The rain continues, but it has failed to (completely) dampen our spirits

The deluge continues. The rain has been non-stop since the end of August. Well, that’s not entirely true. It has been start-stop. Showers followed by sunny intervals, but often of unpredictable lengths. It has made outdoor activities next to impossible to plan. There’s one positive at least. It’s great weather for grass. After over-seeding the lawn (and re-seeding the bare patches), the water has really brought the green back.

As frustrating as a water-logged world can be, it has meant I’ve been able to skip the sprinkler for the last few weeks and everything is looking verdant. Is the amount of work involved in proper maintenance worth it? For us, it’s hard to say. It undoubtably looks better, but I don’t particularly care if it’s pure grass or interspersed weeds. As long as you can kick a ball and run around it, it’s functional, and it’s better than a paved surface for drainage and biodiversity.

There’s no time to be idle in the sunny intervals. The zen garden corner is coming together slowly. Since the decking was removed the corner has been becoming overgrown and unruly. I was able to tame it this weekend and mark out the area for the stones.

Progress has been slow as I was waiting to get a quote on replacing the old wall around the beds. There was no point in starting another project if the wall could be done in the near future. That is starting to look like a more distant prospect (likely in the spring), which frees me up to work on getting the stones down. First step was clearing away the debris that had accumulated, and re-marking the border of where the stones would extend to. That and cutting back some of the bamboo. (legacy of the previous owner) I am one step away from removing it from the garden completely.

Then came the digging…

It’s amazing how much soil an apparently shallow depth generates. This has produced more than half a tonne, and that’s digging down to a depth of five to seven centimetres. The edging is some of Amazon’s finest and is designed to provide an almost seamless border between the grass and the stones. In practice that may not work flawlessly, but the effect will be interesting at the very least. This will work alongside the shishi-odoshi water feature to make a Japanese-inspired oasis of calm. Or something like that.

But enough of that, it’s time to jump off a building.

Yes, that’s me in the orange falling in a controlled manner. All in aid of the hospital charity. The event was run by Devon Adventure and went smoothly despite the challenging weather conditions. And after surviving that episode, I was feeling a little too replete with platelets so spent an hour and a bit visiting the Plymouth Donor Centre today. This was supposed to be a quiet weekend, but it rarely pans out that way. I haven’t completely forsaken Death Stranding 2; I managed a couple of hours Friday and Saturday night.