Daydream fund challenge part 4

potplant

Logged back in, (it took me a rigmarole of password changes and proving I wasn't a robot). So now I'm able to exclaim over the peacock visiting Alfie's bird table - we just get delinquent squirrels. And well done Jojo on the pigeon rescue. (It's true, people do tend to behave in peculiar ways around animals.) Here, our garden now looks twice the size after a week of intensive clearing, and there's more light too, so exciting times. It looks a bit shellshocked right now, and there's so much ground cleared that I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever get it all full of plants again. Don't think that worry will last too long though.

alfie_1

oh boy has it rained here !!
forest is under water...


branches brought down by the high winds too...


ive been raising funds for the st Bernard rescue and ive just plastered all my local FB pages with those that are looking for homes .. fingers crossed I can find some ..


had mum over last night as she was a bit down ... apparently my lovely sister [not] had a go at her for not going to her partners funeral !! it was 6 weeks after dads and a 4hr minimum drive and she just couldn't cope with it emotionally and physically . my sister did say at the time she didn't expect her due to her age and health but has changed her tune since learning we are going to jersey for xmas !!! poor mum felt dreadfull ...
she wasn't up to another funeral so soon after dad ....
anyway she has cheered up now so I feel better for her ..


anyway its late and I need my ugly sleep .....

tori.k

Your fill it too soon is my bet Potplant, I cleared mine with a digger to a blank canvas and still messing about with my planting plan there is never enough space and im awful for salvaging plants from the works compost heap.
My Heath Pearlwort (Sagine subulata) seed has arrived to make the "turf" for the front garden I will grow them on to 6" cells over winter im thinking 40 plants per sqm? Sound about right? I've never done a whole alternative lawn before so quite excited to be doing something new and the front currently looks like a building site until I can start the planting in spring.
Im desperate for a dry day that im not going to get, as the wet weather has thrown up a leak in the conservatory where it joins the house we will bodge it up with some flash band until we can get a roofer round to price up the flashing this house seems to hate me every week there seems to be something amiss. hopefully we are getting to the point that everything that can go wrong has done and has been replaced.

Alfie I hope you and your mum have a wonderful time

choille

Drizzly here & just back from wood walk - the sky looks heavy as if it's full of snow - oh no!

I bought a sideboard out of a charity shop = like I need one but it is rather nice so that gets delivered tomorrow but will have to tidy up upstairs - still a building site up there but getting there - shouldn't be filling it up with mismatched furniture. But love a bargain and it's rosewood.

Will spend the rest of the day doing that & attempting to list stuff on the bay as they have an offer on this w/e on listing fees.

I have too much clutter.

greenbee

Nothing wrong with mismatched furniture choille - fill your house with individual items you love rather than feeling it has to look like a magazine article. I've seen quite enough houses looking like catalogue pages.

None of my furniture matches. I have 'antiques' (tatty ones, with dents, broken bits, ring marks, burns and in some cases alterations made by my great grandmother who didn't believe in wasting good furniture just because it didn't quite fit!), bookcases made by my dad, recycled bits, new flatpack, 1970s danish, modern upcycled and everything in between. There are some idea pieces and some very expensive things (like my bed). But they're all things that work for me. And they're what makes my house a home.

choille

I quite agree Greenbee - I like antique of all eras and some more modern stuff. We also spent a lot on a new bed as it's important.

We have a huge Victorian oak table in the kitchen - we redid the top as it was quite marked but it isn't a 'precious' table. It gets well used every day all day & will be still going strong when I'm gone. It has another two leaves if we have a banquet any time.

It's pitch black out there - has been since just after 4 pm - i hate this time of year but the weather was great in November so shouldn't complain.

Davesnave

Fay wrote: »

Good point Dave, where would I drain the French drain too, hmmm. The garden slopes two ways, across and down towards the house. So it would likely end up draining towards the house, as it does now.so that's not good is it. I have a good guy coming to quote for me and will ask him for advice.is there anything else you could recommend?

If it's inevitable that water will drain towards the house, then maybe you'll have to build a soakaway near there, possibly under the patio. It wouldn't be ideal, but there ways and means of shifting the water if experience shows that it fails to drain away in extreme conditions. For example, a small sump can be fitted with a submersible electric pump to send water into a surface water drain. People with cellars that flood a little do this.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

choille wrote: »

Drizzly here & just back from wood walk - the sky looks heavy as if it's full of snow - oh no!

I bought a sideboard out of a charity shop = like I need one but it is rather nice so that gets delivered tomorrow but will have to tidy up upstairs - still a building site up there but getting there - shouldn't be filling it up with mismatched furniture. But love a bargain and it's rosewood.

Will spend the rest of the day doing that & attempting to list stuff on the bay as they have an offer on this w/e on listing fees.

I have too much clutter.

Ugh. Who wants perfect, matchy-matchy furniture? All it means is that when something breaks or wears out that they won't be able to get a matching replacement and then have to replace absolutely everything to keep the uniformity.

I've got flat pack, which fulfilled a need at the time (ie, to be cheap), but the things that I actually like are lumps of wood, mostly, especially my found-in-the-street 40s dressing table. If I had any money or transport, I'd replace the flatpack crud with old furniture, but at present, make do with scanning the streets for house clearances and people dumping things in the hope that the council will take it away for free.


It's tipping down again here. Which will be interesting for the leaking roof over the superexpensive equipment that can't be moved at work. It's under a tarpaulin, but that still means there will be water all over the place. It's frustrating for the boss, but I'll have no choice but to refuse to work with it in those conditions (or, rather, look sad and scared and chat to somebody fractionally higher up the food chain - there aren't many, but they're not monsters, so should be sympathetic and sensible enough to not want me working in there with electric and dripping water).

Davesnave

[FONT=&quot]Not a lot happening here right now thanks to the rain and mizzle, so I'm sending off my seed orders, writing Christmas letters etc and trying not to be too surprised when it seems to be dark at 3.30 in the afternoon. :huh:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Spent 5 minutes looking at our title plan the other day and it seems we've misinterpreted where our land ends at Mr Dog's place and down in the stream garden. I always thought the stream was the boundary, but the plan clearly shows a few metres of land beyond it, before the red line. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Mr Dog knows about this, as he's planted some weedy conifers as a poor excuse for hedge where the real boundary is. We therefore own 3 or 4 trees on our side of that. No plans for those; the more the better!
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]At the stream garden, we could probably lay claim to all the trees that cast the shade there. However, the neighbour farmer thinks he owns them, so it's best if I just carry on with my programme of removing a few mature trunks every year and carting them off-site PDQ! I just smear mud over the cuts and he doesn't notice[/FONT][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]. Makes me feel a lot better about it though and all the planting I've done on the stream bank.:A
[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In other news, DD2 flew out to India with her soon-to-be in laws to meet the rest of the family over there....lots of them! It's a pleasant coastal area and she's already sent us some interesting photos and videos via WhatsApp. Some of the family are responsible for protecting Asiatic lions in the nearby forest park, which are now red listed, so she'll be going to see those soon. [/FONT]

choille

Boundaries are problematic usually. Hope it goes well and no falling out about it as Mr Dog sounds a right problematic neighbour if given the chance.
How exciting for DD2 - must be like another world opening up.

Sunny here and more snow on the ben - thought it was cold last night.
I must shake a leg - can't be bothered as I fell the other day & twisted my ankle. It's easing but uncomfy - any excuse to lie in.