I’ve bought two tools in fairly recent times to deal with a couple of things I found in the garden. Aviation snips to cut up an old rusty incinerator and bolt cutters for the springs from an old mattress (not sure where that came from…). In both cases, I was able to get things down to reasonable sized bits for easier disposal.

I’ve been dotting about between a few outdoor things and one other thing I’ve been doing is trying to reclaim the area behind the pigsties. I remember strimming there when I first moved here around 20 years ago but it got forgotten about at some point and it’s surprising how quickly nature can take over…

Between ivy, brambles and elder, most of that patch was impassible a few weeks ago and, apart from clearing up stuff I’ve cut, it’s probably about at a point I’d settle for now. The main things to me anyway are having access again to the back of the pigsties and to the blue pipe which carries water from the 12 butts at the back of the house down to join 4 more by a shed and all used for watering round the back. I think we need to fix the fence by the back of the house.

Another thing I’ve done bits of and need to do more of is bits of garden timber. The bit that has my attention at the moment is the table outside the “BBQ shed”. It’s looking a little weather worn but I think it’s it’s a nice piece of quite solid, simple furniture. I’ve not tried this before with anything but I’m going to try sanding, a little bit of wood filler and teak oil with this one.