Army_Air_Force

That's so tempting!!

As the garden began to wake from Winter in March and early April, I shot some video around the various areas where I've been slogging my guts out for the last four years. It's hard to believe we've been here four years now. It's changed quite a lot since February 2021. Thank you to all those who've shown an interest in my self-imposed suffering. I plan to do another walkaround in Summer, once everything is in full bloom. I've just started laying the concrete lawn edging, but I'd imagine I'll still be working on it by Summer!

29th March 2025 At the end of March, I added a tiny pond to the woodland, made from a reshaped Ikea laundry basket. Its purpose was to give the wildlife somewhere to drink and have a wash and was popular within 4 minutes of me walking away after filling it. There was a smaller 12 inch diameter version first, but that had a micro-fracture in the plastic and was leaking. That's why it got an upgrade within a few days. Here's a short video of the mark 1 in use. Elsewhere in the garden and at the railway, everything is coming back to life.

November ~ March From the start of November to mid March, I was "Decorating" the master bedroom. I knew it was going to be a nightmare, as the walls were covered in lining paper. All sorts of wonderful treats awaited me, such as plaster falling off the walls, cracks and voids in the brickwork. The window sill was supported by rolled up plaster bags, skimmed over with plaster. It was the DIY project that kept on giving - grief! At some point in the distant past, it was a garage. When it was converted to a bedroom, a wooden floor was added, which then resulted in the ceiling being raised; by building brickwork straight on top of the wooden roof joists. Differential expansion caused lots of cracking in the plaster. There also appeared to have been several different sizes of windows fitted, with the openings being resized and patched. As a result, we ended up with two walls being stripped back and re-plastered. Finally in mid to late March, it was done, although the decorating didn't really start until the back end of January, due to the various repairs! I was happy to get back out into the garden fora rest.

My pictures of it looking very tatty, show what looks like white wings, with a silver doped left aileron, silver doped rudder patch and bare metal cowlings, with white nacelles.

Thanks. It was a bit more garden than we were looking for, but it came with the house that ticked all the boxes for a long list of other requirements that we had. 26~28th January 2025 The Carr household has a new toy; a Trailcam. I set it up in the woodland on the afternoon of the 23rd. With the storm approaching the UK, I expected a camera full of video of swaying trees, but manage to catch "Basil Brush", our garden fox. We've known he visited since we moved here, by the smelly presents he deposits around the garden, but this is our first sighting. 4th February 2025 In October 2024, I planted over 250 Snowdrop and English Bluebell bulbs in the woodland, to the sides of the path. By early February, pre-existing Snowdrops were already flowering, while the bulbs I planted were breaking through the surface. Several clumps of the already flowering Snowdrops were in the way of new lawn edging which I'll be laying this year. 22nd February 2025 There were several clumps of Snowdrops that were dug out. I think around six large groups, mostly around the outside of the wood, near the lawn, but also a couple up by the house. They were divided into smaller groups purely by the way they naturally separated, rather than any set number. Those in the picture below are planted at the top end of the woodland, in the open area around the pine tree. With both the original Snowdrop and Bluebell bulbs having broken the surface, I was able to plant the moved Snowdrops into gaps around those planted last Autumn. Earlier in February, I made a bird table and fastened it to a tree in the wood. On the 22nd, I added a little Go-pro type camera, looking across the table. It won't work at night, but has a motion sensing ability, so catches some of the table visitors.

