Easter Weekend

We're had a busy but productive Easter weekend, with some respite from the firewood, more of which has been sawn, split, and stacked. The stack on the side of the garage has been adorned with spare roofing slates, to keep off the worst of the rain; more has been moved down to the store next to the kitchen garden; and the ramp into the garden has been cleared of logs and branches, ready for the tree surgeons' visit tomorrow (the last of the poplars, and some firs, are coming down, which will probably be the last of the tree felling in the garden).

The respite is/was more interesting.

The usual Easter activities took place, with Jenny and Philip's recently arrived (and permanent) foster children: painting and finding eggs, and a pleasant walk around Stainland deer park. We managed, for the first time in several years, to get around to baking a Simnel cake (a personal favourite), which will be a treat for the next week.

Part of preparing for tomorrow's tree felling involved clearing a load of roof slates out of a corner under the pine at the top of the ramp. We'd hoped there would be sufficient to use as paving slabs for the seating area in the same corner of the garden, so we spent a couple of hours laying them out in a rough configuration, to determine their coverage (they're not uniform sizes!). Having done so, we thought we'd also mark out the surrounding beds—the design of which we've long envisioned, but not actually tried out. The idea is a round seating area in the corner (which is the most tranquil part of the garden, as it's sheltered by the trees and raised bank from wind, rain, and noise), where the arbour stands, augmented by other seats and with space for table and chiminea at times. Radiating from that are a several flower beds, including one with a water feature (I'm planning a mill-stone based pool, I think, with a small bubbling fountain). A larger bed then extends down the side of the garden towards the copse in the lower corner of the garden.

Seating area and surround beds marked out (© Ian 2012)

Seating area and beds viewed from lane (© Ian 2012)