Drawings and things

1 - 6 April 2020

We are finalising the drawings necessary for completing the permit application.  We have to show how the house 'as built' differs from the plans submitted initially.  There are quite a few differences, but Constantine the architect is handling it, and all we have to do is check and adjust the drawings.

 Making corrections to the east elevation.

 Meanwhile, I am doing some quick sketching.  This was a pomegranate cut for lunch.  I drew the remaining three-quarters.  So much juice!

 In the garden, we have at last re-distributed the enormous spoil heap created when the digger moved the bank in front of the house back by a metre.  So much soil!  The last three beds on the slope on the south front are now completed and manured, with cardboard laid along the paths to discourage weed growth.  More wood chippings are required to cover these pathways.

 A little extra comfort for pond-watching.  This time of year it is nice to sit in the sun, so we moved two of our posh chairs into a good watching position for after-work drinks.

 Tadpoles are growing up (and spreading out)

 Strange 'runic' patterns have appeared on these stones - maybe the tadpoles are trying to communicate?

 Dave has undertaken the garden strimming.  It will take many days to go all round, but it makes such a difference - and reduces the number of snakes and ticks in the long grass.

 We have also taken delivery of six straw bales - one or two for the chickens, and four at least for mulching around the garden.  They arrived in a rainstorm (the only one for months!) so were dumped under plastic by the large olive.

 We were gradually getting on with the final top-dressing of gravel in the pond.  Each of these little buckets has been carefully washed through, to minimise the amount of soil and sand getting in the pond.  We got halfway round when the tadpole population explosion made it impossible to drop gravel into the water without braining half a dozen with each handful.  So that job is on hold now.

This is a little curved bed that I put by the side of the path to the field.  It is planted with lavenders, and behind it is a bougainvillea, and hibiscus.  There will eventually be a picket fence to the right, and an archway for the bougainvillea to grow over - to make a nice definition of our paved space.