Bits and Birds

Wednesday 2nd April 2014

 

I thought about doing a blog page yesterday but the date put me off and who would have believed it anyway.

For many months Di has been wanting me to rebuild the original terracing on the front garden. This was originally done using old Australian hardwood railway sleepers which are slowly crumbling.

This photo is nearly 40 years old and was copied from an original colour slide by Jim but it shows the terracing as it was.

Its a big job to rebuild this and I must admit I kept putting it off.  Di finally said why not wait and Jim can give you a hand during his holiday out here. Good idea but it didnt work out like that.  I finally got pushed in to making a start a few weeks before Elin and Jim were returning to Sweden.

We made a start on the bottom level by removing the old timbers, which were still amazingly heavy, digging deep holes for the uprights and cementing them in place.  Then we had a week of rain and I had to wait for the holes in the clay to dry out.  By the time this happened Elin, Jim and the boys had left us.

Anyway, I got stuck in and bolted the horizontal boards in place. All thats left to do on this bottom level is to do a little back filling and clean up the piles of spoil.

I think it looks good but most importantly, so does Di! Now its the slope up the drive next. Watch this space.

 

This is a very special photograph for which I must say thanks to Elin who took it. We quite regularly hear these birds flying over and roosting in our big trees but we have never had one come to the water bowl. They are Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos and are big at about 55cms tall. This is a male bird with the pink eye ring. A lovely sight to see in our garden and another 'first' to share with our visitors.

Thanks once again Elin.

A much smaller bird perched on the shoulder of a friend at the local Sunday morning meet for Clubman cars. This is a young pet Cockatiel which doesnt belong to Steve but he likes to have 'birds' around!