Roseveare Update

It is a long time since I wrote anything about the house and garden so you, the reader, might believe that I have done nothing over the Summer months. Well, the weather did play its part and made it very difficult to keep the grass in order. For the most part I managed but have plenty of problems that will have to wait for another year. We have had some Stepping Stones laid between the front path and patio as can be seen in the following two photos. In addition, the Patio has been slightly extended with the addition on a row of bricks on two sides. They can just be seen on the second photo.


One ongoing problem we have is of grass growing through the fences from the field. An example of this is shown in the photograph below.

The problem is that, because I have wire below ground level to try and keep out the rabbits, it is difficult to cut the grass. My solution was to put wooden planks below ground level, with the wire on the "garden" side. This means that the grass can be "strimmed" from the field side. So far I have completed the section from the gate to the new wall.

The above photo shows the completed project, although not very clearly. Whilst carrying out this task, I modified part of the fence so that the top two rails nearest the new wall can be lifted off for easier access to the rockery area; the supports can just be seen.

One other job that I have done this year is to cut a border around the top "lawn" to make cutting around the Griselinia hedge easier. The border will shortly be covered in bark, recently acquired from the "Newquay in Bloom" team. Unfortunately, there has been no real improvement in the state of the lawn!

Yet another job was to tidy up the area between the shed and new wall. The first thing that had to go was the Pampas, which was really scruffy (It now appears to have taken root in my rubbish dump). So far, it has been replaced by a couple of Hydrangeas as shown below.

Before

After

One more task undertaken was to fill in the ditch that used to run across the entrance to the field. I don't have a photo of what it looked like before but, it now looks like this:

More to follow at a later date.

Gas Boiler

We knew for some time that we had an inefficient Boiler, which was costing us dearly, especially during the winter months. We therefore decided to have it replaced with one that is over 90% efficient instead of around 75%. This is now fitted and we have had it boxed in so that, approximately, the units match. Three photos show the relative stages.

Old Boiler

New Boiler

New Boiler - Boxed

New Wall - Build Complete

The good news is that Chris has completed the building part of the new wall. The bad news is that our bank balance is a little smaller! Here are the before and after photos:


It is now up to me to do some tidying up, which includes the redistribution of the pile of earth that can be seen. I have a use for some of the rocks, but the rest will go at a later date as payment for the use of the digger that Chris borrowed.

Top Garden Wall continued

Work on the wall has progressed, albeit somewhat erratically. The May Bank Holiday, some bad weather, a collapsed drain and some plastering have all interrupted work, however the next week should see the completion. The main part is complete now, with just the short stretch below the new gate and above the rockery to be finished.

I should explain that the collapsed drain was not ours. It occurred on a Static Caravan Park in Newquay and Chris went off to do a couple of days digging and fixing. The plastering was a job that Chris knew about before he started here; it was just a case of finding a suitable time to do it.

End of Day 4 - New Gate Entrance

End of Day 5 - Field Side

End of Day 5 - Garden Side

End of Day 6 - Garden Side

End of Day 7 - Garden Side

End of Day 8 - Garden Side

End of Day 9 - Rockery

Top Garden Wall

Ever since we moved into Roseveare House, the top garden has been a cause of concern to me in that it is very difficult to look after properly. As can be seen in the previous Post, the lower section is starting to take shape but the top end, which is virtually all grass and Griselinia hedge, remains a shambles. There are three fruit trees, which would appear to have little or no chance of ever bearing a decent crop so I need to make a decision on them in the near future.
One of the main problems, however, has been access. To cut the grass, I have to lift the mower or make a ramp up the wall; to get rid of garden refuse I have had to lift it and throw it over the "Cornish Hedge" into the trailer. The "Cornish Hedge" itself has partly collapsed and is very difficult to keep looking tidy. For these reasons, we decided to have the wall rebuilt properly and a 4 ft gate put in between the lawn and the field. That work has now been going on, in between showers, for about six days now so I thought that it was about time to show the world what has been done.
The first two photos show the wall as it was and the succeeding ones show the progress.


I mentioned, in a previous Post, a Gorse Bush, well, these photos show where it was; unfortunately it had to go although the roots remain so there is a possibility that we will get some new growth in the future.

End of Day One

End of Day Two

One of the problem rocks that Chris had to deal with - compare it with the size of the wheelbarrow!

End of Day Three

That's all for now; more pictures later.

Conifer Area

Our long term plan, as has been said before, is to make our garden as easy to maintain as possible. I quite like cutting grass; I find it therapeutic for some reason and like to view the results. Maria particularly likes "stripes" on the front lawn. The grassed area to the top of the drive contains a variety of conifers of differing sizes and to cut around them is a nightmare. One of the tasks I set myself after returning from holiday, was to make this area easier to look after and so I have cut a border next to the wall and around all the conifers. I had considered another area of chippings similar to that in the front lawn but Maria wants to try it this way. The photographic evidence is not easy to see but the following two photos do give some idea of what I have done so far.

Before

After

If you look carefully, you will see a couple of newly planted Rhododendrons; the hole for one of those I had to dig using a clump hammer and wrecker bar! The sub-soil around here is fierce stuff and if the house is built on this, then there is little chance of it ever falling down!

