Changes afoot at Battleaxe Villa!

Unfortunately Battleaxe has still not been herself, health-wise, for the past week, but is now getting better – see below. We have a few garden changes, and a new platform is under construction in the front garden. I get messages from friends saying they are readying their outside spaces for the ‘6 people in the garden’ regime that should be starting on 29 March, with things like gazebos, cushions, ambient mood lighting and fire-pits, while ours looks like a bomb site. But, there are lovely new things, like this mini-greenhouse. This post is a bit domestic..

Ah well, things will all improve, like Battleaxe’s health.  In last week’s post  I told you that I had an eye problem? Well, the very strong antibiotics the hospital gave me were fine for a few days, but then not – I got the most vile stomach, back ache and bowel business, the unedifying nature of which I won’t dwell on. Doctor said to go on a very bland diet for a few days, which I did, and my troubles slowly eased over the week. But it has been, if it is possible in the social desert we inhabit, an even quieter week than usual – not seen friends, not been out apart from abortive trips to garden centres, see below.

Garden? Philosopher has been a star of late, building me this beautiful potting bench, and putting together the mini-greenhouse.

However, he also discovered an area of nasty rotten decking, necessitating the moving of loads of plants and other items… In addition, there are the works in the front garden. Mat from next door is in charge of that. We are having a new paved platform built, jutting out from the present path, which is quite narrow, creating a new sea-view sitting-out area. Loads of plants and shrubs had to be dug out, which are presently all over the paved back garden area, roots trapped in huge lumps of solid clay.

Add to that assorted heaps of building materials, a muddy lawn that has been dug up by foxes, loads of plant material killed by the recent very cold snap and not yet cleared, and hence we have the bomb-site. I have made a start on freeing a few plants from their clay carapaces and re-homing them, but backache and general weakness have not helped, coupled with bizarre weather. We have had days and days of strong cold wind, violent rain showers including hail.  Of course, typical us to get into outside improvements when apparently there is, for example, a world-wide shortage of garden furniture. I can’t be bothered telling you about our problems sourcing large troughs etc… and anvil loppers? Trouble is, everyone wants to be doing their gardens.

Oh, enough of this, we all cry. It is now a year since this pandemic started. A year!  Our dear Leader Johnson keeps on telling us – usually in the same sentence –  that we are simultaneously ‘being cautiously led out of lockdown by data not dates’ but that at the same time, the dates on his so-called road-map are ‘irreversible’. Logically, one of things must be false…  We are desperately hoping to be able to go to Turkey at the end of June. I had this picture of the eating area and beach at the Yavuz Bungalows as my Zoom background for a bit, but those backgrounds are useless. Bits of you keep disappearing into them. I tell you, I wish I could really disappear into this scene. Actually, this dates from a couple of years ago. They have spruced it up since then – not a lot, fortunately.