days of heavy lifting

Yipppeee.  Mizzling rain today so I can stay inside.  The garden is showing promise but there is not yet much of horticultural significance to share.  The deck is finished

and there have been one or two days of sunshine to enjoy early morning coffee on the tiny bit of east-facing. I shall show more of the deck at a later date.  Its completion has led us to redesign the garden (to some extent).  This involves digging up the pavers that currently form the path through the back garden.

To say they weigh a ton would be to exaggerate, but only slightly.  Steve has undertaken to dig one up each day. I clean it and move it via trolley to the back of the garden and manoeuvre it into place for storage.  Of course, I had to create a storage space which involved reconfiguring pavers we had moved some years ago to dismantle the airline runway we had down the centre of the garden when we bought the house.  I am very tired and have put my boxing career on hold until the end of daylight saving.  But it is a rewarding pursuit because progress is readily apparent.  It also involves moving the lavenders again.

Georgia has returned our chipper after a sentence of hard labour at her place.  This is timely because 

one of our Silver Princesses split in the wind

and I've got a lot of chipping to do.

This all coincides with me adopting a new garden mantra:  a garden isn't complete until nothing more can be removed. I can't remember where I read it but it is, unsurprisingly, of Japanese origin.

All these foxgloves, hellebores and aquilegia were due for removal last year.  Fortunately I never got around to it and they are having their best season ever.  I did remove the stones that bordered them so, perhaps, that made a difference.  The plants were destined for my English Dell but that hasn't happened yet either.

Preceding the entrance to the anticipated English Dell is the Wildlife Pond - but that needs a bit of work too!

And here you have the garden in waiting for Spring burst.  Though the pear tree's looking speccy and one apricot tree has blossomed and now is fruiting.

I haven't totally confined myself to the garden.

The wind has sometimes confined me to a sunny window in the house and a good read.

I have ventured for a walk at Luther Point

where the bay reminds me so much of Caerfai.

I have communed with my mate the white-faced heron who seems to have developed a liking for urban living.

And I have ogled Georgia's wisteria - the stuff of dreams.