Blue Umbrella

Frog Chorus

By Emily on May 25, 2009 1:12 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Now the weather's a bit warmer the frogs are coming out of the pond to sun themselves on rocks - so far we have counted six big ones and one tiny one.

There's still a lot of tadpoles, so soon there will be frogs everywhere!

Tia the cat likes to sit by the pond frog-watching (so do we!). She hasn't shown any signs of wanting to play with them yet, luckily, although that may change once there are tiny frogs jumping around the garden.

Pergola

By Emily on May 25, 2009 12:34 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Another trip to B&Q, some sawing, bashing drilling and nailing later, and we have a pergola. Now we can dust off the giant garden candelabra we found in a bush, hang it up and have a tealight-festooned "sitting room" outside.

Mini has plans to buy some clear plastic sheets and put a roof on it so we can sit and enjoy the garden even when it's raining.

Archway

By Emily on April 20, 2009 12:10 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Mini's installed an arch over the steps, as part of an attempt to make the patio area feel a little more separate from the rest of the garden.

At some stage, I'd like to string some lanterns across from the sides of the arch to the sides of the garden, making a PARTY PATIO!

There's already a clematis and some sweet peas planted next to the arch in the hope of getting plenty of flowers on it later in the year.

In the background you can just see that the Japanese Maple is starting to come out in beautiful copper coloured leaves.

Dinner and bonfire

By Emily on April 12, 2009 10:52 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Planting

By Emily on April 12, 2009 10:13 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I've dug all the weeds out of the borders, and we now have roses under the window at the front and some new heathers at the back. Plus one border that was already planted but is now also de-weeded and mulched.

Bank holiday gardening

By Emily on April 12, 2009 5:31 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The four day weekend has been an opportunity to get stuck into the gardening for the first time this year.

Mini's cut out nearly all the tree stumps along the edge of the garage (previously known as "rubbish tip") and we've dug it over and seeded it with grass seed - what we didn't manage to seed last year, anyway.

We've now spent two lovely evenings sitting in the back garden using an old bin to burn the rubbish we dug out. Tonight our bonfire fun was accompanied by the croaking of the frog in the pond. Has to be one of the best ways to spend an evening!

Shoe rack

By Emily on November 25, 2008 10:41 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Between the two of us we have a lot of shoes! There's a handy space behind the front door that was obviously made just for this purpose, so now Mini has installed four shelves there:

Plenty of space for shoes, hats, gloves, juggling bags as well as an Out Tray for post and sandwiches!

Cupboards and shelves

By Emily on November 17, 2008 12:06 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Our bedroom has a large built-in wardrobe with a corner shelf next to the head of the bed. The shelf is very useful for putting glasses, alarm clock and so on, but the only place to put the rest of the normal stash of bedside paraphenalia is in a pile on the floor.

Mini has now cunningly amended the built-in wardrobe by adding a cupboard under the shelf. The cupboard faces front, and there is a little "letter box" open-fronted drawer facing the bed, in which to put the glasses and the alarm clock, freeing up the shelf for a plant.

Here's the front of the cupboard - you can see the door waiting to be fitted in the bottom left of the pic:

Here's the side with the letter box:

You can see the original (four-inch-thick) shelf above the letter box.

BT Openreach efficiency

By Emily on November 10, 2008 11:47 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

We were promised phone and broadband by midnight on such-a-date. When it still didn't work at 11pm we called the provider and they said Oho, it's a line problem, we'll refer it to BT Openreach who handle all that kind of thing.

Bah Humbug, we thought, now who knows how long it will be before we have broadband working!

About 10am the next morning, BT called from a van parked outside to ask whether it would be a good time to come round. They popped in, discovered that the double glazing installers had cut the phone line where it came through the front door, installed a new master socket, and left us with working broadband in under 12 hours from the time we complained.

Thumbs up for good customer service.

Picket fence

By Emily on November 10, 2008 11:40 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Moving years of accumulated garden rubbish from the side of the garage meant easy access up to the house through the mud, so it's now fenced off with a neat white picket fence: