29 March 2014

Assignment progress

I put together the centre square of the third practical assignment, and it went together brilliantly - all the points matched beautifully in the centre on the first go....problem is the square ended up too small.... so today did another one, size is right but I had to unpick about a dozen times before the points all met!  Can't show photos of finished pieces until the assignments have been submitted.

These are photos of the wrong-sized one in progress, and I love how the pieces spin in the middle on the reverse!












This is the wall yesterday morning:

We have lived in our house for 33 years and every year I promise myself that I will take photos of the tree in the front garden as we head into autumn.  It is still green, engulfed with a Virginia creeper (which I cut back to the ground almost every year), but within a few weeks both the creeper and the tree will turn into glorious oranges before the leaves drop.  I will post a couple of pictures a week to show the changes.  I have no idea what tree it is!  This photo was taken in the morning with the bright sun on the the foliage across the road.  I really like this tree, so when we had the front wall built about 25 years ago, it was built to curve behind the tree!  Underneath is a lavender bush and in the curve some shade loving plants. Just to the right is a hibiscus, which needs shaping.

27 March 2014

More wall and some stitching

Pictures taken over the past week.  We had a public holiday on Friday and these builders didn't work on the two days it was raining, so the progress has been slow!

The only stitching done are two of the three practical pieces for  SAQG-TAC.  And because B from TMQ asked me to look ip info about Tunisian crochet (she doesn't have Internet), had to dig out my needle and made two 8" squares - much quicker than knitting, so think I have new TV-watching hand-work!   But unlike knitting where I can actually read at the same time, this needs me to look at the work more.

Taken from outside kitchen door looking towards the street.




From the kitchen backdoor looking away down the garden.

From the street.












From the front garden





From both sides at the end of wall beyond the house.  The four-legged person loves that she can now run around from the back garden to the front garden!










Last three taken today.  Final height reached yesterday.  Top of wall is to be at an angle, and wall plastered, so the builders still have plenty of work ahead.

19 March 2014

Taken from kitchen backdoor















Yesterday morning and this morning. Apparently the rods were in the right place after all. There is just an odd dogleg between the facebrick and the concrete blocks.

--
Karen

17 March 2014

Sideways building progress



Foundations thrown, but look! the rods are in the wrong place will all have to be replaced! *sigh*
But see T's fun fabrics bought in Bristol.
--
Karen

12 March 2014

Editing improvements

Yay! I finally figured out how to wrap the text next to the picture!   I do hope I will remember next time!

This is this foundation trench today.  There is a pile of sand and gravel in the driveway, apparently the ready-mix truck can't get close enough for pouring (so they say), so they will be mixing the foundations in a small cement mixer.  Arggh, more noise tomorrow!


The frangipani is down, but doing some reading yesterday, I think we might be able to propagate 3 or 4 new much smaller trees.  The suggestion was to leave the cut branches to dry out for a week or two before replanting.  But would have been better to do in winter.

They've also removed one of the two stumps of the Brazilian cherry "trees" on the boundary.  These poor trees have been cut to stumps often, but they are so hardy they soon sent out cute new growth.   Lots of their babies around the garden.

11 March 2014

Building works, six days on

I have tried to take photos each day, either in the morning or end of day.  We had no water this afternoon because they jack-hammered through a water pipe which they should not have, and have damaged a part of the existing sewer line at a point where a manhole is to be moved!   And the truck that removed the pile of rubble backed onto the driveway and damaged the new brickwork - !@#$%!  No sewing! 





















  Outdoor plumbing takes on a new meaning!





 Trenches for foundations of new wall:




 This very old frangipani tree is to come down, this is the worst part of all of this: