Kittens being cute

Well, I believe the last few posts have pretty much covered all of the latest developments here - all except for the kittens! Lilith has gotten a lot bigger since we got her...though, as you can see, she refuses to believe it.

From Jan 2011

Esme, on the other hand, is still a bit of a runt. Perhaps that's why she seems to be practicing her kung-fu moves?

From March

From March

Progress in the garden, II

Not all the progress in the garden has been pretty. The creepy garden ornaments migrated to a corner in the front. Note the mass of hungry weeds behind them.

From March

Armed with my trusty garden fork, I spent a good hour removing as much of their nasty root system as I could, but to be extra sure that they stay away, I've assigned the garden ornaments guard duty.

From March

Some of them definitely seem keen.

From March

In other news, sadly the pond has sprung many, many leaks.

From March

Four of the fish and the frog have been missing for at least a month (Esme, is there something you need to tell me?)

From March

And today, we gave the final black fish to the neighbours, so the pond is looking pretty lonely.

From March

Though it's not completely uninhabited, it seems.

From March

Redevelopment plans are currently being drawn on the back of old envelopes.

And speaking of redevelopment, after eradicating weeds from the front, I started in on the vegetable beds in the back.
Before:

From March

After:

From March

A few more turns and a bit of compost and we should be ready to start planting!

Progress in the garden, I

As a number of family members have pointed out, it's been over a month since I've updated the blog, and in that month, the garden has been incredibly productive.

Just a few weeks ago, the daffodils were scrawny little things.

From March

But now, behold their impressive display!

From March

The tulips (oddly planted in the vegetable beds) have become much more impressive.

From March

From March

From March

And the showy camellia has gone from sedate

From March

From March

...to gaudy:

From March

From March

And, on the other side of the spectrum, the pear is blooming more delicately in the back garden.

From March

Shelves!

Lubo finally had some time (and we finally had the funds) to build the many shelves L. and I have been dreaming about.

First off, in the lean-to, Lubo built us a cupboard/desk to hide the washing machine and (soon) the freezer.

From March

He also added a nice long shelf which should be perfect for all of our plants (provided the kittens don't figure out a way to get up there)

From March

In the bathroom, we now have two shelves around the mirror.

From March

And much needed storage for our emergency supplies.

From March

L. spent much of today making use of the fabulous four new shelves that were installed in the cupboard.

From March

From March

It's so beautiful and organised now!

From March

I love all of the shelves, but probably the biggest improvement has been the addition of extra counter space in the kitchen.
This lovely structure will one day soon house a dishwasher (hurray!).

From March

I spent one evening last week finishing the top, so it is now lovely and shiny (and the stains just wipe away)

From March

Lubo was here on Saturday to finish things off and had the brilliant suggestion of making the countertop supports extra functional.

From March

Clearly, he knows us well.

From March

Of women and fences

We have two sets of neighbours - Barbara on our left (whose dog we borrow to enhance our walks) and J&M. Both sets of neighbours are well into their retirement and both have lived in their houses for several decades. L. and I really enjoy having such well-rooted neighbours - it's definitely interesting to see the older, working class British generation in action, and they are really good neighbours to have.

Having said that, Robert Frost is probably right that a good fence is the key to good neighbourly relations (this was illustrated when we had no fence at all between us and J&M and the kittens were showing a worrying interest in their prized fish). With the magnificent new fence to the right of us, I decided it was high time we did something about the fence to the left.

The poor fence, while mostly solid, has been sadly neglected, it seems, for some time.

From March

In fact, that whole side garden along the fence has long been in need of some attention.

From March

This weekend, some mad pruning, a little strategic sawing, and many coats of paint later and the front bit looks a lot more civilised.

From March

From March

...now all that's left is the back....

Of men and fences

Last summer, our neighbours decided to assasinate one of our vines (which, granted, was colonising their garden). When the dead vine was pulled away, I think they regretted their choice as it turned out that all that separated our gardens was this ugliness:

From Briar Crescent

Last weekend, L. and neighbour dug out the old fence (if such a jumble of wood can indeed be called a fence) and, with the help of neighbour's buddy, created a magnificent new fence, starting with a nice, deep trench:

From March

And building upwards:

From March

From March

L. used the opportunity to level out our fruit-producing area by making a retaining wall out of some old building blocks (thus making the garden look much nicer and - bonus! - saving us a trip to the recycling centre).

From March

Our privacy has been restored and I'm really looking forward to eating on the patio without being under our neighbours' watchful eyes.

From March