Sunny.

Another bright and breezy day. The morning felt very autumnal with heavy dew on the grass and a thick ribbon of mist above the river.

The chap came at nine and worked steadily all day putting the first coat of render up on the front and around windows and anywhere else that needed it. It's been so good to see this work being done at last.

After breakfast I worked on making a bespoke trellis panel to replace the short one we'd put up above the raised bed. It would have been slightly more work to make a small panel to fit in underneath the short one and this way we will have two short panels spare and I think it looks much better. I planted up some clematis to grow up the trellis and for fun put in some more of the foxgloves I'd been saving.

While I worked on the trellis Peter used his big drill to break up some of the concrete greenhouse base. My plan is to bag up the rubble and stick it in the front garden raised beds when they get built. (Peter phoned the builder who is going to do the terrace and the raised beds to  let him know the rendering is being done so hopefully it won't be too long before those jobs get done.) Then we put up the panel and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.

While Peter went off to row I carried on grubbing about first putting a row of bricks under the end two panels to stop weeds from growing there and then I dug out a very old and rusty Metapost. Those things are a nightmare to get out. You dig down and down until the post finally begins to move then dig some more, and more until with sweat pouring down your brow it starts to twist and then after even more digging it finally comes up. After all that I was good for nothing except to sit in a chair on the terrace while the builder finished off his work for the day. There's another post at the other end of this bed and two more in another bed to keep me busy for a while.