Freecycle and Recycle

January isn't the most inspiring month when it comes to gardening, grey skies, short days and cold nights - so most of the work now is maintenance and clearing. I've started building a woven fence on our garden border but more of that in a couple of weeks when my supply of hazel coppice rods arrive!!!

In the meantime I take my hat off to Oxfordshire County Council for their recycling strategy - in spite of the fact that our nearest recycling centre is in Warwickshire since the local Oxfordshire depot closed! Here we have weekly collections of plastic, metal, fabric, packaging, paper, tin and glass which means that our non-recyclable black bins are down to one bag a week.

The only problem with all this recycling lark is we have to find space for all the containers (4 black boxes for general recycling and 2 wheelie bins). Luckily we have an area in the front garden that accommodates them ....but it's all a bit of a mess. Time for a bit of a re-organise methinks but I need to find some paving slabs in order to sort it all out.

So - a quick post on our local 'freecycle' network and a plea for slabs brings a result and a nice lady from a nearby village contacts me to say she has a number of slabs looking for a new home.

Saturday morning and a few hours on Sunday shifting soil and laying up slabs and we have a result!!! Ok it's not the most inspiring part of the garden but surprisingly enough there are little nooks and crannies now where I can plant up and the whole area has given us lots more space and tidied up nicely!

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

Taming the Garden Jungle

Well, here we are in the depths of rural Oxfordshire. Most of the boxes unpacked, some rooms redecorated and our studios up and running!

We knew that we'd taken on let me say 'a bit of a project' regarding the garden but it was only once we arrived that we realised just how much work there was to do!!

20 years of neglect, unruly hedges, overgrown trees and shrubs, a tangle of a broken rose arch with an old gate hidden in the undergrowth and a pretty apple tree engulfed by ivy require drastic action....

 

Time to call in the professionals and get some help with the clearance! Luckily we have a neighbour who is a tree surgeon, although not much surgery involved here, more of a general chopping down!

Meanwhile in the front garden we are busy at work, and the apple tree is released from it's ivy prison. A little bit of pruning (with help from Henry and my 80 year old mum) and we have a pretty tree rescued from oblivion!

Now it's a haven for birds since we added a couple of feeders and a little bird table. Daily visitors include a family of blue tits, plus nuthatches, sparrows, goldfinches, the robin, chaffinches and blackbirds. This week we were really excited to have our feeders visited by a gorgeous woodpecker. The greater spotted, swinging on the nut feeder with gay abandon! Haven't managed to get him on camera yet - he's quite shy but we're working on it!

The Fothergills are on the move!!!

Well, after 24 years in Northleach we are on the move...Oxfordshire beckons and new challenges ahead! Very sad to leave our home town after all these years but needs must and we're looking forward to new and exciting artistic adventures!

Much to do... not least sorting out the attic - most of which was there on our last move from London some 24 years ago!!! Determined not to take too much baggage with us this time round but so hard to get rid of all those treasured memories and mementoes from the Children's past. Where to put it all????