A Bit of Rain.

It was soporofically warm this morning but later there were brief showers. By brief I mean minutes if that. There was the usual wind and the towels I hung on the line were nearly dry in a few hours.

In the morning cycled down to the community gardens for C&C where I was put to staking and tying up tomato plants in the communal plot.  That took me back to the days when as a teenager I sometimes picked tomatoes in a nearby market garden ( a very relaxed place where the owners were kind enough to let us earn some pocket money). After a few hours picking when we washed our hands the lather from the soap would turn a rich yellow from the tomatoes.) Cake today was cream cheese and strawberry muffins from a recipe Cat had found in The Guardian. Delicious. 

(Something, jackdaws I think, is running about on the roof of my study. Even Speedy is looking up at the ceiling.). 

After cycling home when I made it round the corner and all the way up the slope to the drive without stopping - yay! I spent a happy afternoon in the garden. Made more progress on the pond. Having carefully saved the rubber roofing left over from when the garage and kitchen were redone I now had the perfect material to use as an initial liner for the mini pond. I used some sort of builders' adhesive to glue the flexible sheeting to the bricks to hold it in place and then put a layer of sand in the bottom. Tomorrow I can trim the sheeting back and then once I put the underlay and liner in I can fill the pond. I also set the concrete tubs and trough in place on bricks and got them filled up. Little by little I'm getting there.

My joy in the day waned somewhat when I went down to look at the rebuilt pillar and wall. Firstly the pillar is smaller than the original one so that the stone on top overhangs a lot more than the one on the other side. But worst of all there is a big gap between the wall and the pillar. I didn't see the chap before he left so maybe he is coming back tomorrow to finish off. I hope so.

In general the finishing is not very good with jagged bits coming off the corner strips. I did tell them they didn't need to render the back of the pillar but I didn't mean the bit you can see from the street. Just the bit inside the garden that is hidden by the bush. Oh dear, I am not very happy. Especially as the rain will get in behind the render and it will soon fall off.

I managed to find a 'before' photo which shows that the pillar was not in the best condition and our regular builder had filled in the gap with a thin piece of concrete. But at least the wall was joined to the pillar.