After the famine comes the …. er … feast?

Our new garden feature

Back in December 2009, with the Jap’ pick up, Thomas, aging fast and the cost of maintenance and repairs of said vehicle escalating at a rather alarming rate, Muds’ Land Roverless status reached breaking point and he set about persuading me that an old, battered classic Land Rover was the only sensible solution to our vehicular needs. The ease with which he could repair it, the much lower cost of these repairs, minimal historic vehicle insurance costs, not forgetting the taxed exempt status of such a vehicle, were all tools used to persuade me that a Series land Rover project was the way forward and I fell for it!

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Ciggy has a seat fitted …. vroom, vroom!

“Vroom, vroom,” said Little Mudlet …… but then she actually IS six years old!

As lunchtime came around today, I sat wondering where oh where was Mud. You see, at lunch time on a normal day, I would usually expect to have been booted off the computer at noon, amidst mutterings of ‘You’ve had all morning to do your blog’ which isn’t actually true but hey ho! However today, by 12.35 there was still no sign of my hungry other half coming in from the office for his totally uninspiring cheese sandwich.

More Strawberries

Well it looks like the real deal

With my ever growing mound of freshly picked strawberries quickly reaching mountainous proportions, I needed to come up with yet another idea or three on how to use them. I hate to throw any home grown produce away and with the temperatures yesterday and today in the extremely high 20s and bordering on the low 30s (Mud informs me that the temperature actually reached 30.5 at one point this afternoon), there was a real danger of some of the berries starting to turn and so a solution had to be found pretty quickly.

“You could make jam.” was Muds’ suggestion.

It’s that time again

Ciggy Series 2 SWB Land Rover battery not included …..

Every year, on two separate occasions, I find myself sitting in a waiting room, nervously thumbing through dog eared magazines, anxiously checking the clock, hoping for good news, anticipating the worst. Everything hanging on the verdict of one person, probably the most terrifying and yet powerful person in the automotive industry ……. the MOT inspector!!!

February it was Annie, my 30 year old, Series 3 Land Rover, who passed not quite with flying colours, as she did have one advisory but at least that one minor detail can be fixed by Mud, on the front drive for minimal cost and frankly, for such an old vehicle, one advisory is pretty good going all things considered.

Landy in miniature (updated)

By far one of the best ‘free hand’ models that Mud has ever made from Lego, has to be his representation of a classic Series 2 Land Rover, using green bricks and subsequently adding a white hard top. Personally I feel the end result was pretty good, although it took some time to make as, without a set of instructions to work from, he had to work out what he needed and then try and find appropriate bricks amongst the thousands contained within the Lego boxes.

Eventually, his perseverance paid off and we ended up with this cute little mini ‘Ciggy’, complete with fold down windscreen, bonnet mounted wheel (sadly not the delux bonnet though) and a tow hook on the back.

Door tops: the long and winding road…….

The teddies deserved a treat ….

When Mud suggested that we make the most of his day off with a jaunt in Annie, just the two of us, a bit of quality time, I happily consented, especially as there was an offer of  lunch thrown in and, let’s face it, Mud still has some way to go to make up for the camera/white spirit fiasco.

However, visions of a romantic stroll along the beach front, or a carefree amble around the walled gardens of Normanby Hall were short lived and disappeared in a puff of black, oily smoke with his next words:

It’s raining, it’s pouring

The mangetout, leeks and strawberry plants look happy in the sunshine

“I don’t believe it,” was Muds’ exasperated out cry this morning as, sounding more like Victor Meldrew than ever before, he surveyed the garden this morning!!! “It was glorious sunshine when I got up this morning and now it’s flipping raining! Again!”

Actually, ‘raining’ isn’t quite the right word to use to describe the torrential downpours that seem to be happening every 20 minutes or so but it is definitely raining on Muds’ parade , well his truck cab refurb’ to be exact, and he isn’t happy.

Repairing a gap in the hedge the Land Rover owners way

Fence panel with a difference

We have a 60 foot long stretch of native hedge that runs down the side of our house which has been a haven for wildlife and has provided much needed privacy, as the next house along, although separated from us by a road and grass verge, is slightly elevated and set back.

The location of this house has never really been a problem in the past, as we have carefully managed and maintained the hedge, which has provided bushy green cover through most of the year and a healthy tangle of branches during the winter, so it came as a bit of a shock last year when we realised that a gap had appeared (with a little help from another neighbour, as we later found out)  in the hedge and it allowed the neighbours an unhindered view of our dining room and patio area.

Ciggys new colours

It always seems to Mud that whenever he decides to start a large job which necessitates the getting out of numerous and often cumbersome tools, previously brilliantly sunny weather begins to change to torrential downpours accompanied by gale force winds.

Having booked a week off with the intention of getting all of Ciggys’ body panels and, most importantly, her bulkhead stripped down, primered, under coated and then top coated he was more than a little frustrated to find his efforts hampered by the inclement and unseasonably cold weather. To say that things have been a little tense would be an understatement.

Winter weather, greenhouse panes and the shed roof

On days like today, I can well believe the Mayan predictions and can see just where they are leading us, although in my positive frame of mind I like to believe that 21st December 2012 is the beginning of a new mini ice age, rather than the end of the world – but I digress.

The winds have been horrendous overnight, 60-70 mph which is pretty dramatic for our neck of the woods, and I swear I felt the house actually moving. So it was with a sinking feeling that Mud went out to his workshop to see if the hurried repairs we had carried out to the workshops leaking roof, on New Years Eve day, had heldout and, miracle of miracles, they had.