down and then rebuilding!!  Anyway let's just say it was exhausting but once we had got one corner done we could see how effective it was going to be and so we knew what we were going to be doing tomorrow!!

So here is a picture of our progress today - John refers to it as a Japanese Tea House or the Dojo and I can begin to appreciate what John's vision is.  We were knackered by the end of the day and I managed to rustle up some tea which was a village salad with dips and olives and some cheese and ham toasties which completely hit the spot.