A new year, and here we go again with our 125th post

There has been nothing to report since well before Christmas, mainly as a result of miserable weather in December and early January which made outside work impossible. We had a delivery of hardcore and machinery in early December which made us think that work might be starting on preparing the parking area and front boundary, but then the snow and ice set in, and temperatures have remained low until this week.

However, three days ago we welcomed the return of Pat, Stef and Graham and have seen further cobbling and substantial earth-moving done in preparation for a concrete delivery tomorrow to create the foundation for our front wall. This has involved the removal of the original boundary hedge and its underlying rough stone wall, and has produced far more spoil than anyone expected.

Early morning activity (they start before 8) spied from upstairs

While this looks like a paddling pool at this stage, in fact it's an extension of the parking area into the front part of the strip of land that came from the adjacent field courtesy of our 'neighbourly' farmer.

From here, work moved to the front boundary

Quite a tricky job to remove hedge, rough stone wall and tree roots

My inexplicable collection of traffic cones coming in useful

Important not to upset Denbighshire Country Council, so great care was taken not to disturb the traffic sign. At this point, the mysterious remnant of the water pipe is still in evidence (actually a securely lodged offcut)

Here's the tidy trench, ready for its Saturday morning concrete delivery. The boundary wall will be low, to improve visibility for motorists approaching the village, and an inner, higher wall will come later. Between the two there will be a raised planting bed.

Great to have builders who always leave the site tidy at the end of the day.



While the builders have been busy at the front, at the back I've made a small dividing fence, re-using chestnut staves from some tatty old rolls of fencing which originally came to site to keep the cows out in the very early days.

So, once again, onwards and upwards. We know that we are going to have to wait months for the stonemason who will build the front walls to be available (he's a busy man, and works slowly, as stonemasons do), but by the end of next week the front area should look a lot tidier.

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