Some knew him as Mick, some as Mike and some as Michael. I think he started with us as Michael but made us change it to Mick later on, so I’m sticking with Mick, if that’s OK with everyone else.

Mick would wander down to a favourite spot of his, on many an evening, and watch the sunset, whilst chatting to whoever might have been walking past.

What we have done, is put a bench in this spot, as a memory to him.

When the farmer cuts the hedge, the view will stretch across the fields.

We made the bench out of a spare top, a spare leg, and a leg made from the smashed up seats of the recycled bench (last week’s blog). The reason that we have done this is twofold. Firstly, we are in this constant cycle of buying timber for benches and always having a spare bit left over, so we buy more timber to use up the spare bit, and then have another spare bit, and on, and on.. as we try to use up the spare bits to get our money’s worth… And now with the timber sawing/cutting costing more that the actual timber, we had to stop this never-ending cycle. Secondly, Mick led an incredibly frugal life where everything was used until it could no longer be. We could have bought new bits and made a lovely new bench, but we wanted to make something out of the scraps and leftovers, as a sort of tribute to Mick, by getting the absolute most out of what we have. I really don’t know if that makes sense, but it comes from our hearts, and I guess that is all that matters at the end of the day.

Today we had some extra help due to the school teachers going on strike. Something about wanting more holidays and a shorter working day, so I heard. But for heaven’s sake don’t quote me or I’ll get lynched on the school-run tomorrow.

We set about clearing a small area, after checking for any nesting birds, and cobbled together our random bits of wood.

We love it!! I’m sure it’s going to get loads of use and we will stencil some nice words on it, when we get to grips with our stencil-set

We have a few more wildflowers, some of which are not typical of what we normally see.

Not sure if the angry mob of squirrels are doing a bit of guerrilla gardening and I’m not sure if we should pull the interlopers up, or just go with it and let nature sort out what she wants? Hmm, quandary…

In other exciting news, we have had people from two new countries visit the blog. Israel and Sudan. I would like to write something in Hebrew and Sudanese Arabic, but sadly it’s way beyond my geekiness to even attempt it (after wasting an hour of my life on Google Translator). But hi and thank you.

So there it is. Our quest for World Domination continues with 95 countries in total viewing the blog!

Next week we are at the bridleway bridge brushing the mud off the cow with two heads and blogging the work done by the Bilton Grange Year Seven. Intrigued? Tune-in next week and all will be revealed.

Thanks for reading,