Long and Dirty Weekend

We all love a good, long bank holiday weekend don't we, especially if it's a dirty one. Quite literally on our case as work continued in the house all weekend. On Saturday as the builders carried on working and made more mess (the good and welcome sort, meaning things are moving on, yay!) I shut myself in the bedroom (more to prevent too much dust in the room really) for most of the day and just....relaxed. I haven't done something so lazy for a very long time and boy did I need that. Laying in bed and marathon watching episodes of Tales from the Crypt was thoroughly enjoyable.

Ginkgo with an aura.... Ginkgo biloba 'Beijing Gold' and Dasylirion quadrangulatum

Then later in the afternoon, once the builders have left for the day I had a sudden craving to go to a....department store! We didn't buy anything, not yet for anything that we bring home will just get dirty anyway so it's best to avoid any buying until the house is finished. What the department store did provide are glimpses of clean furnishings, and sort of a reminder of what a dirt free living would be like again and a glimpse of a finished product. Again I needed that little trip, refreshing and inspiring. And whilst we sat down for some coffee just before we headed home I smiled when I remembered how similar my behaviour was to when we were still doing the big pond project. When things got a bit too hard and dirty then we would often make little trips to nurseries and gardens to gain inspiration and refresh ones motivation.

Which then reminds me, literally as I write this post that we ought to reveal the result of the big pond project very soon....

So come Sunday, we did lots and lots more cleaning in the house. Although dust and dirt will continue to settle in the house for the next few weeks it's always better to be on top of it.

And come Monday, we decided to turn our attention to another place that needed tidying up - the areas of the garden that were affected by the fire.

Clear up of the area has been slow due to the house taking priority but steady as we go bit by bit on some evenings after work. The builders who will be in charge of clearing up and rebuilding the 'Jungle Hut' are the same ones renovating our house so whilst house work is ongoing then they have very little time to devote to our garden. We did say though that we could do with restoring at least some of the privacy back into our garden by getting some of the new, replacement fences up which they did a few days ago.

From nothing to something, this climber is ready and raring to smother its obelisk all over again.

Thank goodness the Magnolia denudata 'McCracken's Variegate' is fine

So some of the new fences are now up and we have some privacy in the garden again. The rest of the fences will have to wait for now as well as the levelling and finishing off of what's up already.

And the inside of the Jungle Hut has been tidied up already and almost ready for demolition. We have salvaged what we can salvage, cleaned what we can clean, and most important of all cleared out and binned as much as needed to be binned.

As for the burnt plants, some are making a comeback whilst some are well and truly lost. But the clearing out of the dead plants and organic debris has been very minimal until this Monday when we went full steam ahead in cutting back.

The aim is to clear out as much as we could, in stages and leave the plans for replanting until most of the clear out has been done and when we have an almost blank canvass again. The less clutter the more likely we will be inspired and planning will be much easier.

A very special view

So lots of cleaning it was but my goodness there's just so much to look forward to here! I've never been so excited to be so.... dirty!

Mark :-)

Posted in: exotic garden , fire