B&Q haul delivered today

Oh Wow Fran!
certainly going to be busy........
look forward to watching your progress as always ?

wow. Let me tell you...that trolley is going to be one of your best friends! Hopefully for many years to come! We found one in my FIL's garage some years back, and we would really miss it now, especially for moving heavy pots. :)

thanks Pam and Karen and Snoop

I did have a 4-wheel flatbed trolley, but it weighed half a ton, and was hard work to use even empty. I should be able to get this one under pots and troughs

I'd been meaning to get some stuff for months, but kept putting it off. If i'd bought this lot a bit at a time, over the last six months, wouldn't have been much; it's juist getting it all at once that's a bit of a shock (and paying for it all at once!)

I hope to use the canes for a small "summerhouse" or arbour or something that doesn't have a neme: the brushwood screen I bought to "wall" it with, wrapping it round the sides - and, if I'm lucky and work out how, for "thatch" roofing. i

Iwould have liked to build a roundhouse, but not sure I can, at least not with the canes; maybe an octagonal one?

I also want to build some small storage, for wood and maybe even small furniture - lol watch this space

I do admire your pluck Fran, that lot should give you hours and hours of fun.

lol Stroller, hours of fun in three categories: planning to use them, trying to get myself psyched up to use them, and actually using them!

A woman after my own heart. Don't you just love a day out at B&Q!
Will be looking forward to all your wonderful creations Fran.

Oh Crumbs !!!!!! What are you planning next Fran, you are going to be a busybee for weeks but you'll be having a ball, just don't wear yourself out, we'll be watching for the updates you know, have you considered the livingwillow for a roundhouse, like my daughter did her arbor with, only went in at the beginning of April and has filled out marvellously.
I have one of those trolleys, it comes in very handy, with all your buys I think you definitely need it putting together first..
Homebase have a 60's discount card as well, thats for Tuesdays....

My God Fran, you are certainly going to be busy! I take it you have a few winter projects in mind? Thanks for the update, now we shall be expecting regular bulletins on the progress :)

Nothing like a good splurge to make you feel elated Fran. I got a trolley very similar to yours from QD. Easy to use and has been very useful to move bags and heavy pots. Enough ingredients for a teepee in your little wood perhaps. I am still using canes from overhead protection that got blown apart by a gale. They are about 30 years old! Very durable, more lasting than many plastics. I suppose the compost is for your raised beds?

I really can't wait, Fran to see what you get up to ! You are so brave attempting this by yourself ! Just don't over do it!
By the way...I just love that Verve compost !

@ Scottish – and I still didn’t get everything that was on my list! Mind you, there’s a Homebase somewhere near there … and I got a couple of wrong items which I hope they’ll exchange – bout some No Nails, but just found out they’re the “gun” type, which I don’t have, so hoping they’ll let me swop them for the standard “squeeze” ones. Also, some of the wood that I bought wasn’t in stock, so that’s still to be delivered. that's for an indoor project (just as well I didn't arrange for the handyman to come to start on that!)

@ Lincs – most of the bamboo is for a small “roundhouse”: I’ve not been able to find anything on Google, YouTube or Instructables that’s what I’m looking for, or even close to it, so I’ll have to make it up as I go along, and undo and redo as necessary.

I did think of living willow, but from what I’ve seen, that doesn’t start till a couple of feet above the ground, and I wanted something that encloses all the way down (the nearest to a “cave” that I can get without actually buying lumps of rock and stacking them up – or, more likely, getting someone else to stack them for me!). I even thought about an "earth lodge"; i'd been thinking about taking up the lawns anwyay, or most of them, but the "how to" said you have to put a sheet inside the roof to stop insects falling on your head!. in the US they have "soil bags" - large sacks that you fill with soil then stack like bricks, but the weight would probably be too much for me.

I’m not sure about exact dimensions, or even where the best location will be, so I’d rather start with canes, then I can lift and shift it about till I find the best place. Then maybe I can make it more permanent. besides, I want it enclosed all year round.

My local retail centre has lists of shops, but it doesn’t show all of them at one go, you have to click on one to find a map for it, so there’s no way to see where anything is in relation to anything else. A tad frustrating! Next time I go that way will be on a Homebase search. Wonder why Tuesday is discount day?

@ Waddy, I do seem to be storing up projects to keep me doing through the short days! Though as most of them will be outdoors … I must get a light in my “craft shed” so I can work in there – the single pane window has been covered, so there’s no light at the best of times. Then I can start on my concrete-casting plans.

@Dorjac, lol, if I’d gone up there a few times over the past months it would only have been a little each time (possibly!) – it’s doing it all at once that makes it look a lot. Well, a lot more than otherwise.

With the bark, I was having to open it, scoop stuff into a bucket and take it where it was needed, till the bag was half empty and I could then just about lift it. now I should be able to move it complete.

Lol I’m just using the composter “because it’s there”. I think it’s supposed to “stew” for a year, so in a few months I’ll check out what the bottom level is like. Can use it for pots, or top-dressing beds; and as I dig more, to line the bottoms of the holes as well. Not sure how much of a mix I’ve been able to make; I hardly buy fresh fruit or veg except for potatoes, and I cook those with the skins, so nothing to go in the bin there; it’s mostly teabags and shredded newspaper – and the spent soil from old pots. Hope it produces something useable.

