The Garden Is Done!

Well it's about time I revealed this exciting news.  The garden is compete - all thanks to Phil and his family who spent several days up here grafting. 

So, this is what we started with (as you all should know by now!)...

First step was to remove all the decking and patio - and all the wood that came with it.  I've shown this done in previous posts, this took a couple of weeks. Next step was the new patio and the surround to what would be our lawn...

Then came the top soil...

Which was followed by a morning of James Mc help (a pro gardener), who helped prepare the soil...

And then later, turf it!  Here's me laying the first bit of turf (along with customary bacon roll)...

And here I am laying the final piece (with customary builders bum!)...

So by the end of the day it looked like this...

What a transformation!  A week later and the grass has taken well, and is really growing. This is how it looked at just after 6 this morning...

Oh, did I forget to mention something!?

Yes, as of yesterday there's an addition to our family. Meet Honey our 8 week old extremely adorable Golden Retriever...

 

Honey absolutely loves the garden - although she is doing the best she can to undo all the work James and I did laying the lawn....

May Migrants

I went to bed last night with all the intentions of getting up early for a ringing session on Beer Head, despite the fact there's been very few migrants up here since May begun. 

I woke up at 5am this morning with a headache, glanced out the window to see clear skies and a strong breeze, so stupidly decided to slip back under the covers.  Several hours later I got up, and headed up Beer Head just to see if I had missed anything....I really had!

It was actually very interesting walking around Beer Head, as I've spent all my time up here this spring in one area. And after covering the whole headland I can safely safe I've picked the best spot! The area around the Sheepwalk was obviously sheltered from the wind, and this was where there were at least six Spotted Flies (my first of the year), a Garden Warbler (ditto - quite a spring rarity here), a Whitethroat and two Willow Warblers.  Elsewhere on the headland, a couple of Blackcaps and a fly over Yellow Wagtails were all I saw.  

Although it was too windy for mist netting really, I would certainly have caught at least one Spot Fly I'm sure. Gutted.  At least it has given me some hope for the next week or so as birds are clearly still coming through. A wander around Beer Head yesterday showed absolutely nothing so I was beginning to think that was it for spring 2014. Away from the migrant birds, two of these continue to linger here...

Today has clearly been a good day for migrants as I've just had my first Hobby of the year over the back garden - about time too!  Within the last few days there's been a big increase in Swift numbers, with over 150 in the valley yesterday morning.  A Lesser Whitethroat has also been present in the valley, I've heard it singing from the same hedge on three occasions during the last week.

Wading birds have been really disappointing so far this month, with a handful of Dunlin and a trickle of Whimbrel the best from the Estuary.

I did have a few waders during a sea watch on Saturday morning though, with one Turnstone, two Ringed Plover, two Dunlin and three Whimbrel past.  These, along with five Great Northern Divers, six Manx Shearwaters and a few Kittiwakes meant it was a reasonably enjoyable hour staring at the sea.

And what about the garden I hear you say?? Well, we had a lot of wood to get rid off, but thankfully now it has all gone. And we've pulled up the patio that we uncovered under the decking.  The last photo I posted looked like this...

And today it looks like this...

Hopefully from this weekend onwards there will be lots of obvious progress. Watch this space...

DIY Heroes!

The weather wasn't going to stop us making progress with the back garden today. Even promising sea watching weather couldn't tear me away. I was back out there at 8am, and Jess joined me for an hour or so. 

This is how it was looking mid morning...

Not long after taking this photo - Phil and Bun appeared!  Clearly they couldn't take endless updates about garden progress on my twitter feed! That and they're bloody nice blokes.  This is how it looked about an hour later...

Fully dismantled!

It just means we've got quite a lot of wood to deal with now.  My chainsaw can't really hack it - so if anyone wants any wood it's free to a good home.  You'll just need to collect it and remove a fair few screws and nails...

DIY

When Jess and I moved in to our lovely house in October 2012, this is how the back garden looked...

Over the summer, we put several pot plants out there, and a bird table, so it looked nicer and a bit loved. At the end of the day it was still a load of decking though.

On Wednesday of this week, this is how the back garden looked...

Pretty much the same!  But this is how it looked at the end of today...

We've wanted to do something with it from day one, and after a visit and some advice from Phil, we now know what we want to do. The project has begun.  

I hate DIY. I don't do DIY. Thankfully Jess knew long before buying a house with me this was the case, and accepts it, so actually in doing this I am getting brownie points by the lorry load! But with every panel I take up, I ask myself why we've not got people in doing it for us?  Well that's because we've got a wedding to pay for.

I did hear several Whimbrel whilst out there this morning, so all this physical out door labour does have its perks!