Painting the Passageway

With no guests I am busy painting various areas of the house.  We have recently had a new oil tank installed in the passageway down the side of the cottage and I have been busy with the paint brush. I painted some of the white on the cottage and the black bottoms on the walls, as well as stripping off the black paint on the door to the Lean-to and repainting, and a general tidy up.

A Hot May

This month we have had no rain and I am having to water plants in the garden, as well as all the pot plants.  I am now keeping the horses in their stables during the day and turned out in the fields at night, as it is cooler for them. The donkeys, goats and sheep are out during the day, but they are sensibly going into the shade when it is too hot, today (Sunday 31st) it was 25c with no wind.

New Patio

Last year we commissioned garden designer Laurence Maunder from Taunton to create us a new patio for the main house and the idea was for us to build it in the autumn of 2020, however with Covid and not being able to have any holiday guests we have brought the build forward.  We started at the end of April as the weather was so dry and sunny by hiring a mini-digger to start digging out all the soil that had to come out of the garden.

Bird Table

I have been busy this spring painting and creosoting and while I was looking at all the pots of paint in our barn I came across a pot of Lime Green Cuprinol, which I had used in the past to paint a wooden horse jump and there was some left in the pot. I decided to give the bird table a make over and here it is in the cottage cottage after I had just finished the painting. It looks very luminous when the light is going down!

Kitchen Windows

This spring the two windows in the cottage kitchen have been removed and stripped down and repainted.  New glass has been installed and in one of the panes an extractor fan has been added.  This window is near the hob and the fan can be switched on when required.

Sculptures in the Garden

During the Autumn of 2019 we have the The Somerset Arts Week, although it is usually a fortnight! and earlier in the year I visited the Margery Fish Garden in South Petherton, Somerset and saw in the garden various steel plants made by Chris Kampf. I was so taken by them that I ordered some of his work and during the art week I visited his home and collected my sculptures.  I ordered 3 very tall Rudbeckias, 6 different size Snowdrops and not shown here 6 Mini Ruds.

The Porches

At the end of March Shane White of SW Leadworks,Wiveliscombe spent a week with us adding the lead on the two porches. He also added lead to the front door porch.  They are now awaiting their drainpipes and rendering and then they are finished.