25th October 2024 I was in trouble from the wifey on the 24th. I'd gone browsing garden centres while she was at work! I was looking at ferns, as I wanted a large one to fill a gap in the wood. I had to redeem myself on the 25th, with a joint trip to several garden centres. It turned into another £85.00 shopping trip, with five ferns, nine Cyclamens, two 100 litre bags of bark chippings and a pumpkin for my daughter to get arty with. Six of the Cyclamens went into the railway, to give some late in the year colour, while the three others went into the kitchen border. The ferns were spread around the woodland. After planting all the ferns, I barrowed the first bag of bark chippings to the wood and began spreading it out. I didn't work in the grass area, as this still needs lots more digging out. This is a view from the grass, looking back into the wood. Following the path, brings us to the middle entrance. Where the path splits, there's one of the small ferns. Once the lawn edging is done next year, the bark part of the path will blend into the slates at the front edge of the wood. As the path curves to the right, the last fern is on the right, just behind this tree. In time, as they grow, I plan to split them and spread them further. 28th October 2024 Autumn was well under way and the days working outside were numbered. Leaves were falling and the Autumn winds were eye-wateringly cold. I did some more digging of the grass area, lifting off more turf and moss, trying to get as much of the grass roots out as possible. Back pain finally got the better of me and I stopped for the day, but was pleased with what I'd achieved. 3rd November 2024 We had one more digging session lifting the grass and moss and pulling out roots at the back of the woodland. Some of the earth at this location is almost solid yellow clay. Seriously, I could throw a pot with it. In the early Spring, hopefully if things dry out a bit, the plan is to chuck a load of sand into the area, dig it in well and then sieve it all to help break up the clay and remove the remaining roots. That should also help the drainage which should suit the Thyme. This was the last day of garden work for 2024. Two days later, I began stripping the master bedroom which needed decorating. It was a DIY project that kept on giving ( grief! ) and four months later, the new wardrobes are about to be fitted. Lining paper can hide all sorts of problems, hence the four month project!

15th October 2024 Starting at the top entrance to the wood, the first couple of stones just needed the slates raking aside to lay them and the slates were then pulled back flush. For the rest of the stones, I marked around them with a trowel, then dug out the soil/clay to as level as I could get. The clay was quite springy and it took a few trial seatings to get the stones stable. For some, I used a little sand to bed them on to take up the slight uneven surface. They were inset to around 50% of their depth, while the rest of the height would be taken up with chopped bark. I got around fifteen laid that day, stopping around the middle entrance to the wood. There were a few had to be slightly repositioned due to tree roots and a few smaller roots were just cut and pulled out. They were inset to around 50% of their depth, while the rest of the height would be taken up with chopped bark. I got around fifteen laid that day, stopping around the middle entrance to the wood. There were a few had to be slightly repositioned due to tree roots and a few smaller roots were just cut and pulled out. 17th October 2024 Work continued two days later, working on the stretch from the middle entrance to the grassed area to the rear. The path meanders a little here, around the areas where the bulbs were planted. It was slow, back breaking work, lifting the stones in and out, digging and scraping to get them fairly level. I think I got another eleven laid that day. Around the back of the wood, I repositioned some of the stones, to follow the rise in the ground better and to create a slightly larger planting area to the right of the path.

1st October 2024 On the 1st of October, I spent the first part of the day, taking measurements of the woodland, in order to draw a plan of the path and potential planting areas. I didn't want to spend three figure sums on bulbs, so had to plan out what to plant where, in order to spread out the 256 bulbs, which now included some small daffodils in the mix. In time, from the Bluebell seeds I'm trying to grow and from natural seeding, I hope to spread the flowers further into the woodland and increase the density. The checkered rule is something I've used for surveys for model building projects. It is four feet long, divided into two inch squares, except for six inches at the far end, divided into inches. Photographs of the rule at several locations through the wood, gave me enough info to draw up a fairly accurate plan. 2nd October 2024 The following morning, using one of the stepping stone templates as a guide, I started planting. I went for one Bluebell in two of the holes and two Snowdrops in the other. There were two different Daffodil types, a ten inch and six inch variety. I kept the same types together. Because I hadn't yet laid the path, I marked the bulb locations with a small quarter inch square sticks, to make sure I avoided paving over bulbs. 14th October 2024 Late in the day, a wagon turned up with forty one stepping stones. There was enough room to get it down the drive, so they were unloaded by the workshop hedge. Wasting no time, I started carrying them down the garden in piles of three. They were spread along the route of the path, to get the spacings approximately correct and I planned to start laying them the next day.

