Almost.

Back to grey but not too cold weather.

As it wasn't raining off I went to the zoo. My plan to fill a dumpy bag in the back of the car with woodchip for the new paths worked - almost. Unfortunately the heap we had thought was woodchip turned out to be just leaves and twigs. Not suitable for putting on the paths. 

However there was the remains of an old pile of woodchip and I managed to scrape together about half the dumpy bag full. The suggestion of driving in through the back gate was a good one as it brought me right next to the old play area. I used the woodchip I had for the spirals and can do no more until there is more woodchip. A shame as it would have been nice to see the whole job done but I think it looks so much better than before. Job done -almost.

When I tried to padlock the gate shut again due to the fence having moved in the last storm the bolt wouldn't go far enough into the post to let me put the padlock on. Not liking to have things not working I whittled away at the existing hole in the post with a table knife I use for gardening and eventually got the bolt in and the padlock on.

I then gave the gravel garden by the wolf-dogs a good going over. There's a tree right next to it which is either shedding leaves or small cones over the gravel. And when it's not cones it's long catkins. The catkins are the worst because as they age they start to fall apart when you try to pick them up. There are still plenty more catkins on the tree (somebody lend me a chainsaw) but either I give up entirely and let the gravel turn into a mess or keep at at. 

There were not many visitors at the zoo, only a group of youngsters from the local college on an animal handling course. It was so peaceful working with just the sound of the birds, wind and animals plus the occasional passing train and the neighbouring farmer on a quad bike in the field of sheep. Much nicer than sitting indoors even if my knee doesn't think so.

Before coming home I drove back up the lane and filled some bags with lovely compost from the 'old' compost heap which is more of a mountain than a heap. I've put that compost on my vegetable beds and around the fruit bushes in the back garden as the soil there is pretty poor.

The rockery is already full of colour. I need to trim back the sedum (more spares for the gravel garden) and the red aubretia at the back needs moving.

Off to Pilates soon.