Monday 22 September 2008

Jam and Lawns

We had an exciting weekend. B's folks were here to visit providing welcome childcare and enabling us to get on with some jobs in the house. I was due to finish decorating the bathroom, a job that has been dragging on and on. I am down to the woodwork and only have one more coat of undercoat and then the gloss finish, but I HATE painting with oil based paints and have been stalling for weeks and weeks. B was going to turf the lawn, to finally finish transforming our pile of mud (picture below taken 2 years ago) into a garden... exciting stuff!

However, dramatic events occurred...

B was taking some last bags of rubble out to the car to take them to the tip and with the sun (wasn't it beautiful this weekend?) in his eyes walked straight into the tail gate of the car and gashed his head open. He came back into the house clutching his head with blood running down his hands and face saying 'can somebody call an ambulance, I've just brained myself' (!).

Well it was all rather frightening, but the cut was not too big and once it had stopped bleeding (profusely) the paramedic was able to glue it up in the front room. So, as B was instructed to take it easy, I didn't paint the bathroom (it is still hanging over me), I turfed the lawn instead.

It was hilariously easy, rolling out this lush thick turf and rather like patchwork cutting it up with big scissors and piecing it together like a jigsaw. We had over-ordered so I was able to turf right up to the back wall in places and tidied up all that mess at the end there. B's parents had brought us some cuttings from their garden which B's mum kindly planted for us, and hey presto, suddenly we have a garden... and it seems that brown chair hasn't moved!



It feels so nice out there now, a transformation.



I also made a small amount of jam on Friday. I lent somebody our wallpaper pasting table through Freecycle and when they returned it they brought us some blackberries that they had picked from near their house. How kind is that?! So, having just finished the last jar of (rather too runny) strawberry jam that I made at the beginning of summer, I turned them into to (rather too thick) blackberry jam. It was yum despite the consistency, which one day I will get right.

And my quilt is coming along - homework completed six days ahead of time (I am a smug swot this week)!

6 comments:

'fancypicnic' said...

How beautiful is this? Not to mention a great name (of course!!). Thanks for stopping by -I'm going to blogroll you so that I can catch up again. Thanks so much for the compliment xx

JuliaB said...

oh dear ... i hope your Mr is OK? Lawn looks fab (actually GARDEN looks FAB!!). Weather is fab too .. but today guess what .. it's raining here. Boo hoo. x

dottycookie said...

Argh, sorry to hear about B's accident - very dramatic!

And by the way, Crown (and probably others) make water based, very low VOC gloss paint now that has transformed my decorating life! No more white spirit in this house ...

Kyoko said...

I am sorry to hear about the accident. I hope everything is OK with Mr. B. I will be praying for a quick recovery.
You have a wonderful garden. I live in a flat so one day I would love to have a nice garden too (although, I can see it is a hard work!)
I saw your quit, bag (from previous posts) and jams. They all look fabulous! I think the orange bag is beautiful.

carolyn said...

Oh dear there is always so much blood when you cut your head open, horrid. Hope he is feeling better. That turf certainly looks lush and green.

Ragged Roses said...

What an eventful weekend. It must have been awful for B and you, very scary. Hope B is feeling better now. Your garden looks wonderful.
Kimx