Give and Take

We have been salvaging the left over wood from the building site. There are some reasonable sized bits that could come in useful for the garden. Reg had brought over a cold-frame top a while back which on testing was not quite wide enough to sit on top of the new raised beds, but I am hoping to be able to cobble together a frame which can then sit inside one of them. The smaller bits are being bagged up for use as kindling. When Margaret came round when the muck was delivered she asked about it. So, so far a couple of bags for Margaret and a couple for Penny. We still have more...

Spurred on by his success with our mole Paul also offered his services to Margaret when he took the wood round, as there were a series of mole hills in the grass down the side of her drive. He is now a superstar! If we fall on hard times I believe the going rate is five pounds a mole :)

Reg had also brought over a cereal box crammed with daffodils on Wednesday. I really didn't want to plant in LB8 yet but there is nowhere else to put them at the moment. I reweeded a large patch and got them planted yesterday afternoon. I should be able to dig them back up next year and redistribute them as required. It was actually quite therapeutic pulling out the baby weeds - I have obviously done a reasonable job on the new section as it was very easy. What joy to plunge in the bulb planter without hitting stones every time.

All the 'necessary' gardening jobs have been done and I am now down to the WIBNIs.  In no particular order:

Weed edge of path along bottom of HB - I think of this as part of Paul's responsibility. Unfortunately he doesn't.

Winter prune the roses.

Tidy up the raised bed on the other side of the rose garden.

Salvage the fuchsias from the pots - may survive if brought indoors but my success rate with house plants is atrocious.

Keep weeding the new LB.

And The Latest Score Is...

Paul scored an equaliser yesterday. 

Match currently stands at Jen 2: Paul 2

Action-Packed Day at Todheugh

Another first of country living for us today. Scottish Water came this morning to empty the sewerage tank. It is located under our rose bed, and seemed fairly straight forward. Apparently the only real problem was a request for next time to do it after we have pruned the roses.

Partly because of the sewerage tank being emptied and partly because I overslept we reverted back to a later dog walk. I had got them ready and we went out to wait for the SW man to finish. As we were waiting a Scottish Local lorry came by - road sweeping the edge yet again. Then another smaller SB van passed by.

As we set out for the walk we could see the van parked down the track by the bridge. The lorry was coming back. We waited. It stopped. We carried on. The van went across the bridge, reversed off the road and stopped. At this point Jen dived into undergrowth, and despite having her muzzle on emerged with yet another mole. She gave it a good shaking and then dropped it. I managed to pull her away, and it made a shaky exit to the verge on the other side of the road. We continued on our walk.

When we came back there was a temporary road sign on the far side of the bridge with a 20 mph limit and 'beware of skidding', shortly followed by a 'mobile roadworks' sign. Another 'beware of skidding' one on the other side. Jen had obviously remembered the mole and suddenly pulled towards where it had last been seen. I stopped her and could not see it so it may well have survived its ordeal.

We then went food shopping - one of life's necessities but it is so much more civilised being able to avoid the weekend. When we got home there was a council worker at the bottom of the hill trying to stop us taking the road towards Edrom. As we only needed to go about 20 yards he apologised and let us through.

They appear to be doing something to the road in front of the long bank...I'm off to look.
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wibblywobbly lines as time passes
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It was like something out of Thunderbirds...Mobile roadworks was a perfect description. They have completely relayed the road surface from as far as I can see up past Margaret's and the last I saw they were heading towards the bridge.

Lorry at the front laying tar.

Lorry behind with conveyor-belt putting gravel on top of the tar.




Lorry behind loading gravel into conveyor-belt lorry.



Vehicle (no idea what it is called - a non-steam steam-roller) behind just driving up and down bedding down the new road surface.

And this is on top (literally) of all the road repairs they did at the end of May...

Jen The Serial Killer

Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth but wildlife is another matter...

It started a couple of months back when a chick had fallen from its nest in our eaves onto the path below. After a brief game of 'tag' with Poncho she grabbed it back and ate it.

On Saturday Penny came over to pick elder flowers to make some cordial. We were heading towards the bridge when I almost had my arm pulled out of its socket as Jen dived into the undergrowth. She emerged with a mole in her mouth. It took quite an effort to get her to drop it, and I only succeeded when she tried to rearrange its position and lost her grip on it.

Last night as we were heading down the steps to the top of the drive she suddenly leapt into the pergola-covered oil tank area. Poncho dived in after her. A sudden loud squeal and I tried to pull them both back - I was worried they had found a hedgehog. I shone the torch in and could see something that was not prickly, and Jen was straight back at it. Out she came, shaking a very large rat. She threw it back down and I took the chance to drag them both away. On coming back about 10 minutes later I could see that it was still alive, and had crawled onto the bottom step. Jen was all for finishing the job but I turned them around and back to the house via the building site.

I must now go and remove the dead rat from our steps...