Another onslaught on the garden...

Back from two days in Paris (too blasé to take photographs) where we had two excellent meals and visited two museums as well as getting in a day's work (Peter) and a day at my old club catching up with friends (me).   A day in Norwich catching up on laundry - amazing what a tyranny that is.  When is someone going to invent a machine that knows when the laundry basket is full and washes, irons and folds - and a very enjoyable evening out with one of Peter's PhD student from years ago and his lovely family.  

Then off to Southwold.  On Saturday afternoon we did some odd jobs around the house, gluing together a table that had become wonky, fixing lights up and positioning them round the house, organising bedding and generally planning our renovation campaign.   Since we won't pick up a paint brush until the builders have done their stuff we are turning our energies on the overgrown garden.

The fruits of Rupert's labours

The reject pile

Rupert had done an excellent job when he stayed there last week cutting down trees/bushes and bagging them up.

On Sunday morning the sun shone now and then and the temperature went up and Peter and I got stuck in.   I uprooted various plants that had become too woody or were in the wrong place, dug around pulling out root systems and sending soil back on the bed where it belonged, cleared out more pots, weeded, cut suckers off the bay tree etc. etc.  It was hard work!  Peter attacked the pile of wood that Rupert had left and sawed it up into kindling and helped me with the heavy lifting.

Sawing up kindling

Gradually we are making piles of stuff that needs to be thrown out and piles of pots etc that can be kept.

The keep pile

Mrs W had a penchant for putting things in pots or dustbins.  Fortunately we found that the root systems hadn't escaped through the bottoms of the pots so we can move these about for incorporation later into flower beds.

Looking for a new location...

Unfortunately the walls of the raised beds are in a poor state as trees planted too close to the edges have expanded their root systems.  As we clear and look round we're trying to imagine what to do with various spaces in the garden.   A garden shed is definitely on the list as the present system of sticking everything in a corner and covering it with a prehistoric piece of hardboard doesn't do much for the quality of tools!

The glory hole!

Something to keep...

And I'd like a herb garden.  Lots of ideas whirling round!   After all that hard work it was time to go in and refuel!

I know, not exactly healthy eating, but much needed!

A 70th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

No!  Not ours, but my Aunt and Uncle's.  Here's the happy couple in 1946.  I was actually at the wedding (oops, given the game away there!) but not in this particular group photo.

The wedding group (my grandparents at the back on the right

Vera and Peter

My cousin Di put together a team of great friends who made a superb meal and the celebration was held in a friend's barn.   My Uncle isn't too well, but he managed to enjoy himself I hope.  My Aunt is in great form (they're both 94 years old) and was going from table to table checking up on people and  made a short speech! 

We caught up with old friends of my cousin's, made plans for a family get together and then drove back to Southwold.   The following day it was back to the grindstone!  Rupert arrived with his power screwdriver and put up a bed, then he got out the chain saw and started on the old falling down trees in the garden!   As my Uncle remarked yesterday, "Using a chain saw is fun, but you have to clear it all up afterwards!" Indeed! 

Peter and my sister in law Angela

John Pinch - designer and craftsman (lovely jewelry on his websie)

Angela's partner Mike - very GSOH

Aunty doing the rounds

She couldn't come in person but she sent a card!!

Vera and Peter

Cutting the cake - wonderful son in law on Aunty's right!

Having the last word!

Moving day

Rupert and his friend Tim have moved all our furniture out of our friend's house and into our new house in Southwold.  It took them about an hour to carefully fit everything into the van and we met up with them outside the new house where we both managed to find prime parking spots right outside the front door - a rare thing in Southwold!

Our happy movers

Rupert and Time took a quick look round the house and sized up the problems!  Two different stair cases, both steep and narrow.    A quirk of the house is a sort of opening in the upstairs hall of the front part of the house which looks down over the stair case going up to the back part of the house.  As a king size bed needed moving from the front to the back they managed to pass it over the banisters of the opening thus avoiding two staircases.   Unpacking the van was fast and efficient and Rupert and Tim were uncomplaining!

The sitting/dining room is now crowded with furniture and needs to be 'arranged' and we still need another bed for the attic but we're getting there.

Filling up!

