Getting Colder.

I looked out of the kitchen window this morning and was surprised to see snow on the distant hills. Going out on to the terrace the clouds were down too low for me to see if there was snow anywhere else but what I did see were three swimmers in the calm sea. Later I saw then getting out of the water and they all had bare arms and legs! The wind has been blowing from the north-east and has a distinct chill. I've just checked the Met office site and there are yellow and amber warnings out for snow and ice over a lot of the country for the next few days even mentioning the Beast From the East though fortunately our little bit of the coast is not due for the worst.

My main job today was to double check how much trellis I need for the back garden and then order it. That's been done though I've not had a delivery date yet. Peter walked past the pc as I was paying and nearly had a heart attack over the cost of the trellis. I ordered 12 6ft x6ft panels and 4 6ft x 3.5ft panels so it was expensive but I hope they will last for many years.

Recently I've been thinking about the bath we'll be removing from the bathroom (eventually). My thoughts turned to either a mini pond or a raised bed and looking on-line it turns out both ideas are possible. The low bath and side panel are both heavy metal in a cheery yellow and for a start it would be expensive to get rid of them. This would be in the back garden and so far I'm tending towards the pond idea. As I'm aiming towards as low maintenance as possible it would be without a fountain or aeration system but it seems that having oxygenating plants should be enough. Sealing in a bath plug with silicone should make it water tight and I would need to put in stones or something to make a safe way out for wild life.

On the other hand a raised bed would also be useful though maybe a bit less utilitarian than the gentleman's above. I'm already planning raised beds along the brick wall boundary under the new fence to give the brick retaining wall more support. Looking at the walls and properties here they all seem to be suffering from ground movement no doubt caused by the constant bashing of the waves. Every house unless newly refurbished has cracks in the cement render and down in our front garden the walls are bulging and cracking. But they were probably built thirty years ago.

After organising the trellis I took myself to the front garden to do a bit more work. Some sawing and clipping to straighten up the hedge followed by easier work pulling up an area of ivy under the hedge. There's quite a bit of honeysuckle in the garden so I'm considering moving some to grow up through the hedge. No piano or felting today but I did have a session on the exercise bike.