Wishing for a red hat

I haven't put up anything on the blog for a few weeks because I have been flat out with the yard. The fence along the back fell down so I suggested to the neighbour John that maybe we'd better bite the bullet and get a new one, that I'd be happy to arrange it all. He said "oh damn" that would mean he'd have to tidy his mess up along the fence but he'd do it as he used to work as a fencing contractor. Within a week the fence was started but he said "we've got a problem" ... my chook shed had edged its way over the boundary line and that meant he could not get both sides of the fence to actually build it. It seemed a huge job to move the shed just 50cm!

My next job then was to interrupt the bamboo war to move the chook shed. This only took one day. Leigha helped level out the part it was to move forward into, before heading off for uni. I then spent a 9 hour day sitting in the chookpoo with the chooks digging out the inside base of the cage and bagging up chookpoo. There were also myriad bricks, logs, lumps of concrete buried in the poo that had been used over the years for steps and levelers for food, water and nesting boxes.

John and I then looked at the cage that evening and decided that with me levering with a pick and him pushing and pulling we could do it. Bingo! It took about 15 minutes! That meant John could complete the fence.

I now have a new back fence and a bomb site in the chook yard - again! - with all the dug out rubbish. Another job on my list of huge tasks along with the bamboo war and creating my front garden with pavers and plants rescued from Ellen and Rod's house before it is demolished.

I was expressing my frustrations to Leigha about the fact that I have been retired almost a year and still not able to just potter in my garden with a straw hat on my head and a cup of tea in my hand. She said, you mean a red hat don't you ...

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Jenny Joseph 1961

The Red Hat Society sounds a great idea - a society for having fun? But I still hanker after my straw hat and cup of tea.

However, the painters have now finished the outside of the house. It only took them 3 months to get here after the front porch building was finished. I'll take some photos soon so you can all see the progress.

So it is now out to the front again to another bit of bamboo war. It would be nice to have the major house and yard renovations finished by the anniversary of my retirement in April. Will I make it? Stay tuned. A bit of rain would then be good to help the garden grow. We have had it very dry since New Year and even my tanks are just about empty. Our suburb seems to have missed every little bit that has fallen over the last two months.