Al and Andy have been very busy starting to work through the very long list of outdoor stuff. They worked the last two weekends flat out and finished up on Sunday evening working in floodlights in the freezing cold. So far they have repaired the shed roof and completely re-felted it so it now looks very smart and doesn't detract from our newly planted border. They have also built a lean-to roof over part of Andy's yard so that he can keep most of his stuff (trailer, barrows, timber etc.) under cover. Part of clearing out the yard meant using up the decking that we inherited from Dennis and Bernadette a good time ago. This has now been put to very good use around the summerhouse and gives a nice area for people to sit. Here are some before and during photos. Can't put any 'after' photos up yet as everything is covered in SNOW again!
Next weekend Andy is going to have a huge tidy up of the yard and do some much needed pruning in the agility area. Then the following week Al will be back and they hope to get power and light into Andy's mower shed, put up lighting in the new lean-to and other bits and pieces and then on the second day, if we can get materials here in time lay the new bigger gauge gravel on the driveway. This isn't a very technical job, just lots of hard work shifting the current gravel next door as Geoff has a use for it and then taking delivery of the new stuff and getting it in place.
It's very exciting to see progress but it's really hard work for Al and Andy. I did feel sorry for them this weekend as it was so cold. I spent a lot of the day ferrying up hot drinks, soup and lots of food for them. I did two walks in the freezing weather so could imagine how cold they were stuck out there all day.
A couple of weeks back was North Downs agility show. I like this show as it's always well organised and a nice indoor venue. My girls were both brilliant and we even managed to execute a funny turn! Zeki got 3rd place in her class but I got e'd with Niamh as I pulled her off a jump which was a bit annoying.
Zeki got a 4th place in her jumping class and then one elimination down to a poor handling choice on my part. I actually didn't wait for her last run as it was too late. Niamh did some fantastic contacts which I was really pleased with bearing in mind we have Olympia coming up soon. Can't wait, very excited about that! I can't believe how excited I still get at the prospect of going to Olympia. My first time there was with dear little Bess in 1991 and this will be my twelfth time competing and Niamh's second.
On the subject of Bess, Graeme gave me a dvd of her Pedigree Pairs win from 1993. It made me cry when I watched it. She was such a wonderful dog. I have already posted the video on Facebook but here it is again for posterity on my blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment