Daydream fund challenge part 4

I've been down in Dave's part of the world for the last week (a bit further SW and on the coast). We had a lot of rain, and spectacular thunder and lightning.

On the way home we stopped at East Lambrook Manor Gardens to break the journey and I seem to have come home with a few more plants... now I have to get them in the ground before I leave for work on Tuesday morning!

The wires went up for the pergolas last week and most of the clematis have been untangled from their garden centre cages and tied up. Just one more, and a Constance Spry, to sort out. I think I need two more roses (one to be a banksiae lutea) and two or three more clematis (must check my list). Then I need to try to source the wisteria.

Bulb order also being constructed - I want a whole lot of naturalising daffs & narcissi where I had some tree stumps ground out, plus tulips and alliums.

My weeping willow, which was drastically cut back by the electricity company tree surgeons a couple of years ago looks as if it is dying. Plus I have two ash trees with die-back (one of which needs to go), a goat willow that needs a some serious surgery, and wild pear that needs thinning and a plum and an apple to come out. I think it might be time to book the tree surgeon.

Water levels are incredibly low, and I really need to think about how I'm going to improve the stream. Hopefully planting will make a difference, both in terms of shading it and stablising the bank - and possibly even narrowing it in places. It is far too straight (man made channel) and level. So far I've dumped all the stones I've dug out of the garden (plus lumps of leftover concrete) in two places to create a bit of a curve in the bank, and one of them now has some marsh marigold growing it in.

The lawn needs mowing, but I rather like the clover and little purple orchids that appear when I don't get round to it... and so do the bees apparently!

I'm not home much over the next few weeks, but when I get back i'll have to make a HUGE effort to sort out builders' quotes and get some dates in the diary for them to sort out the floors and get the kitchen into a state where it is ready to be fitted...

Morning all, amazed that my tomatoes are showing signs of turning! Very exciting. Just wondering how many plant's I'll need to grow next year to get a decent harvest!

Didn't get the river job, but they were very helpful in saying I shouldn't bother with admin jobs anymore, I'd be far better - perfect, even - actually working in outreach/education.

So as I've escaped redundancy/the sack again, I have six weeks off work with salary to go back to - in that time, along with lots of getting the house and garden sorted, I'm going to be doing a couple of days each week with various wildlife/conservation organisations to get my name/face known, a bit of insider knowledge and up to date experience. And I'm going to enjoy it, most importantly. This coming week's activities involve going off to the downs for a bit of ragwort management and invertebrate surveying. The ragwort shouldn't be as hard because of all the rain and if it comes down to it, I can spend more time with the bug counting.

Union rep called me on Thursday and, as the job, which was forced upon me, is actually only suitable for somebody capable of climbing 30 foot ladders and hefting staging around, not somebody who is capable of getting a team of strong people to carry stuff for her and last rappelled down a big rock overlooking the sea in the 1990s (the edited version - the longer one is very long) and they've steadfastly ignored all instructions to not be such $*!("$£*!"£$((*(*(*!"$!_"£(_!£"%&( to me, he thinks there's a good chance that they'll agree to paying me off. If that happens, depending upon the amount, we'll be off like a rat out a drainpipe. and I can get on with applying for conservation jobs down there with the additional recent experience.