Roseveare in Bloom

As anyone who has ever visited us here in Gothers will know, our garden is usually a collection of different shades of green. The garden was planted with a large variety of different shrubs with a view to ease of maintenance. During the Spring, however, we do get some colour from the daffodils and various other plants so I thought that I would just show a few pictures that I have taken over the last couple of weeks.

Forsythia

Tulips, Azalea & Berberis in the rockery

Tulips & Primula

Tulips in front of Pieris

Azalea

Gorse

I have a particular reason for including this last photo, which will become apparent in a future Blog.

March Update

OK, so I am way behind with the Blog. This, for the most part, is because, as far as the computer is concerned, I have concentrated on producing a Family History of my HILLS/HILL family in book form. This has turned into a marathon task as I have some 1300 descendants of Matthew HILLS, who died in 1644. I have documents, letters and research information from all over the world that need to be indexed and collected into a logical order. Of course, as soon as I started the process, I found anomalies and further discoveries that sent me down different tracks. I also had to learn how to produce PDF Files and how my OCR software worked, all of which proved interesting to say the least. Then there are the photos that have been sent to me by various people. They are stored electronically, but not necessarily in the ideal order or size.

Horace William HILLS - taken about 1885.

In February, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis & Connor came to stay for a week and, when I have sorted out the photos, I will make a separate post to give some idea of what they got up to.

Earlier in the year, I was asked if our top field could be used for grazing for horses. I thought that this would be a good idea to keep the grass under control - what a mistake! The field now resembles a bog around the entrance gate and I have now stopped that arrangement as I would rather have the problem of cutting the paths once a week rather than having to look at the mess and not being able to use the field for anything else. Of course, the month that the horses were there coincided with the wettest weather we have had since we moved in here. The photo gives some idea of the problem.


I have had several appointments with specialists for both my heart valve and shoulder. The left shoulder, which was operated on in 2002, is causing me a lot of concern since I damaged it again whilst moving stone for the wall back in November. A visit to the surgeon who operated and another one for a scan have not yet produced a definitive result. The heart valve seems to still be working the same without any further deterioration. I have also had 24 hour heart and blood pressure checks so am feeling a bit like the proverbial Guinea Pig at the moment. One of these days I might get some results!

That is enough for now, more detail later.

What a Difference a Day Makes

As the title says, what a difference a day makes. The following two photos were taken 24 hours apart at approximately the same place:

03 February 2009

04 February 2009

More Snow

Although no-one should have noticed the difference, this Blog has changed location and is now at http://johnturnersramblings.blogspot.com/. This accounts for the slightly changed layout and the fact that the archive page index looks neater; at least I think that it does.

Much snow has fallen in various parts of the country and Cornwall is no different. Thank goodness that we don't have to go out to work. We did go out for a walk today and I dragged Maria up the "mountain". It was a beautiful day and I hope that the following photos give some idea of what our surroundings looked like.

Early Sunlight over the Rhododendrons

John up the "Mountain"

Maria walking through the Woods

Maria at the Entrance to Roseveare House

P.S. No more Mice - hooray!

New Year - 2009

Whilst preparing for having the wall built, and tidying it up after it was completed, Clive and I moved a lot of foliage, turf and miscellaneous items into the lower field; this was done as a temporary measure because the ground was very soft and muddy and therefore difficult to use my little tractor to move anything. Now however, we have not had any rain since goodness knows when and the temperature has dropped, making the ground fairly hard, so I decided to shift the rubbish to its final resting place in the top field. I took this photo just after I started:


About ten trailer loads of earth, turf and foliage later and the removal of a bicycle wheel, several bottles, some unidentifiable metal, a couple of concrete posts and several large and smaller rocks, the field now looked much tidier and my shoulders ached!


Mouse update:

One more mouse has been relocated from the garage but there is at least one more because this morning I found the trap empty and on its side so they are getting cleverer by the day.

Twice in One Year - Snow Joke brings up the 100

After a rather late night watching X Factor etc, and perhaps consuming one Grouse too many, I woke up late this morning and, on opening up the black-out blind, I was met with the following scene:


Now snow doesn't usually last very long in Cornwall so there I was outside in slippers, tracksuit bottoms and a sweater to record our second fall of snow in one year, the last being in April.


It is quite pretty as long as you don't have to travel in it; I wonder what the person making the following tracks thought about it?


Just in case you haven't thought about the title, this is post number 100, so I am up there with Amy again!

Wall - Build Finished

At last, Chris & Jason and their diggers have gone leaving us with the finished build as shown below. A big thank you is due to them, especially Chris who did the actual wall building. We believe that the entrance road to the house now looks so much better and we can be sure that nothing is going to collapse in the foreseeable future.


There is some work to do yet to tidy the whole thing up. As can be seen in the photo, there is one section of foliage that is very much higher than the rest. Hopefully, when we have some decent weather, Clive is going to help me level that off as he has done lower down.


The last thing to do is to level and re-seed the side of the road, which, as can be seen, is currently a patch of mud.