I’ve been taking photos of the tulip garden near work almost every day in spring, to see how it changes. Well, it really changed during the week!
garden preparations
Working in the new garden
Midday in the garden area. Not much love happening here
Last Friday, I had a spurt of energy, thanks to glorious sunshine, to get the garden into shape. The new apartment has these garden rows in the complex and we were told by the real estate agent that two were free (really? only two? they all look unloved!), so, of course, never one to do things slowly, I’ve dived right in to set up both of them. Continue reading
May 28: Caving for a craving
Another beautiful sunny day meant more outdoor work, and outdoor work without breakfast or lunch meant one hungry beast come dinner time.
Rene went to hospital this afternoon for a scheduled visit – he’s having an operation on his neck tomorrow afternoon. This is his sixth hospital visit/operation since I’ve lived here (three and a half years). The first four were for his hip – what a debacle that was. This operation will hopefully alleviate some headache problems he’s been having.
So before he left, there were things to do. (Hopefully he’ll be back by the middle of next week, touch wood). I spent four hours with the jet hose cleaning the stone tiles around the pool. Four hours – on one ‘small’ job! But it was needed to get rid of three years worth of grime. I’ll do our terrace and the back of the big farmhouse on Saturday.
You can see where I’ve cleaned – the two and a half rows on the right
And this is what it looks like now. Cream stones rather than green
I was soaked and covered in black grot by the end. I had little stones up my nose and in my ears and my glasses were smeared grey. My arms are also slightly sunburnt. Slightly …
That’s not the only thing hurting my arms. Have you ever used a Kärcher jet spray machine? Those things pump out some serious water and the nozzle weighs quite a bit when in action. My arms were still sore from scooping and snipping yesterday so they are going to weigh a tonne tomorrow! How will I get over that? By cleaning Liliane’s house, of course!
And now to caving for a craving … I called Leo at about 5pm and asked if we could drive straight to McDonald’s when he got home from work. He was shocked – that’s not part of the fitfor15in15 plan! This is the first time I’ve had McDonald’s this year. It could possibly be the first time I’ve had fast hamburger food for an entire year. But he didn’t put up a fight and boy did we enjoy those babies! I was so hungry, I could have eaten my arm (if it wasn’t so burnt! 🙂 )
Hello Alps! You’ve been hiding behind the clouds for too long! Taken by Leo at 6.30pm
Leo cracked me up when he took the photo, above, for me. My substitute iPhone4 is very, very, very slow and we’re still waiting to hear what’s happening with my iPhone5, which was sent for repairs last week following the black screen of death. Leo asked why I wanted him to take photos with his phone, and I explained the quality would be better. He then said, “You’re suffering from a bad case of missyourphoneia!” I told him that joke, in a language that is still sometimes foreign to him, deserved a hug (I suffer from misophonia). Very clever boy!
Wishing you a wonderful day.
Missyourphoneia! Burgers! Yeah baby!
May 27: Five hours in the garden
Today was a busy, do-it kind of day, as opposed to yesterday’s nothing kind of day.
First off yahoo, the sun came out!!!! so it was time to scoop the leaves out of the pool to prepare for summer fun. In the next few weeks, it will be cleaned with a power hose, old water out, clean water and chlorine in and then final ingredient – just add people.
Rene kindly ‘made’ me a pair of gumboots from an old pair of fishing waterproofs, which came up to his thigh. They’re really old and he never uses them anymore, so he cut them off just below the knee. Because they were about five sizes too big, I wore a thick pair of socks and a pair of slipper kind of things as well. But I was dry and clean, and in this mess, that’s all that mattered …
Gumboots at the ready …
… let’s clean this thing!
The leaves and algae/gunk on the bottom were quite think and the smell was pretty foul too. Leo came home quickly on his way to a meeting, so he snapped some pictures to prove I stood in that cesspool.
Had to block my nose!
Dumping the leaves and getting a little sunburnt
I forgot to take an after photo, but all the leaves are gone and plenty of the gunk/gunge is still floating on the bottom but at least it will flush out easily with the jet hose.
Then Rene mowed the lawn and I whipper-snippered a large section behind the garage, where the forest is creeping closer and closer.
It’s amazing how fast the time goes when you’re working outdoors. I definitely gave my arms a good workout, scooping and snipping. And there’s a bit of colour on the back of my neck and arms. Oops!
Speaking of colour, here are my little garden photos at long last.
Pinks and purples and one red one
Lots of colour in the pots
In the corner near the herb garden
Geraniums and snapdragons on the kitchen window …
… and geraniums on the unused, north-facing balcony
Wishing you a wonderful day.
fitfor15in15 ... and further 