Aerial Photo with a Drone

I almost forgot to post this brilliant picture of our house and garden. Lee took it with a small drone. I think it's come out great. Hopefully we will get a Summer photo too 😎

Plasnewydd Aerial Photo

Compost Heap

Lee made me a compost heap 😊 hopefully it won't be home to lots of spiders. It has a hinged lid. 

Rustic Compost Heap :)

Arty Photo

 

New Patio!

Before Photo

Our garden is just so hot and there is little shade so we decided to put in a small patio under a large tree that we have. This space doesn't really have any purpose so it will be a little shady escape from the sun. I absolutely love it, the problem is the birds do too and we now have a poopy patio 😳 Lee did a fantastic job on this and I planted up the borders. Hopefully it will be nice and full when things start to grow. There are a lot of ferns in there but they are just coming to life. I've planted some hyacinths, little anemones (100 bulbs to be precise) sowed some seeds and put some ground cover in too. Lee bought some solar lights that flicker like candles and they really do. The whole thing looks like a teleport on Skyrim and it really does transport you to a tranquil place. This is going to be lush .. I hope.

Hooch helping again

The circle appears

Hey Presto!

Edging almost in

New path, lights and plants

Azaleas transplanted too

New Garden Toy - Woodchipper!

New wood chipper and carpet

After clearing the garden and having 15 bags of leaves from trees and bulbs etc. I decided that before Lee prunes the fruit trees I would get us a wood chipper to make life easier. We usually end up chopping the pieces of all our prunings into bits to fit in dustbin bags. This includes all the hedges, roses, shrubs etc plus we have the lawn clippings too and then we have to take our garden rubbish to the tip. It's only 20 minutes away but (wait for it) we have to go on an "even" day according to our car registration plate. So for us that is a Monday, Wednesday or Friday. 😂 I guess some council person gets paid to make these lifestyle decisions.

Anyway the wood chipper is great for trees and shrubs but not so good on green stuff. I have yet to try it on the laurel but I think it will be okay. It's definitely not so good on honeysuckle. That's another job that isn't on my list.

Lee testing it out ...

and a job for me too

Big improvement with all the wood chip from our ash tree.

2021 Garden To Do List

I can't keep up with everything so now have 3 lists, one for the garden, one for the house and one for my art. Pleased to say I am getting through this list. 15 bags of Winter rubbish! We've had some lovely sunny days so I've been out all day getting through the jobs. Lee has helped too but he has his own list 😊 Only 3 big jobs to do but one can wait until the weather gets better. My lists are never straight forward. Planting up cuttings isn't that easy when you have to dig a big mound of soil and save all the plants, plant them, mix the soil with compost and sand too and then do cuttings. But, (never start a sentence with but - rules are made to be broken) but, this Summer I am hoping that we can actually enjoy the garden without working in it all the time. We have spent 5 years doing the garden to make it easier for when we get old. It is finally starting to happen and gets easier each year if we have a good clean up in the Spring and Autumn. 

Number 10 isn't quite done yet, I need to take a trip to the garden centre. I have been ordering bargain plants on Ebay and they are minute 😂 that will teach me for trying to save money but plants are so expensive these days and people are so dishonest saying they are large plants. I have no idea what they are comparing large to but some of them are definitely not even 6". Apart from my dogwoods they are a good size but not a bargain.

 

2021 A Drastic Ash Tree Chop

Tree Surgeons at Plasnewydd

This year started off with us getting our Ash Tree cut back as it was diseased. Since then I have heard that the council are going to be make all ash trees on main roads cut back, so that was a good move on our part. We have been meaning to do it for a few years but knew we would need someone in to do it and that would be expensive. We had some great guys do the tree for us and they chopped the tree into manageable chunks for us and also left us a great pile of wood chips for us to spread in the little orchard. That was actually bigger than I thought and took hours to shift. It not only covered the little orchard but also the area by the caravan too. They cut the tree in the snow but it was a lovely sunny day. I made them chicken noodle soup. I think they were a bit surprised. 😂 I love the tree now. It's like a giant tree monolith. Shame I can't get up there to put a gargoyle on top.

Tree monolith

Lee shifting cut logs

Log Pile from our tree

Wood chip for the fruit trees

Loads of barrow loads

Garden by the caravan 1

Garden by the caravan 2

Coronavirus Projects - Conservatory

This has been a bit of a mission and I have now run out of paint to finish it. I've ordered some but have no idea if and when it will arrive. Plus we cannot buy any roofing as all the builders are closed. Hopefully we will be able to get the roof done before the Winter as our leaks seem to be getting worse.

I've managed so far to do most of the decorating with paint that I've already got but I ordered all purpose paint for the conservatory as there is a lot of wood beams and panelling and it is all varnished. It would be an absolute nightmare to rub everything down. The woodwork is still in very good condition so it is worth spending some time on it. I ran out of paint because it is a little thin and needed 2 coats. I'd rather paint 2 coats than rub down varnish though!

So here's the progress so far. The bottom half is not painted as we are going to insulate and panel it with PVC panelling so that it is easy to keep clean and isn't home to cellar spiders.

The colour is a bit of a shock. I was hoping it would be a dark blue but NO it has come out like a bright royal blue when the sun shines. The joys of buying paint. However, it does make me smile when I walk in there.

Blue painted woodwork

Rosewood Varnished Doors

Lovely Blue Interior Doors

I would love our conservatory to be like another room, but it really is the entrance to our house as most people in Wales use the back door around here. Our dog goes in and out and it is used a lot. I mainly use it for exercising, well that's the plan anyway, when my rowing machine isn't being used as a coat rack.

I've also painted an old cupboard that we bought for £5! at an auction. I call it the Moon cupboard and it is home to my art materials. I have painted the moon phases inside the 9 little circles at the top. The dresser, another project is just waiting for the handles to dry and then that will be complete too. Both are shabby chic as I wanted to try that out.

£5 cupboard BEFORE

£5 cupboard AFTER

Shabby Chic Dresser with Stencilling

Moon Cupboard

I will post some finished photos when we've managed to get supplies.