11th September 2024 It turned out that completing the patio wasn't the end of the work in the garden for 2024. With all the other house and garden projects since we moved in, the little woodland had been somewhat neglected. We'd added a few small plants to fill in gaps after the tree felling, but other than that, we hadn't had time to do anything else. There was a natural gap through the trees, so I planned on putting a stepping stone path through this area, to give better and all season access through the wood for maintenance. There was also a grassed area next to my neighbour's driveway ( to the upper left of this Google image ), that always seemed to get forgotten when strimming. I decided I wanted to do something with that to make it easier to care for. There were three natural entrances and exits, caused by gaps between the various trees and other plants. 15th September 2024 On the 15th, I just did a bit of raking of leaves, clearing the area where the path would go. This view is standing on the edge of the lawn, about halfway along the wood, looking back at the narrow grassed area, shown above. To the left of the path and to the right behind the green bush, I'm intending to plant Bluebells and Snowdrops. Coming backwards through the wood, that middle entrance is off to the left, beyond the second tree on the left. There will be more Bluebells and Snowdrops to either side of the path here. Back a bit further and we move into a more open area between this tree and the pine behind the camera. The area is about seven feet diameter and will also be filled with Bluebells and Snowdrops. To the left of this image, is the way out. Once again standing on the lawn, looking back in towards the open area under the Pine. I want the woodland to be semi-wild, but still managed. There are a few gaps at the bottom end of the wood, where I need to put some larger plants, due to the area being a bit see through; particularly as winter comes. I'm thinking some ferns might be nice, but with winter coming, I need to see where the wood gets particularly bald and consider some evergreens to maintain some density and colour.

I think the Dak flew out some time in 1989.

I worked at Newcastle airport in the late 1980s, while G-AMPO was impounded there. We ran the engines every so often and eventually taxied the aircraft down the the East Loop, out of the way of the general aviation apron. Here's a picture from that time, with AMPO looking rather tired. I presume the debt was eventually cleared. We gave the aircraft a look over before Aces High ( I think ) flew the aircraft out. Watching the thread with interest and fond memories. Parked up next to our hangar. The Dak just before leaving Newcastle.

Every year, I try to take at least one of my military vehicles for a drive out as the trees are turning to Autumn shades. It needs good light, ideally a calm day and just the right time of year, so that the leaves are turning without storms having already stripping them from the trees. It's a small window of opportunity. We finally got out on the 2024 "Colours of Autumn" drive, on the morning of Sunday the 27th of October. For the first year, we took two vehicles out on the trip; the 1943 Ford GPW and the Hotchkiss M201. It was a nice blue sky and sunny morning, for a 19 mile drive around Durham and the edge of Chester-Le-Street, sticking to the country lanes for almost all of the trip. The recent storm Ashley had stripped quite a lot of leaves off the trees, but there were still plenty that survived. We did however find a number of colourful spots for pictures. Here's a small selection of pictures from the trip.

Will do. The railway embankment has already filled out quite a lot in just ten weeks since we planted everything, so it's looking a lot more established now. We added a few new Rock Cress plants along the front, to fill in some gaps, so they still need to spread, but there's more greenery and flowers now than soil!

Neither was I until I moved here!

June 18th ~ July 11th Between mid June and Mid July, I got the patio foundation filled with hardcore, followed by concrete. I planned to build a small box of bricks around the circular drain cover which would support a removable slab. Two layers of bricks followed, to support the edge of the patio and to contain the hardcore which would support the slabs. When the brickwork had set, I started breaking up old bricks to back fill the patio area. These were all the broken and half bricks left over from the garden side and front walls. Several paving slabs were pulled up from the side path, as they matched the existing patio. I'll get some replacements for here as close a match as I can, but being around the side of the house, it rarely gets used, except for access to weed the border. A layer of mortar was added over the top and the paving laid on top. The following day, I pointed between all the slabs. With the patio done, the new borders had some unwanted plants dug out and the earth level raised to just below the new patio height. I put some 12 inch square stepping stones along the yew hedge, to give access for trimming. Between and around the stones, I planted Thyme as ground cover. Canterbury Bells and Silver Dust were planted up to the patio edge. In the lower border, I added more stepping stones down the middle, to give better access for weeding. Thyme was again planted around the stones, with Daisy Pomponettes along each side. These may not be permanent, but will give some colour and greenery for this year. Some of the other existing plants were moved around and a space left for an evergreen shrub, yet to be purchased. I think I'm going to wrap up the garden updates and end the story here, considering the observatory, railway, lawn and patio are now complete. They were the main tasks planned when we first moved here, three and a half years ago.

