Another week goes by quickly!

This week has mostly been about catching up with all the odd jobs around the house and garden. The bathroom is now ready for painting, so we may meet our deadline of finishing both the bathroom and lounge before Easter (well, the end of the Easter weekend anyway). The greenhouse and conservatory are both full of trays with various vegetable seeds planted – we’ve never had space to grow seeds before, and based on what’s come up (or not) so far, apparently need a bit more practice, with some successes and more failures!! 

Pruning the fig tree was a particularly fun job… It’s been left to grow for a while and has developed very long, leggy branches, so we knew we had to do something with it. The main challenge is that it’s grown over the wall of one of our derelict buildings – so much so that it looks like it’s taken part of the wall down. Rather than cutting it out of season, we decided now would be a good time for major tree surgery and cut back the branches in the way (with every hope of keeping it when we finally start building). But the branches were so intertwined, it took over an hour of cutting and pulling, and then cutting some more, with serious effort in trying to pull them apart! 

We’ve also started a new project to keep us distracted. When we first moved in, the orchard was separated from next door’s field with a high bank of brambles and nettles. Over the months, we’ve gradually cut these back to reveal a beautiful view up to the North, particularly at sunset when the orange colours flood the valley. Rather than waste the space with a wide mound running along the side, we decided it would be a great idea to dig it over and turn it into an informal pumpkin/ squash/ courgette patch, with space for the plants to grow down the side. Of course, it was never going to be as easy as it sounds, with deep roots and a crazy number of stones everywhere. At least it’ll keep us busy for a while…