So, yesterday...
This is Kai's old swing. And I do mean old. We bought it the year he was born (I think, though it might have been the year after) because I'm a firm believer in every child having a swing in their garden - if there's room, of course. We hung a baby swing seat for him to start with, switching to the child seat you can see here a couple of years later. He and his friends have had enormous fun on it over the last 10 years, but it's only guaranteed for children up to eight, and I've been increasingly worried over the last couple of years that it was dangerous (and I was proved right later, when we found that one of the struts had rusted completely through just below ground level and snapped on removal).
(Photo taken 1998) When we cut down the
willow ->
in 2002, we saved a number of sections of her trunk and they've been marking the wall of Kai's 'den' under the elder by the wall ever since - which I thought was a little bit of a waste. So when we decided (read, I finally convinced K&K) the swing
had to go, I suggested we drag out the logs and stumps and see if we could make some sort of scramble-gym type thing for Kai, who loves jumping around on logs/rocks. The idea was met with great enthusiasm and yesterday afternoon saw Kai out with stool, hammer, screwdrivers and spanners dismantling the rusty old thing (the swing, that is, not his dad... I have photos but neither of them want me to post them here, sorry).
And this is what it looks like now. The stumps are fairly well wedged in place with bricks, enough to stop them rolling, and Kai is
very pleased. So am I - it's much less of an eyesore than the swing!
I prepared some of the planters I plan to use next year as well - the old compost heap is almost empty now, ready to have the big conifer moved. I'm not happy with it by Roeg's Pool, and it's looking decidely unhealthy, so we're going to lift it, prune it back to the last bit of green, and see if it comes on again. Going to move the
helichrysum to sit a little further back from where the conifer was, which hopefully will let enough light get to the paeony to allow it to bloom (because it's only just hanging on as it is.) We also moved the goldflame
spirea further up the garden, where it'll get more light. I used the hose to water for the first time in two years. And then we were knackered.
When I got back from shopping today I found Kai watching the
Fruits Basket DVDs - in the original Japanese with the subtitles! I'm so pleased he prefers to make himself work to read the subtitles and get a feel for the language rather than take the easy way out and watch the dubbed version. [proud]
And Ken bought me home a present from
Focus: a very poorly
prunus incisa Kojo no Mai, half price (£4) because it's in such a sorry state. But then, so was my
acer when I bought that, and it's doing very nicely now. The
prunus needs to be a display plant really, haven't quite decided where it'll go yet, but it'll probably end up close to Roeg's Pool. Photos to come.
And lastly - you've probably heard of outdoor loos, but this is just daft!
Back to the loom.
[bemused] Blogger's spell-check suggested replacing Kai with kazoo, daft with deft, and
helichrysum with wheelchair...
#
Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 9:49 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment