Busy Few Days

I’ve been out and about over the last few days. I went down to Banbury to meet my friends Gary and Caroline (socially distancing). I had to take my bee suit because I was taking down a conifer which was very close to his beehives. The tree came down very easily and was soon dispatched to the green bin and a few plastic sacks.

After lunch we went to Broughton Castle. This was an opportunity for Gary to demonstrate his new electric Hyundai Kona. Apart from all the electronic gadgets which are mind boggling, the acceleration is truly scary. It was a pleasant walk through the estate alongside the house under blue skies.

Over the weekend I visited Doddington Hall Sculpture exhibition. This is held every two years and I’ve visited it every time since moving to Lincolnshire.

The exhibits are very varied both in style and price. I really liked this exhibit and would’ve happily bought it until I discovered the price was £53k. A little out of my bracket.

Had a coffee and piece of carrot cake in the cycle cafe which was very good. The menus were paper and there was a piece on the side where I had to fill in my name and contact details just in case there was a threat of Covid-19. We live in strange times.

At home the landscape gardener has been slowly getting on with the work around the house. He was supposed to be finished by the time I went off to Banbury but he hadn’t even finished the path alongside the garage.

It is finished now and looks very good. It will make a great difference to this side of the house and will give me an incentive to tidy up some of the detritus that has collected under the trees.

Now he has finished this part of the work he has started on the paths around the vegetable plot.

He spent a day preparing and laying one path so it’s going to take quite a while for him to finish the job. Thankfully I’m paying for the whole job and not by the hour.

It’s an interesting experience having work done. He tends to turn up late, any time from 10am onwards, and leaves around 4pm so is it any wonder that progress is slow.

I’m very pleased with the workmanship so far and when I think I’ve been waiting to get this work done for about 4 years I won’t complain about the time it is taking. I look forward to getting the vegetable plot all tidied up.

I also had a visit from the local tree officer because I’ve asked to trim some of the trees which have tree preservation orders. My biggest concern was the Ash which the tree surgeons wanted to remove some of the top whereas there is a growth at the base. Thankfully the tree officer agreed for me to remove the tree completely. I do have to resubmit the planning application to remove the tree rather than just reducing the crown. This is a job for the autumn.