LCJ & Snow
This lunchtime took LCJ outside to play with the snow 
As you can see the pile of leaves was just as interesting as the snow…
been busy :-)
Its been a few days since my last entry and this is due to rushing around working on the garden, sorting out things on my to do list and generally getting ready for Easter.
Now finished putting in the gate in the garden so we can restrict LCJ movements and ensure that we can stop him quickly getting onto the drive and potentially the road. The skip was finally collected on Saturday morning whilst CJ was getting her cut and LCJ was asleep, I bet he would have loved to see the big skip lorry It is nice having the drive back, but wondering if I will ever get around to sorting out the drive and parking.
Gate
I managed to replace the light fitting on the landing with the one we purchase about a year ago
On Monday collected a boot full of gravel ready for the path once the edging arrives, will do the same again on Wednesday which hopefully will be the last lots
Went to Birdworld today (www.birdworld.co.uk) and as Easter school holidays had already started the place was mobbed with families everywhere. I seem to be the only person there that didn’t have any kids, I bet all the parents were think strange time to visit
I took my camera plus CJs next LX3 to take some pictures, but limited opportunities to get many decent pictures due to the cages, but still managed a few. I thought that cost was a little higher than I expected but the cost included the Farm and the Underwater World areas so not too bad. I managed to get some shots of the penguins and flamingos plus the ducks etc. I took some shots in the underwater world area with the LX3 and some of these were not too bad considering the state of the glass and the lack of light. Overall the pictures were not too bad and I was pleased with some of the long range zoom shoots of the birds with the EOS40D Canon DSLR mated with the Canon L 100-400 lens. Here are some examples will post more on FB.
Flamingo Birdworld
Duck
Throat better
Today I was feeling less horse and a bit more in the land of the living. Popped out this morning to go and grab some gravel , concrete, gate and posts after dropping off the compactor at the hire shop.
Is it wrong when the women in Homebase asks were you in the other day buying gravel :-0 thats what happens when you go the DIY store too early in the morning. So eight bags of gravel and two buckets later I was off to Wickes. In Wickes it was a simple task some concrete, a gate, furniture and home. Managed to get all apart from the all important posts and post holders so gate is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Home to drop off the boot full before grabbing a coffee and off to find posts.
Posts secured in Long Acres after much deliberation on whether to get spikes or concrete-in posts, opted for concrete-in one as not sure what is under the surface in terms of services. Dug the holes before lunch and the supports set in concrete in the afternoon ready for the posts to be added once the concrete has set.
Edging found, sort of :-(
After much hunting I have found some edging that should be available in a week or two so this will be just in time for Easter. I gave up on the original cheap edging as it was nasty and had very sharp burrs that would need smoothing to reduce the slashing risk. We did find a nice looking one from Bradstone but this proved a little difficult to get in quickly so opted for one by Global Stone that is a compromise with the original Bradstone and did work out cheaper including delivery to home
Sandstone edging (image courtesy of Global Stone)
We are going for the edging as this will separate the gravel path from the flower bed and grass areas. As there is a delay to the edging I will have to switch to getting the gate installed, but first to purchase a suitable one so a job for tomorrow I think
Sore throat today has been a pain in the backside but at least I got to use the compactor plate on the path area to give me a firm sub base to lay the gravel once the edging is installed. I think tomorrow will be also spent getting more gravel and tidying up the wall and cement the manhole cover frame in place.
more visits to DIY stores required
Today spent some time in Starbucks catching up on emails and tweets before heading to the dry cleaners to pick up CJs jacket and then off to Staines to pick up a hoover and some dummies. I would have also been loading iLife on Tressies iMac in an attempt to fix the file associations of Movies with QT, but running Tiger and only had the 09 version with me, will have to try the earlier version.
After hoover and iLife attempt I popped into to Slough to see if B&Q had the edging stones I needed for the garden. No edging stones available of the type I was after so back to square one. Back home to continue with the earth clearing so I can get rid of the skip before the weekend. Made good progress and the skip is about done now.
The blueray player was delivered today and I now have installed it bit waiting to test it with the plasma. I opted for the Sony BDPS 550 which provides BD Live, DTS decode, Profile 2.0, 7.1 sound etc. Once I have tested I will write some more information and comments.
ouch heavy
Over the weekend managed to get some work on the garden done, but not a lot due to other activities and being a little tired from a long week breaking that damn concrete. I did get a lot more in the skip and its nearly full with so much still to do, oh well. Managed 9 holes at Moore Place in Esher and also got a glimpse of the plans for the new hotel which does look good.
On Monday I did a couple of trips to the DIY stores to pick up concrete and gravel, ironic that after spending so much time removing concrete I have to buy more to set the edging and finish off the trimmings. So 6 bags of concrete and 8 of gravel collected and in the garage.
After these trips off to fix a problematic PC and to see if I could fix an issue with iPhoto on a Mac. So after a couple of hours and several coffees later the PC was fixed but no joy with iPhoto issue. Will do an upgrade tomorrow to see if this fixes the issue.
Moved more earth this afternoon so skip is nearly filled. Will need to see if I can get some edging stones tomorrow at B&Q.
breaking done
Finished off most of the breaking in the garden today and got on with the clearing of the rubble. Made good progress in between the showers and skips is getting full now. I have marked out the main path to get an idea of what will be grass, shingle or flower beds. Dropped the breaker off this afternoon and booked a vibration plate ready to compact the path and lawn areas next week.
Need to tackle the lower grass area tomorrow to see what is under the soil plus need to get concrete, edging and gravel sorted asap so that I can get the path done in prep for the turfing.
knackered
today started at 8am smashing the rest of the patio up after yesterdays hour or sound using the breaker. The morning was cloudy and windy so the risk of rain was high. Started by clearing some of the rubble from the Tuesday and already this was starting to fill the skip up. Cracked on with the area by the garage and discovered some interesting building work to raise the level of the garden, so concerned that there might be more concrete buried under the earth, only time will tell.
During the day I had a few forced breaks due to rain but made very good progress and finished the day at about 3pm due to being over tired and constant showers. I am hoping I can get the rest finished tomorrow so I can drop the breaker back to the hire shop in Bracknell.
The garden continues….
Monday was spent in the garden once the skip arrived after a couple of hours the skip was about a third full and now I was starting to worry that maybe one skip won’t be enough 
Only time will really tell as I progress with the garden revamp and with the prospect of picking up the demolition hammer and to really get cracking on the concrete on Tuesday I expect the skip will get filled quickly.
swimming
On Friday morning went swimming with LCJ and CJ to their water babies class. It was good fun although I need a bit more practice at making sure I don’t dip LCJ under the water when he is not expecting it. CJ said I need to hold him like a sandwich, she obviously hasn’t watch me eat a sandwich.
After swimming it was back for lunch and then back in the garden for a short while. The concrete is getting tough now so have hired a demolition hammer for next week. This should be fun but lets wait and see….
LCJ was sick in the afternoon so chilled for the rest of the afternoon including doing some reading of Slideology and various news feeds on the web catching up on tech news and other gadget related items.
On Saturday the plan it to relax during the day and then off for Bruno’s second birthday party in Pimlico for tea etc at Pizza Express.
