Still moving on

Despite trials and tribulations and somewhat disappointing weather for the time of year, things are still moving on. I’m still waiting for the parts I need to complete the service on my Savannah for it to be airworthy again and although I could have been servicing my X-Air, I decided to concentrate on my house and garden while the weather permits it. The grass needed cutting again before it got out of control and the hump behind my house had become totally overgrown again with enormous thistles and other weeds and something needed to be done about it.

Cutting the grass was the easy bit and I did it a couple of days ago but as I’ve found previously, the stems of the giant buttercups that infest the lawn are almost impervious to the blades of my mower and even though the grass has been evenly cut, the stems still stick up proudly all over it. I may have to try sharpening the blades to see if that will make a difference or even investing in new ones, as the existing ones have given good service over quite a few years now.

As for the hump behind the house, it will need to be seeded but I’ve decided to treat it with weedkiller beforehand. I’m waiting for some weedkiller that I ordered several days ago to arrive and in preparation I’ve been over the whole area to be treated with my heavy strimmer to reduce all of the weeds to ground level which I hope will increase the effectiveness of the weedkiller solution.

At the same time I’ve been manually removing and disposing of a large number of the large stones that were brought to the surface when the builder disturbed the ground and are now on the surface. They will all have to be removed in due course but the task will be made easier when the weeds have all gone.

If the weather becomes as hot as it should do for the time of year, I will be able to leave the seeding of the hump until it gets cooler again in the autumn, if necessary giving it another treatment of weedkiller beforehand as the solution breaks down quite quickly in the soil.

So here are some shots of what the house is currently looking like. I’ve still got all my plant tubs and pots that I brought with me from Plazac but haven’t yet filled and planted them. There’s still time and although watering them every day will increase my workload, I doubt I’ll be doing anything more major to the house’s exterior, beyond painting the shutters, and a good array of plants would add considerably to the house’s appearance.

The stone laid around the house is beginning to fall into the void below it as I always suspected it would. There wasn’t enough earth for a proper backfill despite the builder saying there was. The terrace at the house’s rear and the path up the side leading up to it are falling away a bit but are not dangerous and are still usable but I don’t intend to do anything about the problem this year as I’ve not decided what to do for the long term. A solution that I’m considering would be a decking platform at the house’s rear with stairs down onto the lawn so I don’t want to lay anything solid and semi-permanent that would then have to be ripped up again.

I’ve also received two more excellent pieces of news today. Firstly, it’s been confirmed that I’m receiving a full refund including bank charges for my electric bike that I packaged up a week or so ago and returned to the supplier in Poland because it could not be registered to be legally used on public roads in France. That’s a relief because I always hoped that there wouldn’t be a dispute over the amount involved and much as I regret not being able to keep the bike, I’m glad that the matter is now over.

The other piece of news is that I’m seeing a buyer tomorrow for my ‘coffret de chantier’, the box with a meter that you need for a temporary electrical connection while your house is being built, for the price I advertised it for a few weeks ago. This was 40€ more than the amount I’d budgeted for, but even so, the buyer will I hope be well pleased with it since it is in excellent condition compared to those being advertised by other sellers and is complete with the accessories needed for it to be connected up and used immediately. So big smiles all round if the sale goes through 😀