THE BEE GARDEN

The preparations for the bee garden are complete!

Look at that weed free area, the new compost and the new dry stone wall: I am so proud of myself!  It took me the best part of 3 or 4 hours today but it is, finally, ready for plants: I need to transfer all the flowers that were next to the pond as that area is going to be turfed over, and I've decided I'm going to plant some spring bulbs along the boundary with the pavement (and add some more compost in there).  The children have already sown some flower seeds and I've added put some solar-powered lights.

Just out of view at the bottom of the picture there is a sort of rockery I've created, as the ground then slopes down towards the apple tree.  There were a LOT of stinging nettles to dig up under there.  Not only was I trying not to get stung but I was also getting hit on the head by the apple tree. 

I've tried to get up as much of the ivy and creeper type stuff which was growing on the area shown above (which meant attacking part of next door's land as well), and dug up a bush which was growing near the retaining wall (left of photo).  I'm hoping that I shall be able to write a blog post before too long which shows this with flowers on, though as some of them may be a bit droopy if they're moved I think it's more likely to be next spring/summer before I can really update this.  I think I'm probably going to put some of the stones which are lying around the garden up here soon, partly to break up the surface but also so there is something to stand or sit on when weeding.

I should mention, though I forgot to take a photo, that the chocolate plant given to me when I left work is looking very healthy.  The flowers should be out in a couple of days so I shall try to remember to take a photo at that point: and to check that they actually smell of chocolate.  Pity that scratch and sniff for blogs hasn't yet been invented!

Husband completely finished the new ferret run this weekend and we have two very happy ferrets: especially as they enjoy chewing at over-ripe apples, which gets them quite frisky: I guess we should have known that might be the case, as they like drinking beer....  The only thing left to do is to create a new burrow for them so that they don't need the hutch any longer, and then they can stay in their lovely big run nearly all the time.  Husband has ambitions to make them a proper waterproof underground home, lined with sheep's wool to keep them warm in winter.

His next jobs are to clear the decking, which the ferrets had been using as a run, to bring it back into human use: not that it gets much sun and the back garden area is still a complete tip (roll on my earning lots of money again and I shall pay someone to clear it all and build raised beds which I can then just plant with herbs and vegetables and the like); to replace the fence along the back and side boundaries; and then I'm not sure whether he's intending that we sort out turning the pond into lawn ourselves or whether we're getting someone in to do that: I can see it being a rather bumpy lawn if we attempt it ourselves.

Plenty more still to do but I do feel that we're making progress, albeit slowly.

The other achievement this morning, albeit overshadowed by the fact that the children have really been rather annoying today, was that Son swam 20m unaided on his back and only grabbed hold of the side of the pool twice.  He now says he can swim (as opposed to saying he's 'drowning with style') and is very keen to go again during the week in order to practice and then get a medal at next Sunday's lesson.  I'm hoping that we're going to have a similar situation to the one we had with his cycling a couple of weeks ago: from saying 'I can't do it' to saying 'I can do it' and enjoying it so much that he wants to practice lots.  What we could really do with is a week's holiday in a villa with a pool.....  Daughter meantime has a really strong kick and can swim quite well with armbands, but still refuses to put her head in the water.

It's her final day at Stone Eden nursery (http://www.stoneedennursery.co.uk/) tomorrow, which is sad: though if I'm working they will both be back for holiday club, and no.3 will be going there if I'm working enough that we can afford it.  We've been really pleased with the nursery.  Even after a bad day at work I used to feel cheered by going in there to fetch the children, so it's sad that Daughter's leaving but good that we shouldn't lose contact all together.

And then just under two weeks left of the so-called 'summer' holidays.... what's the betting the weather will turn gorgeous just as the schools go back?!