Friday, November 27, 2009

Feet of Clay


It's a good thing I'm not a war correspondent - the hostilities would be well and truly over before I'd filed the first report.
The trouble with writing to deadlines for 25 years is that when it stops, so do you (at least, I did).
For those who are still around besides my Mum and Boothy and Halfpint this is what's been happening for the past couple of months: house stuff.
To be honest, it's been bliss. It's almost two years since we bought this house and for some reason - the moon being in the seventh house, Jupiter aligning with Mars or whatever - shit, as they say, has finally started to happen.
It started with Garry Butler, the landscaping Eric Close look-alike, who along with Luke the Magic Concreter got the paths sorted out and turned the top garden from a miniature version of the Somme into somewhere you actually wanted to be.
We've got two types of clay in this garden: clay that looks like little turds when you dig into it (brown clay) and clay that looks and SMELLS like little turds when you dig into it (yellow clay).
The gumboots were useless in the face of it, mainly because I couldn't find a pair small enough to fit my feet and every time I took a step the boot would get stuck and my whole leg would pop out.
Crocs and socks were much better so I've spent much of Spring wandering around the garden looking like a menopausal Minnie Mouse with filthy shoes.

Anyway, to give you an idea of all the work involved, here's a pic of me in the top garden when we first looked at the house in September 2007:

Here's one when we had the ground terraced in July 2008 (that's my husband taking a picture of me taking a picture of him). The entire fence fell over in a storm shortly afterwards - what a barrel of laughs that was.

And here's what it looks like now. All that's left to do is put a grey wash on the pine terracing and add some more plants.

Since we last spoke, I also got a new clothesline. This was a really big deal because I'd been without one for 9 months. I celebrated with a new pinny - not tailor-made but it could've been.

We've also got stuck into the "lower 40": Removed some crappy old colorbond fencing and this concrete block wall (that stylish orange stuff is to keep the dog in - only 20 bucks a roll at Bunnings)...

...and built a picket fence to match the existing one up the top.

OK, that's a pic of the pickets being delivered. The fence was actually finished yesterday but still needs to be painted, which I can't do until next week, and I'm waiting until then to take another photo.
The bloke to the left of the pic is Saint Laurie, builder and carpenter extraordinaire, if I could bottle him I'd make a fortune. He's brilliant.
We've also had a driveway removed (we had three) so that the three lower levels of the block will be linked by gardens (one of them for veggies - yay!).
Unsurprisingly, we're knackered and a lot poorer, but over the moon about what has been achieved in just a couple of months.

5 comments:

Bilby P. Dalgyte said...

I graduated from highschool recently. It doesn't take too long before I went from getting up every day at 7am and feeling that 4pm was nearing the end of the day and time to relax to getting up at 10am and thinking that 4pm is when I'm my most busy. I didn't miss going to bed at 1:30am last long holidays and I don't think I'll miss them next year. Without a schedule I am terrible.

Wow. That is one hell of a job you've done on that garden. It looks good :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you ever so much Michelle for "returning", garden looks wonderful. Crocs are banned in our house. I am getting a new fridge today, the old one is rusted, leaking and noisy, it was easy picking a new one BUT very hard trying to get someone to quote and do the work to move kitchen cupboards so it fits in. Feel your pain. Halfpint

Anonymous said...

Glad the blogs back - searching every week -wtf- it's gone somewhere else perhaps and I've not been told. Aaah here tis.
Beautiful landscaping, you've inspired me !!
Iz

Boothy said...

Michele
I agree with Bilby.
Great work.
Now that you are experienced, do you consult? We have a Sahara at front and back at the moment (generously speckled with building rubble - must be another house worth buried in our yard I reckon)
Boothy

Unknown said...

You have been busy, i think it looks great. Vegie patch - i gave up and grow my vegies in pots.