June 6: Sunny and hot. Well hot for England. We hit 22C today. That’s about the point where we all pant and gasp and beg for water with crushed ice from my new fridge. Molly is still barking at it, too. She doesn’t like the noise of the icemaker. Oh dear.
That’s Andy on his little hopping, jumping, noisy digger. It does the job though, so who am I to cast dispersions on the little critter.
As you can see, Molly has grabbed a front row position on the rug so she can watch everything. She’s also dead centre in the doorway, so anyone needing to use the loo must first stop and visit with her. She might be barking but she’s not dumb.
This is the trench for the brick wall’s foundation. It’s about 2 feet deep. The birds are having a feast on all the bugs and worms tipped up on the little mound of soil. And my goodness, all the ants! Billions and billions of them. We knew there were ant nests in the lawn from the sand and dirt they push up when making tunnels, but I had no idea the soil would run black with them. Quite extraordinary.
.
..
That little digger just kept going and going, and soon all of the grass was gone from garden.
And we were left with this. This was day 2. Things are progressing very quickly. That heavy rain last week softened the soil, making this job easier.
The cement was poured into the trench with iron rods holding everything together in the mixture. Sonny used his cement mixer but the temperature that day was so warm that I worried a bit about him. At times he looked a bit pale. Typical of a young man in his 20s, he wasn’t wearing a hat and insisted on not wearing a shirt because it would give him a ‘funny tan’. At least he had suncream on. At one point I made him sit down because he was a sickly pale colour. Can’t have my workmen fainting on the job!
We have saved some plants that I’m very fond of … like my hostas, which are doing particularly well this year, my cranesbill (love those pretty little blossoms), a few rose bushes, the blue bird bath – a birthday gift from my sons, one bleeding heart and one wild columbine from my mother’s old garden (grown from seed). All of that is now in an area that I call the nursery. And I’ve decided that I quite like the looks of it, too!
The Nursery Area. I might just keep it this way through the summer.
The sandstone for the new patio area, and the water feature that will go near the steps by the patio. Steve-the-Electrician wired up outdoor power and cabling yesterday.
And then the lorry arrived with 14 tons of topsoil! There will be one more delivery of topsoil next week. It was a mountain of dirt spilled on our new driveway!
Tomorrow the boys start spreading out the topsoil on the levelled ground nearest the house. Andy wants the dirt in place on both levels before they start building the brick wall so they don’t have to carry the soil up and over the wall. Smart man, our Andy.
I’ll be back with another Garden Renovation post next week! Until then, be well and happy summer.
The Chalk Hills Kitchen 
Lots happening, Misky! Can’t wait to see how it all shapes up in the end! xx
The boys knocked-off early today. Thunder and lightning and buckets of rain falling. The topsoil is covered nicely, so we’ll hope it doesn’t wash out on the street.
wow so much development!!
As long as the weather holds, things move along well. Rain and electrical storms today though.