Those of you who read my blog posts with care and attention will recall that my garden bench had become dangerously wonky, and was ready to collapsed under me, had I been foolhardy enough to sit upon it. Well, I was not, but instead utilised a wooden stool.
The stool, while safe, was not as comfortable as one might imagine, so I decided to invest in a new garden bench. I was kept in a state of being terribly excited for about two weeks, because the bench, instead of being delivered to my esteemed abode, absconded to somewhere in Sussex. The recipients in Sussex were not pleased with their non-purchased bench, and sent it back. So what with one thing and another the bench careered all over England.
Anyway, it finally arrived ten days ago on a Saturday, and I immediately set to assembling it.
I had dissembled the old bench two weeks before. Did you ever notice how long it takes to dismember decrepit old things? They are never rotten in the parts that enables them to be taken apart easily, somehow. I once had to dissect a garden shed. It had a leaky roof and a rotten floor, but every clapboard was attached with six nails and it took me two days of hard graft to reduce the damn thing far enough to transport it through the house and to the dumpster in front of the house, which had been specifically hired for the occasion.
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| The old bench dismembered - slats |
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| The old bench dismembered - side pieces |
I am thinking of cutting the slats shorter and using them and the side pieces to make a garden chair ...
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| After the old bench was dissected, I hadto clean up the space where it used to stand, in preparation for its replacement. |
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| The package with the bench pieces. The second package in the background turned out to be unconnected to the bench, and contained my bike-box (bijou exercycle). How big was the chance that they would turn up on the same day? |
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| Fragile? Is that the right sort of bench for me? A fragile garden bench?!?!?!? |
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| Well packaged |
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| It came in pieces that just needed to be slotted together and screwed in - child's play! |
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| View from the bench |
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| Pond is looking lovely, but does need topping up once or twice a week given the heat |
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| The marjoram is doing especially well in its pot. The wooden clogs belong to me. They are perfect for hardening, and if something heavy falls onto your toes you feel nothing! They should use those things on building sites. |
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| You see the orange sail? That is the awning I installed. It isn't really an awning, but a 'sun-sail'. There isn't the space for a sun umbrella, so I installed this sun-sail to shade me from the sun. Keeps the kitchen cooler, too! And since it is waterproof, I can sit out there in the rain as well. Chance would be a fine thing! I am rather irritated by this never ending sunshine, if I wanted that sort of thing I would have moved to Spain. England is supposed to be cold and wet and foggy, for goodness sake! I cut down all that vegetation at the wrong time, at the start of a heat wave, and now I am sweltering in the heat, rather than being cooled by its shade. I know the garden vegetation would win in the end, it always does! |
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| View from kitchen window, mainly taken to show off the window, which I have finally managed to clean properly. It had gotten quite filthy, since the various vegetations had encumbered and encrusted it, and I had not been able to clean it for several years. But now it gleams and sparkles like a polished diamond. I should hire myself out for one of those 1960s TV commercials, the ones that extol the virtues of cleaning products. |
