Saturday

Another busy day in garden. Of course Matt has been up for hours already, apparently on the ride on lawn mower – I have no idea how I couldn’t hear that but then I do sleep like a dead baby.

Since I am up though I helped him with the plaster for the kitchen – taking photos and passing things to him counts as helping right?!

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Since there is not much more I could do to help, I figured it was a good time to call Mum.

Once we were done I needed to get cracking on the garden. I don’t feel that I got a lot done but meow kept getting in the way. Kittens and secateurs really aren’t a great mix, maybe that is why she only has half a tail?! I have so far concocted >50 explanations for this, and counting.

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Looks as though Matt has made good progress on the wall. It’s not perfect yet but a few goes at plastering, sanding back a bit and doing it all over again and we will get there. Most of this wall will be covered with the tall oven and fridge units.

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Matt put a brioche loaf on earlier and now it’s ready it must be lunchtime. Can’t honestly say I am so keen, it’s a little crispy on the outside and the sweetness is a little strange with cheese. Will have to think of what else we can eat with it.

Lunch over and we’re heading down to Bricos in Luchon to get some more posts to make up the new leafmould bins. Unfortunately the trip was a complete bust as they were all out of stock. Looks like we will just be making the one today.

The original plan was to do a double bin at 1m2 each. Having staked out the first one however we decided it was a bit on the small side and made it 1.5m long. With the bays built and weed membrane down it’s ready to go. All that needs doing is to throw in all those leaves that Matt has collected for me. Just two years and I should have some lovely compost!

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While I’ve been off working on the leafmould bins Matt has been pootling around on the ride on lawn mower again. It’s definitely looking much flatter now that he’s removed a lot of the tufts and he seems to be having fun. Seems he’s also found a rather unexpected place to dump the cuttings too.

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After a busy day’s work it is time for drinks on the front porch in the last of the sun. Once we eventually get around to dinner it’s going to take the best part of 3 hours.. Enough time to give Tonia a call and watch a bit of TV.

Dinner was finally ready at nearly 11pm! Lamb shoulder with lovely gravy, cheesy mustard mash and veg. It seems that starving me for that long had made me rather hungry.

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I ate it so quick I didn’t realise that I had eaten far too much, I thought I was going to explode. Time for a catch up with Lee and Vicky and Tonia before bed.

[20 February 2021]

Sunday

Matt got up reasonably early to go and get some more milk while I had a lie in. It’s been a lot of work in garden. There’s still more spring clearing in the garden to do though so can’t spend all day in bed. Weird mist around today but can’t let that stop me.

Finally managed to get the palm bed cleared. It wasn’t too easy with meow keep on getting in the way though. She’s incredibly skittish but doesn’t seem too worried about it when I’m gardening.

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Matt was in the kitchen getting a bit more of the plastering done.

With one bed down I need to get the hydrangeas cut back, they’re all starting to bud and if I don’t get them cut back soon it’s going to be twice as difficult. I’m going to need to cut a path in to get to the large one so may as well start clearing that bed too while I’m at it.

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Matt’s been over making a start on cutting back the first of the hedges, we need to get them done before it becomes nesting season but did have a quick check before we started to make sure they weren’t already nesting there.

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Seems that I have cleared quite a bit of deadwood around the garden, probably less than a quarter left to do now. In the beds immediately around the house that is. Of course there’s plenty else to do in the rest of the garden but the house is looking much tidier.

Matt’s also widened up the hole in the kitchen floor. This might take a while but at least it is a start. I’ve been waiting for this for weeks. Hopefully we can find the time this week to finish the last bits on the ceiling, get the plastering done and finally whip up the rest of it.

Probably best to get that Amarylis planted up that we bought at Noz the other day. Apparently they need a pot just a bit bigger than they are so hopefully this one will be big enough.

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At the end of the day we had a wander round the garden to have a look at what else was there and admire some of the flowers we’ve uncovered.

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We’re both pretty exhausted after a very busy week so time for some left over lamb and to relax.

[21 February 2021]