A long time since an update here, but it's not a dead project. Got new computer equipment here that has taken an age to set up and get running smoothly, but forcing something to play with OS X is not always an easy task. There has also been legal matters that needed attention including a court appeals process thanks to the "Bedroom Tax" imposed by our ever so friendly government.

So the slabs are down and the ground has been soft-scaped. The nice Japanese Maple did not make it through last summer(2014), where the prolonged high temperatures scorched its leaves and dried out the thin spindly branches leaving nothing to power the root system. Effectively fried alive! So having the new plants added to the garden has cheered things up a little, but now the new puppy has had a good chew on them and has an insatiable appetite for compost. As he has grown he can now get inside the planters and eats the compost, leaving plant roots exposed etc etc.

Here's the slabs down waiting for the gazebo, which I am happy to say I have finally gotten a start on. This project has to be done with some haste now, but the pond re-build will now have to wait as the frogs have left us with several large clumps of spawn, so once the baby frogs have left the pond then it will get reshaped and extended. Been waiting seven years for frogs to breed in the pond and we even resorted to importing spawn and tadpoles from other areas, so this seems to have finally paid off.









If the weather gets decent as predicted for this afternoon i will take some other pictures of the planting, and the gravel (that's exciting isn't it!?).
Finally here is where i am now with the Gazebo/Pergola. Needs some profiling work on the rafters and the decking subframe needs to be added along with a Buddha Gong and some bamboo wind chimes, but all is going well, and the design should be completed over this week-end. Then I can cost it up, purchase the timbers and get it built hopefully before May 21st, the wife's birthday. Would be a nice birthday gift i feel. If not then by end of June ready for those long balmy sunny days of British summer-time (yeah right).



Wishing everybody all the best ...

Martin Spencer-Ford