Following a busy week with the online showcase, things are now settling down and I can set aside some time for my favourite thing... project planning.
Long time readers will know that I always like to have a project on the go, and I'm currently embarking on a fairly ambitious garden project.... an upgrade and makeover on the Gin Garden I created last spring. Sadly, due to reasons outside my control, the Gin Garden never really took off last year. Firstly the weather was very hit and miss from the minute it was finished. Then I had two eye surgeries over the course of the summer and had to stay out of direct sunlight which really hurt my eyes. Then we had the bombshell of PP's cancer diagnosis in September which completely blew everything out of the water, and an under-utilised Gin Garden was the least of our worries.
It's all been under covers since October last year and I really hope that the sofas have survived the winter unscathed. As soon as we get the promise of a fine, sunny day I'll unveil it and give everything a thorough check over. At the very least I expect to find it's turned into a spider hibernation unit.
Anyway, with the prospect of PP's ongoing treatment, and the possibility of major surgery, she'll need a fair amount of rest and recuperation, so I've changed tack on the whole area and have decided to go ahead with a wooden structure to cover the seating area, which will make it usable even if it's raining. Over recent weeks I've investigated just about every pergola/gazebo on the market. Which runs into hundreds. Some were lovely but way too expensive. Some were cheap but wouldn't fit in the awkward spot. Some looked like a nightmare to assemble. So after extensive investigation I finally decided on one in the mid-range price spot.... a simple, clean, uncluttered structure, which comes in kit form and claims to be easy to assemble, taking just 1/2 hour for 2 people.
30 minutes!?!?!
Yes I'm supremely sceptical too, but having looked at the various images I can see how it's put together and it is indeed a very simple construction. However, even so..... 30 minutes!
Anyway, I've taken the plunge and ordered one. It should arrive in the next 3 weeks and will have to stay under cover until the weather warms up enough to tackle erecting it. We'll have to draft in some family help as we won't be able to do it on our own, due to the weight of some of the elements. Plus of course I'll have to clear the area of all the leaves and detritus which have accumulated over the winter. One of the problems with the area is that it's adjacent to a single storey roof and bits of moss and dirt get blown down onto it. The roof gutters will need to be cleaned out and the worst bits of easily accessible clumps of moss will need to be knocked off the roof. Only when the whole area is cleared and cleaned can we build the new structure, and it will have to go up in exactly the right position, as once it's up it will be way to heavy to move. I'll also have to build in a slight fall from front to back.... just enough so that water will run off the covered top.
However, aside from the various problem-solving issues, I've also been planning the new theme, which is the REALLY fun part.
Fingers crossed that spring arrives early and is fine and dry for the duration....