More boxes to unpack

While everyone was having a restorative cup of coffee I reminded Peter about the well outside the back door that we didn't know about.  Rupert had the flagstone up in a flash and behold, a large hole full of water.   Tim held Rupert's legs while Rupert went head first into the hole with a flashlight.  He reported on the size of the opening and we also tested the depth of the water - about 2m.  After much head scratching we put the flagstone back and postponed any decisions about what to do about it!

We uncover the well

The well

Looking down....

The next day Peter went off to a meeting in Great Yarmouth and I walked round Southwold to get my bearings and post our cheque for membership of the Southwold and Reydon Society.   According to Mrs. W, a good way to keep up with what's going on.  We were getting the tail end of a storm and the wind was cold and buffeting.  The waves were grey and pounding!  I managed to get home without being blown over.   Fortunately the garden is sheltered and I put in 1.5 hours and made a very small dent on the tidying up that needs to be done.  I made a large pile of broken plastic flower pots of all sizes, most of them so old that the plastic was degrading, and other assorted debris, and did a little modest pruning and weeding of some of the pots.   Much more to do!   In the end we may need a small skip to take stuff away. 

A discovery

Yesterday I had another telephone conversation with the very sweet elderly lady who owned Gordon House before us.   She's been checking that all is well and wanted to let us know about the Reydon and Southwold Society so that we don't miss out on what's going on locally! 

I asked her about the water pump outside the backdoor.

Mrs W.: "Didn't your surveyor tell you?  There's a well by the back door.   If you lift the flagstone to the right of the door, you can see the water!  We just couldn't get the pump to work, but there's water in the well. "

Something else to investigate!

We settle in to Southwold...

Our first overnight stay in Southwold - two nights.   The inherited mattress we frowned on turned out to be very comfortable.  We got stuck back into the kitchen and finished cleaning,  and unpacked the boxes we had taken down.  The oven took a while to clean as did the extractor fan, but what a virtuous feeling when you at last peel off the rubber gloves.   We managed to wash floors, vacuum carpets, mend things and gradually work out which beds to put where, with a lot of measuring
.  Peter found the instructions manual and programmed the central heating and I even had time to wash the window sills on the street and the tiles on the front step and net curtains.   I also met a lady who runs 'Rachel's Cleaning Service' and she is going in to do the bathrooms and the loos at the end of the week.  

A clean oven!

We moved the table in the kitchen so that we are now sitting by a big window looking out on the garden.    Talking of which, here are the before pictures.   As you can see, plenty of space to sit and quite a lot of overgrown shrubs and lots of pots!   Big and small.  Some contain interesting plants and others contain what look like weeds.   It's going to be interesting to see what grows out of them in the spring.  There are also very large plants/shrubs in pots that will be a devil to move as the roots have probably gone down into the concrete or earth.   I've signed up for a garden waste bin collection to cart all the weeds and prunings away.

In addition to the pots, which will be a pleasure to cultivate, and the overgrown flower beds, which will be a challenge, there is junk everywhere!  Buckets, plastic bags of goodness knows what and broken toys and broken household items thrown into corners.  We made a preliminary collection to go to the dump. There's an interesting assortment  of spades and buckets for the boys together with a little wheelbarrow that will probably make it to the beach in the summer, and some surf boards! 

It wasn't all work and no play.  We tried out a small television but no matter which bit we plugged in where, we couldn't get BBC only ITV and commercial stations.   We'll have to get a man in...  We also made serveral sorties to the shops.   Everything is literally on the door step.  It takes seconds to go and buy a paper.  And what's more there's a charity shop next door which has been very useful today.  We made three trips with arms full of things we have found in the house that we don't need.   

The only thing we didn't do during the two days we were there was go to the end of the road and look at the sea or walk on the beach!   Still, there'll be lots of time for that.

Moving day next Sunday.  Our furniture is coming out of storage at a friend's and being taken down to Southwold.  So more unpacking and arranging next week.

Towards the back gate and the street

The back door  (left) and the doors to the sitting room

Plenty for the birds!

Lots of pots

The kitchen window...more pots

A few things for the grandchildren and plenty of rubbish

Who's been living in my wall?

A little glory hole!

Pots anyone?

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Defunct water pump