Did you hear the whip cracking?

The hallway is finally finished and sadly (because I've been banging on about it for so long!) too hard to take a good photo. After all the colour deliberation and problems we experienced along the way with show through of repair areas, and buying low sheen instead of satin, we're really happy with the outcome. I even stayed up late on Saturday night to put a coat of danish oil on the skirtings and architraves and they now look worthy of the spanking new wall finish!

Now it's onto the next project!

It's the second week of first term school holidays. I've taken the week off and Joe took a couple of days either side of the weekend. The sewing machine has been packed away....I know unbelievable.....and we've been working in the garden.

We used to have a lovely old plum tree that for years delivered an abundance of plums that allowed me to make Plum Rum and Raisin jam every Christmas. Over the years the tree slowly died much to the jam recipient's chagrin and mine because I've had to buy plums these past 2 years! Back in September Joe decided to chop it down and put the branches out for the hard rubbish pick up. He made it to the trunk then it got too hard. (Imagine 1.5m of tree stump.) I told him that he should have invited the lady who was stashing the off-cuts in her car boot as fast as he put them on the footpath to come round and finish off the job.....! (I have since learnt that plum wood makes an excellent, slow burning fire...and that 'help-yourself to our wood' woman must have seriously been dancing around her wood stove, chiminea or whatever she needed our wood for...!) So needless to say, the dead tree trunk has stood right at the end of the garden path mocking me every time I looked out the back door. I don't know what possessed him but on Monday Joe finished chopping the tree down. After much swearing, bow saw blade changing, huffing and puffing and a noon deadline he got the trunk out.

In its place will go a raised garden bed. We've recycled the frames from the 'no-dig' beds, stacking the two on top of each other. A bit of resizing, new screws and a paint job. New soil will be ordered on the weekend.
Actually, I confess. I do know the motivation for this flurry of activity. It's called a driving net that Joe's planning to build in the corner of the backyard behind the shed. It's a big project and will require a lot of clearing and construction. So given Joe's libran tendencies and the time it takes him to get anything done.....it may be some time before it materialises. I best not mention the fact that the back fence could do with replacing so I bought some pittosporums instead!