Keeping busy . . . and everything is coming up roses!

One of my David Austin roses - Graham Thomas.  Most of the roses on here are David Austin ones, or from David Austin.

We have been busy here - as always - my OH with his woodworking and making/repairing things, and me with painting and tidying up.  The tidying up has been in the yard/stables/barn recently where I am trying to sort out "useful" bits of wood from rubbish.  According to my OH 98% of it is useful, but I have had to take a stand!  I asked him if he intended to take the upright piano remains with us when we move.  The answer was no, so after I had swept all the generations of leaves out of the end pony box, we set to to move it.  My golly gosh but it was heavy and unwieldy.  It wanted to fall over, lean and generally be unhelpful, but we finally managed to manhandle it onto the little home-made trolley we have, on its back - which meant clearing the way in advance, and much moving of stuff waiting until we do the next Tip Run.  Going downhill was easy with it, and we shot around the corner with me avoiding the nettles and shoving left so we didn't go off the end of the concrete yard.  Then it was up and over, and my OH got the chainsaw started (finally) and cut the huge 4" x 4" pine struts off the back for firewood this winter.  I did try to tell him he could have left the middle ones whole and maybe used them for something, but he couldn't hear me above the noise of the chainsaw and had cut the middle one up before he heard me.

Anyway, we had a big bonfire and got rid of some more useless bits too - stuff that couldn't be used for burning on the log stove.  I got lots done, with clearing up that end box ready for bins of useful wood to be moved round from the hay barn (where the swallows are at present, so I can't work in there long for fear of stopping them feeding their babies).

Then I did some heavy duty weeding in the shallow flower bed in the middle of the yard.  It always gets terribly overgrown with determined grasses and weeds, and rarely looks tidy, although it's pretty when all the dark-coloured Aquilegias are in bloom.

A bright patch of colour at the edge of the stoney garden.  Alchemilla mollis and a tiny red Pink - Fusilier?

Charles de Mills.

Cardinal Richelieu

Jude the Obscure.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Paul's Himalayan Musk.

I've forgotten the name of this one - not a David Austin rose, just a yellow one I saw and bought.

Roserie de l'Hay.

Another rambler from David Austin, but so many years ago (nearly 30) that I've forgotten who she is - a French name, that's all I can recall.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon I did yet more painting (nearly reached the end now), this time sprucing up some cupboard doors in the kitchen, now all a very pretty light jade green.  That's lightened up a dark corner.

Have a good weekend.