Gorilla gardening in Alvechurch

Socks cat soothes the mind after a hard days gardening

I hate gardening, but this hasn’t been a gentle bit of weeding, this has been gorilla gardening. It rained on Thursday and Friday, but we still gardened the last few days have been sun lotion weather, but we still gardened. There is probably one day left in the garden, except for rebuilding the retaining wall for the patio, but that’s waiting on Paul. Again, it makes for terrible blogging but the pictures say 1000 words.

You know when you used to watch GroundForce and they had a huge team to re-do a garden in a week? Well this has been 10 days of me ‘n’ him, with a couple of hours of Helen and Ian and a day of Abi

Skip full of shed, bricks, foliage, rubble - and an aquarium!

The shed has been skipped. Slabs have been laid or relaid and then jet-washed. Ivy has been hacked. Brambles have been poisoned. Fences have been jet-washed and painted, ( they were the biggest eye opener to me, I really thought it was a waste of time, but they do look better). Trees have been chopped and chipped. Rotten walls have been knocked down and removed. Brickwork, locks, gates and panels have been repaired. The gravel and membrane have been removed and the soil dug and stomped and levelled and raked and stomped and filled and stomped. Each time with weed and stone removal. Even this morning, waiting for the turf to arrive I removed nearly half a bucket of stones. The turf finally arrived this morning and has been laid and watered.

Finally the turf is down!

Paul finally getting to grips with the hole in the lounge floor

We have ached and moaned and dug, and bent and moaned. We’ve filled four brown bins, no mean feat when we don’t even have a brown bin! The skip has been and gone and tomorrow hopefully we should finish, two new fence panels, a little bit of painting and the last of the soil from the corner bed (more rotten bricks) to be moved. Light relief this week? Well coming home to little fluffy Socks and a comfy bed. Monday it was wet and it was paper recycling so we did a bit in the garden before taking all the staples out of my BBC training notes, Brian’s college notes and all sorts. I found all the letters I got sent in my first year at university, my ex-husband’s O level certificates, Brian’s beermat collection and his Birmingham City programmes from the 1970’s. All recycled, though the last two will go to new homes, rather than in the bin. Monday Club was at the Fieldhouse in Solihull, so as well as catching up with the guys, we also had an hour with Denise and Paul, as they live just round the corner.

Brians beer mat collection

Today Sarah and John return home so we go back to mum, with no kitchen, it’s a bit tricky to stay at the house, though we have still been using the shower, as it’s easier than getting in the car all horrible.... All I want now is long enough ‘off’ so I can wash the working clothes....

Brians old valve operated reel to reel tape recorder from his youth that we found in the loft. It worked last time it was used probably 45 years ago, but daren't switch it on again now. Think its probably for the tip 

Mmm, now, how do I check my emails?

Don't go!