On 31st July 2014 Jackie began transporting concrete slabs I had dug out of the projected rose garden
to form a retaining wall for the one compost heap.
By 9th March 2015 we had decided to move the compost and convert the heap, which had been left by our predecessors, into The New Bed.
What you see in this picture is the result of sifting out all kinds of non-biogradable rubbish.
This was the scene the following day. Note the dead tree just behind the bed.
The above images are all included in our before and after albums, to which I added more prints today.
By 23rd June 2017 poppies and clematises were thriving, as were
these lilies, the bulbs of which were eventually eaten by a vole
that also saw off the Bishop pf Llandaff dahlias pictured on September 13th, 2018. The white solanum festoons the original dead tree which is also scaled by
the clematises photographed on June 19th this year.
By September 4th Aaron had replaced the flimsy metal arch with a stout wooden one, to which we have attached a small trowel bearing the legend “Aaron’s Garden” – a present from Becky.
Like The New Forest, The New Bed is no longer new.
This afternoon I finished reading
I would concur with these comments on the back jacket.
My second birthday was one month and one day away when the Allies began their landing in Normandy on 6th June 1944. It has taken James Holland’s book to make me aware that the brutal, bloody, battle for France was to continue until I was more than 25 months old, largely because the German, mostly ill-equipped and untrained, often boys, were ordered by Hitler to defend their positions to the end. The occupiers’ command chain had broken down, and they knew they were being ordered to do the impossible against the vastly superior Allies with their incredibly efficient infrastructure. Details of the carnage and destruction make for awesome reading. There are many notes, maps, charts, timelines, and photographs supporting the stunning detail.
This evening we dined on Mr Chan’s excellent Hordle Chinese Take Away fare with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Saint-Chiniian.
