NDR

Andy takes great pride in his work - he has on every job he's been on since I've known him. Indeed, when we met in Portsmouth, I regularly got tours around the site to see what he'd been up to and, on one of our first trips to London together, I was shown the intricacies of the Jubilee Line and especially his escalators!

So, of course, while he was working in Norfolk on the Distributor Road, I knew I'd be in for plenty of road trips up and down the bloody thing!  

One beautifully sunny day in October after I got back from my holiday in Northumberland, I was treated to another site visit - he's so proud!

Boys and their toys, eh?!

Other People's Gardens - March 2018

Everything in March's post is about college - that has all changed in April as I've started to pick up some gardening work elsewhere - but this month is all about Easton.  But it has been incredibly varied!

As the weather was very changeable, sometimes we couldn't actually get out into the grounds, so we did sow an awful lot of seeds - mainly of the beans and peas varieties, to plant out into our allotment plots once the soil had warmed up a bit.

We made bug houses to encourage pollinators to our plots - we built these on the perimeter of the allotment plots.  We had such a fab day - we were basically left to roam around the college grounds and see what we could find to make our habitats - ours was beautiful I have to say, but we only managed to get the tall structure as we found a chair to build it around!  What a fab day!

We chopped the Cornus alba right back and separated it all out - the good stems for us to take hardwood cuttings; the more whippy stuff for the florists to use in their displays; and the really strong stuff to use as temporary plant supports for the herbaceous perennials - once they grow up, they'll disguise the supports, but in the meantime they're very attractive to look at and completely free!

But we also had terrible rain while digging our plots - it was awful, the rain didn't stop and we were just slipping and sliding across the plots.  Bloody awful!  I've borrowed this picture from Kim - I was so fed up with everyone standing around in the filthy weather that I got rather bossy and took charge of the measuring of the plot - but at least I know my triangulation now!

Odds and Sods - March 2018

March was another cold month and most of the month was spent hunkering down indoors, trying to keep warm.

It was also the only full month that Amanda lived with us before she moved out!  She and Sid moved in mid January, then spent all of February in New Zealand and then spent a month with us before heading over towards North Elmham to live in the same village as Mum and Dad.

Amanda brought this chocolate back from New Zealand and it was lovely - and I ate way too much of it, despite being on my new healthy eating regime.

I'm not sure this cream, meringue and fruit concoction contributed to healthy eating either, but it was such a cold month that there was an awful lot of comfort eating going on!

Finn actually had a haircut in March.

He's so cuddly!

Tidy paws!

This makes me laugh - they are sitting in the armchair together!

Spring has sprung towards the end of the month and everything is springing into life, the blossom is gorgeous.

March was also a very sad month, in that we said goodbye to Mary, a truly heartbreaking event.  Mary has left me loads of jewellery, including her ring, which I am wearing next to mine - they tuck in beautifully together and remind me of Mary on a daily basis.