Oh the end is Bill Nighy...

Hmmmm, seems this year is determined to attempt to piss me right off, what with the rain, rain and more rain. But what the hey, we're all still alive; we're all having the proverbial laugh; Boris Johnson, well, err, just Boris Johnson really (cripes he's a twat isn't he, don't get why people love him so much, oaf); still have a roof over our heads (the windows and doors are a bit of a struggle, but at least we're dry); we have a number of parties to go to in the coming weeks; s'nice.

So, the last few weeks have been very busy, Saturday working to try and catch up on stuff so I can at least leave my regular smaller gardens in a tidy state until next March. It's a desperate race to do this in time for the beginning of November. Did I say desperate? Pah, just do it Murray is all!

Anyway, here are a few picture to show what's been happening:

The view from the roof at Quainton, looking down to the stables. It was very windy that day and I was holding on to the scaffolding for dear life - never been good with heights.

Lots of trimming and shaping of hedges over the weeks, this is Pat's place in Berkhamsted. My new Tanaka hedge trimmer is picture on the left and is a splendid addition to the Murray tool box, I actually love it, bizarre!

...a bit of topiary at Julie and Andrew's place in Buckland. No really enamoured of that sort of thing but I do actually quite like doing it. I think it appeals to my sense of putting things in order - bit fascist...

A newt. This is something I am generally in complete accordance with most Friday nights - and Saturday and possibly Wednesday or Tuesday too. I had disturbed this poor little fella while weeding the rockery at Buckland, she/he was very sleepy, so I made a new nest for him/her and sang, to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it": 
Oh, I wish I was a naughty, little newt.
Oh, I wish I was a naughty, little newt.
Oh, it would be all right,
To stay out every night.
Oh, I wish I was a naughty, little newt.

So onwards to the end of another gardening year, my third and it has gone from strength to strength, even with the rubbish weather. The best thing of all is that I will have more than enough work for the winter too, four lovely big gardens with lots of lovely big trees and shrubs to tend to.

The newt lived by the way...

Happy happying...

None for sooo long then 3 come along at once...

What am I like eh? 


I came up with a new word the other day, bloggocks or bloggox if you want to be cool. It's a mix of bollocks and blog - did you spot that? Anyway, it's what this is all about innit?


Here is a most gorgeous picture from Womad a few years back. I post it because it's beautiful, sent to me by a beautiful person:

The ceiling of the Siam tent Womad 2006, courtesy of my best friend - wish I could make it this year the 30th anniversary, but well, y'know...

Today, Tuesday 12th June 2012, I was at Rebecca's place in Quainton and the building work has taken on a whole new tenor. Like great big ugly tracks all over the grass and great big ugly holes in places where there shouldn't be but ah well, there we go...


I was going to take pictures of the work, but it depressed me a bit, so I re-strimmed the little pathways I cut through the meadow area a few weeks back. I love it down there and at some point later in the year we are going to add a little seating area by the brook that runs at the bottom of the meadow. Can't wait!


Here are the new pictures:

This is a newly cut path, across the top of the re-sown area I did in April

Doesn't really look it here, but this is a quite steep hill up to the main lawn area

Looking along the bottom back to the re-sown area

And this is where the tennis court will be next year.
At the top of the drive

It's a garden I could work on all week and still struggle to keep on top of it at this time of year, so the 10 hours I do every Tuesday merely scratches the surface. Very enjoyable work and very lovely people!*


Happy strimming, if you can!


*And I'm not just saying that...

I can't stand the rain...

Hello! Here we go again. After the no show yesterday I was determined to get out to work today. Every second Thursday I have four gardens to do in Hemel Hempstead - or Amyl Hempstead as my mate Phil says. I had to take out an old conifer in the first house and then went on to just do some basic weeding at another.


While weeding, two women walked by, mid-30s, non-descript I guess would be a way of describing them. "Fancy a threesome?" said one, she cackled like an erstwhile female Sid James (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj7D65SFOhM). She stood over me, I looked up and there was a toothless grin beaming out of a face that had seen a lot of living. I smiled, "No thanks," I said and got back to the dandelions.


Don't know what she muttered as she moved on, but the word "serious" was spluttered. Shame really, don't know why I mention it, but I have become rather overtly aware of sexual harassment recently. There was a Radio 4 programme on last week called "My name isn't baby" or something like that, it talked about women being harassed on the street. Now I'm not saying I was harassed per se, but it's not a particularly nice experience; won't say it made me feel dirty, just sad that people feel the compunction to say such things. Like say, sad.

Tuesday was spent at Rebecca's place as normal. The rain wasn't too bad actually, which was nice. I moved a few more flowers and smallish shrubs around and weeded all the main beds near the house. The bed outside the kitchen window that I started to re-plant is looking quite lovely

Most of the above was elsewhere in the garden, so I'm very pleased they have all taken so well. It's a nice project and it's going to be a delight watching it develop over the year

Have I said I like a bit of brick?

That's B-R-I-C-K. If you look closely on the row of bricks ten rows up, there are a series of numbers and letters imprinted on them - see below:

These are the idents from the brick yards that made them. I believe you can even date them from the these numbers too. Little fact I picked up from a BBC2 programme called "Brick by brick - rebuilding our past", a little gem of a show, fronted by the brilliant Dan Cruickshank

And here's the drive way at Rebecca's, another little area that I have been trying to tidy up since I started there, some eight months ago.

Gosh I love my work!


And then today, Thursday. "I can't stand the rain..." indeed. Hail again, but this time I had a hat on so the hail didn't sting quite so much - I believe we baldies should have government supplied hard hats for such situations.

...who would want to harm that head?
Yeah OK...

On to Tom and Vicky's place in Aldbury and I substituted trimming the hedge for cleaning up the brick laid path and patio area at the top of the garden - did I say I like a bit of brick? A wise choice as the rain kept a-comin' and a-goin'. 

Note to self: take BEFORE pictures too!!!

And so, it's Friday tomorrow, back to Glassmill House and the delightful fella who got very outraged at the fact that I was using a leaf blower to blow leaves. Looking forward to meeting up with him again...


Happy blowing... (know-wad-eye-meen?)