The blog schedule told us that we were re-staining the benches today. The weather told us different.

I looked at the forecast yesterday and thought it would be rained off, so didn’t bother getting the woodstain. Today looked dry at 9am, so I raced across town like a maniac to get the stain and brushes. It then started raining!! And not just a little bit. It was literally cats and dogs by about 11am.

Luckily, I had a plan B…

The new picnic bench seats were a little bit too springy for my liking. Sitting at it reminded me of a Citroen 2CV that I owned back in 1972. That, probably had wooden suspension, too.

So we fixed the springiness with some blocks that I just so happened to have in my Waitrose bag of magic tricks.

Whilst Kai played with power-tools, I sauntered off to find another job for us to do.

It wasn’t long before I found just the thing. We have a new bench called Bethel. The view has been getting a tiny bit obstructed so I sent Kai over the top to do battle.

And there we have it, view restored.

Whilst we were battling the bramble, David was snipping some of the pesky ash saplings, that never seem to give up in their quest for world domination.

We also had a weekender helping Charlie with his wildflower clearing, for his Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award, this week.

This bit is in glorious sunshine all day, has a bench, and the hedge at the end has a couple of ash saplings that I managed to lay into it. We seed it next month and we are very excited to see how it turns out.

Brilliant job, Charlie.

And that really, was that! We had a cuppa, the heavens opened, so we called it a day at 11:30 and scurried off to find somewhere to dry out.

Thank you to all patrons, old and new. Thanks too, to the people who have bought stuff from the shop, or used the “buy me a coffee” thingy. Everything helps. I do have the option of putting the enamel mugs in the shop if there is a demand for them. Just let me know and I will see what magic I can muster.

Until next time!