Sunday 30 November 2014

Not looking my prettiest

Hello everyone,
So much for my vow to blog more, Since my last post things have not gone altogether to plan as I have been in hospital. I'm now recovering gently at home. It was nothing too major, just a small operation that made me look quite awful, don't worry, but I am certainly not at my prettiest best right now. Big aaaawwww


As I say, everything is fine although I did a concert looking like this last Friday (actually looking slightly worse) and horrified the audience I think - probably should have cancelled but I don't like to let people down if I can help it :-)

All that remains is for me to horrify my students this week with my frankenstein look.

Hopefully I can now continue my blogging as I vowed to.

See you all soon.

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Steps part 2

I took advantage of the very sunny Sunday weather to do the next stage of my garden steps project.

I am very pleased with the result - it may not be pretty, nor as expert as a professional's would be, but the concrete (my first ever attempt at making it) has hardened well and I have been able to walk on it succesfully.

The path along the side of the greenhouse at the bottom of the steps is not finished yet as I ran out of concrete materials (it doesn't go nearly as far as I had hoped) but I have put the gravel base in, next just a fairly thin layer of concrete to stabilise it all and then I am done.

So here is how it looks.





No more scrambling, slipping and sliding down to the greenhouse. My plan at the moment is to plant a small lavender hedge along the side of the steps to soften the edges and then to put a trellis along the side of the decking and grow some small plants up there. I'm very pleased all in all.

I reckon the whole project has cost me £150 which is quite a lot, but I really couldn't have done it cheaper I don't think, the materials, quite simply, were expensive! Still I am sure a builder would have charged me at least £500 considering the amount of hours it has all taken, so I am very pleased to have only spent that much. I am quite keen to lay a path from the house to the top of the steps now and have plans brewing in my mind.