@Rose, thank you! lol I’ve been a bit lazy since the delivery – well, it was only a couple of days ago. The gardener came that afternoon and cleared a bit more space, so I can transfer the buddleia to a bed (it don’t look at all happy in the pot). Once I’m outside, I’ll probably do more; it’s just that I look out of the window and thing, nah, I’ll do it tomorrow!

You will do all ALONE??? Wow...

I hope to, Kat. Of course the gardner will be doing a lot of that work, but I want to build on my own.

Having someone else wouldn't help - as I won't know what I'm doing, having someone else there wouldn't help at all. Of course, they might have good ideas that I wouldn't have thought of, but that might take my mind away from something that I was sort of groping towards.

Of course, they can offer suggestions after I've done it, and i might use their ideas in the next version.

But physically - will you be able to lift all that?

I don't know, Kat, but there's only one way to find out! I might at least be able to shift the frame before "tahtching" the walls, which should be enough to find a good placement. lol don't think my new 2-wheel trolly will be much help there.

lol Bilbo, it's not all for the "shed" - I can make plant pot racks and tool racks and an arch or three and I've even found some sites that do "how to" for bamboo furniture.

Still Googling for desian ideas, thought about trying "garden den", as that'd be about the size I'd need. Found a brilliantly simple design, meant to be made by kids, which should be easy to adapt - it was the basic structure that I was struggling with.

it's in a downloadable pdf - the address is huge, and goes right off the edge of the screen, so I've had to chop it into sections to get it to stay in view -

https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/sites/default/files/folders/docu
ments/childreneducationandfamilies/educationandlearning/earlyye
arschildcare/workinginearlyyears/outofschool/activitiesandresourc
es/canedeninstructionsforwepages.pdf

which means it'd need joining up againbefore it'll work! or if that's too much like hard work, search for
cane den Childcare Development, Oxfordshire County Council
and it'll be the first one.

If I live close, I will definitely help you. Good luck. Just take care for the back. Last Sunday I replanted Spirea bush, which was well settled and I feel every muscle in the body.

how big is the Spirea, Kat? and why did you move it? would like to see pics. My back is my weak point, but I try to remember to take rests now and then.

The best thing for the back is daily excercise, if possible, in horizontal position (e.g. not sitting), good shoes and a good mattress (spring bed with different hardiness in head, neck, waist, buttock and legs regions).
I had problems for years, nobody couldn t find what is the problem. I did swimming, belly dance. Nothing helped. Then I changed my old Ikea bed for a special orthopaedic bed and I realised I suffered all those years for price of one mattress, lol.

And please, remember, memory foam is commercial bull...t!!!

I have an Ikea bed and mattress, with "mrmory foam" topper. I try to remember to turn them both regularly, and give htem a shake now and then - this is easier wtih the topper, as it's much lighter. The first time I did it, oh! it was as soft as a feather bed

The prob with specialist beds is finding out which one would be best for me. I went to the Disabled Living Foundation (which involved going right across London) and after discussing it for two hours she told me she couldn't advise me. I thought, you could have told me that over the phone!

And even when one gets a special bed, it's the adjustments - half an inch this way or that can make all the difference. I'd probably not stumble over exctly the right combination by accident.

It's the lack of information that's annoying - there's something "out there" that would be perfect for me, but I don't know where and no one seems able or willing to advise.

I'm going to start swimming later, when my gym sessions start; also want to try belly dnacing (already bought a skirt and belt, lol) and one of my GPs said that horse riding would also help, the gentle rocking of the hips. still got to find a local accessible and affordable place

Dear Fran, it is not so complicated, commercial interests complicate things, as they want to differ, so they are advertising different things.
You are the first person, whom I hear has no joints problems after sleeping on memory foam.
There are three or four rules of a good bed:
1) It must be enough hard and compliant as well. So called semi-hard mattress made with strings and wool inside is the best one.
2) Different hardiness in shoulder,buttock and heels areas is welcomed, but not mandatory for comfort.
3) It must be as high above the floor, that when you sit on the bedside, your feet must immediately touch the floor and you can easily stand up without rocking back and forth.
That´s it.

thanks Kat. I got a "hard" mattress once, you could bounce cannon balls on it!

I ache anyway, so maybe the memory foam didn't make much difference; it might have added some but that got lost in with the rest of it!

But turning the mattress does help - first time, turn over so top is now bottom, second time, turn round, so head is not foot, third time turn over so top is now bottom (but head is still foot) and fourth time turn round so head and top are as they wre in the beginning - so each bit of the mattress gets a turn at being top and bottom, head and foot.

at least this mattress has handles on the sides, which makes it a lot easier to shift about than my cannon-ball one!

Lol, Fran, I had a laughter that I almost lost 2 kilos. I must start to make notes of your idioms, so funny.

Thank you for reminder of turning my mattress :-)

Good grief Fran are you building another house ??? you be careful you don't need any more problems ,good luck with your projects :o))

I had an idea for a project that started in my bog "Cave mark #1" and will continue, but I've had so much good feedback and new ideas given to me in the comments on that that I might very well not need half this stuff now!