A Life of Grime

With the garden all tidy and tucked up for winter, it’s been time to turn our attention indoors. The mission for this weekend was to tackle the layers of grime that have been building up over the last century and bringing in the lemony wafts of Ecover.

And it needed it – here is the inexplicably filthy hallway…

… and the Spider Palace above the front door, where lived one fat and lonely spider, having munched its way through all its friends. Charlotte’s Web it ain’t. I admit, C did that bit.
But what about the plans? I know, I promised this week but diaries got in the way. However we now have a date with Vincent: Monday 4^th October. So see you back here then.

Eats Roots and Leaves

With Brussels No Car Day tomorrow marking the end of the summer, now’s a good time to look back over what we’ve been up to these last few months (still rather garden focussed I’m afraid) and what’s coming up (yes, the plans at last!).

We have now:

1. Re-enacted that scene from Fargo with the jungle, and tidily packed it into regulation green bags, ready to be taken to the Point Vert,
   

3. A homemade compost heap,

3. Bashed down the bricked-in doorway to the cellar,

4. Opened up the water cistern,

5. Planted the first arrival: a Hydrangea aspera Villosa (thanks mum!)

6. Functioning blinds!

7. Spotted a house two streets from ours which has just had a make-over. A “batiment exemplaire” no less (buildings recognised for being environmentally-friendly). It seems like they did a good job on the façade – will make a note of these guys.

Still to come this autumn:

- planting the greengage tree, in fact finding one first: a little excursion to the Fete des Jardins at Aywiers is on the cards for October:

- rescuing abandoned raspberries and currents from some friends’ garden and tucking them in for the winter.

And for those wondering when we are going to get going on the serious stuff: we meet this week with Vincent the architect to hear his ideas. We gave him our wish list a few weeks back and are now expecting a few surprises. Watch this space…