Our time-lapsed shed…

Sunday was a bit chillier.  Despite wanting a bit of a chilled out weekend the big dude woke up and wanted nothing other than to carry on with the shed.

It now has all upper frame connections.  Amazingly level but still a little wobbly – will firm up as the walls come to shape.

I puttered about and carried on removing bindweed from the boundary near the water pond.  Trimmed the dead branches from the unknown shrub to the side of the damask rose.  Not our side but we abut it directly and it’s nice to have the boundaries tidied up.

Also dug out the last of the yellow iris from the raspberry bed.

The strawberry bed is waking up – the little white blossoms will one day be tasty strawberries!  Eaton mess beckons.

Strawberry in flower, 31-03–2019

You can see the hint of a wild bluebell that’s interloping in the strawberry bed.

These stray spring flowers will be dug out after they finish flowering and placed into the side flower beds (where last summer we had the cosmos).  Or maybe at the base of the fence along the side, at the bottom of the damask rose….

While the big guy screwed and sawed and constructed I gave all our little plants a touch of water….

The water crisis is over and the taps have been turned on – just in time!  But we still have to be careful about emptying the tanks.  And have plans to install a small reservoir for water on our patch somewhere discrete.

Pink edged tulip in bloom, 31-03-2019.

I really love these pink-edged tulip.  They come out a little later than the huge cream petaled tulip we also have planted into the top level ceramic pots.  There were also some blue flowered crocus in there (now gone) and some daffodil.

I may replant elsewhere to naturalise some of these spring bulbs – but I think I will leave the pink-edged tulip in the cream glazed pot.   So lovely!

The place abounds in huge bumblebees – partly no doubt because we do include flowers on our patch – and we also spotted quite a nifty looking beetle – like a little armoured insect with copper and green casing.

And as soon as we showed up the little robin made an appearance – and promptly flew close and almost landed on my head!  Cheeky devil!

I topped up the water dishes and bird baths.  Right now they’re crappy plastic dishes (except for the old stainless steel pan with a rock in it that’s in the herb bed and is more of a bird water dish for drinking than a bird bath).  But I’d like to find something to use for a bird bath that’s a little more attractive.

Speaking of attractive, I found in the back cupboard one of the old wicker hampers I’ve hoarded over the years. And not just any hamper – a Fortnum & Mason hamper. Grocer and purveyor of goods to none other than her Majesty.  That will make a very super-cute tool and materials box in the shed.  We can move it as soon as we get a roof up.

Camelia just into flower, 31-03-2019

It’s as if everything was always somehow secretly planned…  Magic!

This morning the big dude said he wanted some green rope to tie back the tree, which just marginally leans into the airspace of our shed. He’ll tie it back onto itself and hoist it up and away from our roofline.  Then guess what? Later that same day he found exactly the green rope he wanted – in the woods/back space.  Go figure. 

Anyway, we didn’t have that chilled out lazy weekend we thought we might have.  And after a morning allotment session went out at 2pm to join the gang for the woods work party – where we worked our buts off and made a big push on getting the remaining cow parsley out of the beds.

So, progress continues, and in the back patch too!  Hhhmmn…  Might go out after work this week to tidy the flower beds in the back – and we’re ready for our first spring harvest of rhubarb too – so have to plan on making a nice rhubarb crumble.  Yum!