A chair recovered, II

With the extended weekend, L. and I have managed to get quite a bit done the last few days.

On Friday, my project of the day was to get out my trusty staple gun and sewing machine and recover L.'s much-loved chair - loved by both him, to sip tea in and look out at the garden, and the kittens, primarily to climb up and scratch.

Truth be told, even without the kittens' help, it was pretty ugly (this photo doesn't begin to capture its sea-foam green ugliness).

 A few hours later...

..the chair was reborn!

And now has removable and washable arm-protectors.

So far, the kittens haven't tried to climb up the back, though they have taken to napping in it.

Kittens at work, kittens on the weekend

Along with the warmer weather, we've also had a recent rise in the number of bees, hornets, and flies around the house.

This, as you can imagine, has delighted the kittens to no end.

L. and I have plans to teach them how to hunt snails with equal vigour, but, alas, so far we've been unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Lilith has been ever so helpful with my marking.

I believe L. can confirm I have a similar look on my face by the end of the day, too.

The weekend was warm and sunny, and the kittens found the perfect place to relax in the front garden.

And the kittens decreed that it was good.

Sprouts

This week, the first of our seeds sprouted! The lettuces were the first to show up, to much general excitement.













Then came the rocket - so small!

And the lupin

The most impressive of all have been the courgettes, though, that went from this:

 to this, in a matter of days.

L. and I are definitely reconsidering the wisdom of planting 24 of them.

The pumpkins and peas are also up, but still nothing from L.'s peppers. He's getting a bit desperate and keeps trying new things to get them to show.

Surely they can't stay dormant much longer!

Back garden reorganisation

This weekend, I was completely out of commission - strictly no lifting allowed - so L. was stuck doing all the work himself. My ego would like to report that without me, not much work was done, but....well, the pictures speak for themselves.

Midway through the top clean up:

From April 2011

By this evening:

From April 2011

And at the bottom, midway through:

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And now:

From April 2011

From April 2011

Not only did L. sweep the whole patio areas clean, he also carefully chiseled off the creepy faces on the wall.

From April 2011

Propogation!

While L. was destroying the pond, I was working on getting the first production bed ready for planting.

Farmer Em at work:

From April 2011

The peas went straight outside, covered by a net to (hopefully) keep the cats from disturbing them.

From April 2011

But all  of the other seedlings are inside for now.

From April 2011

Including our imported strawberries...

From April 2011

...which seemed to have been affected by some virus/pest (top leaf) - possibly mites - but seem to be doing much better once we put the jars over them (second leaf).

From April 2011

I also managed to varnish the shelves this weekend.

From April 2011

Lubo will be pleased. And it also means that we can store some of our seedlings out of the reach of the kittens.

From April 2011

...At least for now.

From April 2011

The end of the pond and the snail temple

Today was in some ways, a very sad day. Yes, we finally got rid of the pond. As you may recall, L. and I loved our little pond - the fish! the frog! the mysterious lily plant! (not to mention the many garden ornaments that seemed to be hidden in its depths)....however, it started leaking pretty badly last autumn and, in spite of our patching efforts, was a long way from being water tight. So, it would seem that in order to keep the pond, we would need to invest a bit in rebuilding it. The amount of money needed to bring it up to an acceptable standard plus an article in the local paper about a toddler that fell into a neighbour's pond made us reconsider being pond owners.

So, today we peeled away the layers.

From April 2011

From April 2011

Chopped down the massive bush/tree which insisted on shedding leaves all over the place.

From April 2011

And started digging out the gorgeous soil we found underneath.

From April 2011

After an afternoon of hard labour, it's all cleared out.

From April 2011

Project number 2 on this Day of Destruction was to remove the snails' Mecca - the bizarre and rather cool lily-like plant that seemed to attract snails and slugs from gardens around. Seeing as most of the pilgrims would be traversing our production beds, we decided it would be best to relocate it.

From April 2011

However, after a strenuous attempt to pull it out, it became clear the only way it would be removed would be through total destruction.

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Observe the stubborn-yet-fragile root system.

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The remains.

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And now, the space is available for less-slug-appealing plants.

From April 2011