More chaos

It's been a hectic week with more work being done round the cottage. On Monday Ken sent one of the backpackers in to sand down all the window frames and sills. Then Tuesday both young men came in with one hacking out the blackberry threading its way through the trees and agapanthus plants by the front fence. He then went on to scrub down the rough cast cottage walls ready for painting. It was a terrible job as in some areas ivy had been growing and when this was pulled away it had left leaves and stems embedded into the paintwork.

I had already gone out at 8.30am in order to do some more gardening but because of all the hard work going on around me felt impelled to stay outside a lot longer than I intended. So although I completely weeded the three gardens along the front of the cottage by the next morning I could barely move. Not quite bent like a human pretzel but getting there.

Tuesday they began waterblasting the cottage while Ken came with a chainsaw and cut down the stumps he had left in the winter along the drive. Pulling down the fence on the east side of the property (Toby goat was shifted to the front paddock so he wouldn't come in) he later came back in the early evening with his big tractor and dug out roots and the troublesome ivy that was smothering everything. There are still three or four stumps needing to come out which will leave big holes needing to be filled with dirt. While he was over here Ken also cut back a few trees on the southern boundary and removed a dead silver birch in the backyard. He also began pulling apart the rotten windowsill on the east side of the cottage. This only had two inch rotten area when I came here eight years ago- now the whole sill is crumbling away. After he finished I could see the wirenetting holding the concrete walls together but fortunately the rot hasn't extended into the window frame.

Wednesday morning one of the backpackers came in and continued waterblasting the walls. What a job! The ground is covered with flakes of cream paint and the cottage looks very shabby chic with its bare patches.

Thursday it dawned cold and grey and soon afterwards it began pouring with rain so no more work was done. The place looks so bare now- no shelter from the east and no privacy either. I guess though that I'm going to have a lot more garden to play around with. Just a shame I'm so broke at the moment and can't afford to buy anything to plant in it!