June 6th On the morning of the 6th, I moved several Astrantia Major 'White Giant' plants to the railway. They were fairly tall and would make a nice background to the low alpines at the front of the embankment. I got that done in time to watch SpaceX fly their Starship for its 4th test flight, followed by preparing my military vehicles for an evening D-Day beacon lighting ceremony in the village.

June 1st The wall is pretty much finished. I've used all the original capping stones, so I'm going to leave the wall for now and try to find a terracotta capping stone to finish the row. The pillar isn't going any higher, as that was just used to tie the wall to the neighbour's wall. I'll either cut some of the existing bricks to put a sloping top on it, or look for another suitable capping stone. For now, it's complete enough, as the year is ticking by very quickly and I want to make a start on the patio extension. June 4th & 5th On the 4th, I began digging out and clearing plants from the location of the patio extension. Some of the tall plants, which I think are Astrantia Major 'White Giant', would be moved to the back of the railway embankment. On the 5th, with most of the plants out of the way, I began to mark out the foundations for the low wall that would be needed to support the edge of the new patio and retain the hardcore. Foundation digging began after that.

The other embankment plants have almost been in the ground for seven weeks now. All of them have survived planting out and several cold nights in April. While they still need to grow and spread, they have been flowering well. May 31st With a few days of dry weather predicted at the end of May into June, I wanted to get on with the wall. I'd previously cleaned up a number of bricks that were used on the 1st of May, but needed more. So on the 31st, I got another 120 bricks cleaned of mortar, ready to be laid.

Back to my own railway and after a few days out in the cold frame, on the 29th, I planted the rock cress to finish the edge of the embankment. What I thought had been Forget-me-not, turned out to be an invasive weed, so that was pulled out and the rock cress planted to fill in the remaining gaps to the left and right. May 29th The red Water Avens were shedding lots of petals on the ballast, so the plant closest to the track was dug out and moved further back. This left more space for the rock cress under the edge of the conifer. I still need something to fill that space that doesn't mind being in the partial shade and shelter of the conifer.

By the 16th, I'd also added two cold frames to the patio outside the workshop, to move the plants on to. My workshop window sill was getting a bit full and the seedlings would need hardening off before planting outside. I got a bit of real railway action on the 26th of May while visiting Tanfield Railway for their 1940s weekend. I had my Jeep and Dodge on display there and got the opportunity for a footplate ride on "Horden", their 0-6-0 saddle tank loco.

On April the 24th, I got four more packets of seeds. They were Daisy Pomponettes, Cinercria Silver Dust, Canterbury Bells for various locations around the garden. I also got Creeping Thyme as ground cover for the earth next to the path behind the garage. May 8th Due to the poor weather and really dull start to the first half of the year, I bought four LED grow lights to help the seedlings develop.

April 21st ~ May 9th I got a little more done to the wall on the 21st, the 26th and May 1st. I ran out of original wall bricks and started recycling the bricks from the wall, demolished by the BMW in December. Lynne decided she wanted another vegetable planter, just for the strawberries, as the potato crop was creeping into the strawberry area. There was just enough room for a 3 feet square planter, but we had to get a 3 x 6 ft planter and just assemble it as a 3 foot square. The slates were cleared on the 5th of May, while the planter arrived a few days later. It was assembled on the 9th, lined and filled with the leftover lawn topsoil and compost. The bird netting frame was a really tight fit, but did go in without alterations.

I did think about that, but I'd rather not mess around with acid if I can help it. As a last resort, it may come to that, but cleaning the wall is low on my priorities list, as there's still lots of other work to do in the garden.

Thankfully, no!! Struggling to manage my own "Honey-Do" list!! I normally mow the lawn, but after two days bent over the wall bricklaying, I was struggling to stand up straight, so Lynne decided to do it, as it is garden bin collection week.