New fencing

Hello folks!

I am still in the land of the living.

The new fencing is finished and I've been busy, besides all the 'normal' stuff trying to get the gardens sorted out.  I did take most of the before and after pictures so here goes (sorry, image heavy post.)

Back garden 

 (45 feet long (total) x 25 feet wide)

Before, please note the post (just behind the green covered washing line) at an angle holding up the fence!
(The panels were, despite needing treating actually in a good sound condition, but after 33 years the posts had rotted through!  I think we'd had our money's worth though ;o)

Draped in all that flamin' ivy(that has been a nightmare to keep under control) and the lovely pink Clematis Montana. 

after I'd cut down the ivy that was on the rear wall of the house (I forgot the 'before' of that)

It was around 12 feet high! (Not for the faint-hearted - balanced on a ladder that was slowly sinking into the border soil)  I managed to rescue the robins nest from last Spring too :o)

I have to get the rest of the brickwork 'pointed' now, where the ivy had broken it up...be warned if you have ivy on your walls :o(  

After

Much better, though please excuse the dustpan, brush and garden bag in bottom right hand corner -  I was tidying up at the time...still a very cold day, and I was in five layers of clothes!

The fencing guys were great.  They worked extremely hard and were very accommodating for that 'weird woman' that had the work done...they didn't flinch when I asked for two 'hedgehog holes' to be cut in the gravel boards giving access to my neighbours garden :o)

and the second one

Still getting the border straight hence the rake...

The black 'leaky' hose also had to be staked out later.

We had also arranged that on the same day they would erect a fence in our front garden.

Before view from the pathway.  (Our houses are in a crescent and there is no vehicular access to the front of them, just a pathway.)

Garden measurements 

25 feet x 24 feet

You all know the view from the house due to the MANY hedgehog photos :o)

The little dry stone wall is around a foot high and covered in ivy (and filled with field/wood mice!)

The pile of logs besides the shrub (variegated pink Wegelia) is covering over hog box no. 3, I had to move this one for the fence to be erected - underneath it was another little wonder of nature :o)

 The entrance to one mouse hole, surrounded by ivy leaves and sticks.  I was careful to leave it undisturbed of course and have since lifted the hog box higher.

And now the 'After' shot

(From the pathway)

MUCH better!  

We have lived happily here for 35 years without a fence or gate, but over the last six months or so have experienced some problems with youths vandalising the garden at night and also younger children brazenly standing, staring into the house and garden and so had to remedy the situation.  Wish we'd done it years ago :o)

View from the other way,

Plenty of spaces for my spiky friends to visit though...

and under the gate as modelled by a stone variety!

We were so pleased with both the new fences that we decided to also replace the other fence between us and our adjoining neighbour, and so last Friday...looking towards the pond.

of course there was the obligatory hoggy hole.

(At the rear of the waterfall and next to hog box No. 3)

Where the new fences meet

The new fence view from our neighbours garden.

Then from by our conservatory into the garden towards the new gate

I've also put a few new 'wildlife' additions into the garden.

2 new 'Bug-huts'

(Thank you Aldi - special offers.  I was going to make some but these were so cheap..)

1 old one re-homed

With the 'door' open

a new nesting box - hoping for blue tits - fingers crossed.

Hidden behind the shrubs.

I've also placed a Robin's Tea pot nest in the tree by the pond but forgot to take a photo :o( but here's a link to a similar one.  I got mine from the Lakeland end of lines last Autumn - at a much reduced rate - of course ;o)

I've cropped a photo, the 'nest pot's' handle is visible 

It has snowed here every day since Sunday, but luckily hasn't stuck.  Once the Spring feel comes back I have some nesting materials I shall hang out in fat block holders for our little feathered friends.  (Dryer fluff, cat hair (!) wood wool and whatever else I can think of.)

Happily (though I have kept food out all through the Winter) there are no hedgehogs about. My friend Joan at the Rescue centre still has Otto and Olivia for me.  They are thriving well and will be returned once it is warm enough for them to be released safely.  Joan was telling me last week that she has 22  hogs in residence and hardly any of them have hibernated...so goodness knows what her cat food bills are like.  I still collect food and shredded paper for her, and give monetary donations when I can.

Things are much the same with Mom, though her depression is certainly lifting with the new drug regime.  Still no contact though from the Memory Service - I shall have to chase them up.

Thank you all again for all your wonderful, supportive comments and emails - I really do appreciate all of them :o) and for sticking around even though my posts are sporadic.

Best wishes to ALL.

xxx