It's gardening, Jim, but not as we know it...

I am stuck in the house waiting for the wind to drop.

Was making good progress on the fruit tree bed but yesterday put a spanner in the works.

The first rock encountered would not budge. I excavated around it to find a second one above and overlapping the back of the first. The best part of an hour spent to get them both out.

A little later and another one found. It was disguising itself as a stone. Okay, a large stone and not the iceberg of a rock it turned out to be.

Same situation as before. It's like one of those puzzles where you have to do everything in the correct sequence.

I thought when I removed a few slabs of sandstone behind it that I had it, but no. This rock was not for moving...

I continued excavating all around it - yes, there was another one wedged against it, and a biggie. Half an hour working around it and out it came.

Should be all systems go now, but no, the first one still wouldn't budge.

I worked my way deeper with fork, spade and trowel. And deeper.

Its true nature was now becoming apparent - a monolith.

I kept digging down until I got to the bottom of it.

It was now moving a couple of millimetres when I got the fork under it but not enough to free it.There was nothing trapping it anymore - it was just too damned big.

This called for drastic measures - I went and got Paul.

I suggested going to see if Margaret had a crowbar but Paul decided he wanted a go with the fork. Ten minutes later and between us it was freed.

Now to get it out - I could just about hold it up with the spade for Paul to drag it out. Paul wheeled it around to the long bank this morning where it will be rehomed sometime in the future.