The new deck
Our newly surfaced driveway
The garden takes shape 
Its now some 6 months since we moved in to Wee House and we both love living here. The house layout works well and most things seem to be living up to expectations. We did have a couple of niggles - the cistern in the shower room had an annoying habit of continual flushing. Having had the original plumber come back to check it out and advise that "all would be well as I've taken it apart and cleaned it" only to find that the problem continued. After several months I asked another plumber to look at it and he advised that it was due to a build up of limescale on the seal. I cleaned the seal as suggested but nothing changed - it still refused to work properly. In a fit of pique one day I took the cistern all apart and found that the plunger button on the top of the cistern was on a ratchet and that by adjusting this I could stop the problem all together. Plumbers - who needs 'em!
~We've also become a little irritated with the water sprinkler system which acts as an unintended reservoir for the cisterns and outside tap. Every time the recycled water is used the sprinkler system goes into a symphony of gurgling and glugging noises as it disgorges water to the requesting device, only to be followed by the rainwater pump surging into life to restore the 105 lbs per square foot pressure that the system demands. Think we might look at a redesign of that. Of course the other problem with the rainwater harvesting system is that it hasn't rained for months so we're using chargeable mains water. Being green isn't necessarily cost effective.
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With the bad weather over winter little was done to the house/garden until March, which happened to coincide with my retirement. Since then we've designed and laid out paths to the rear of the house, laid a base for and erected a shed behind the garage, and planted various plants, shrubs and other stuff (I'm not the green fingered type).
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One of the biggest projects has been the building of the deck which was completed the week following the Easter break. This has made a tremendous difference to the garden and will allow us to plan a little more of the area to the side of the house. Mind you, the birds seem to like the deck a lot and the trouble with that is - bird poo - lots of it on the deck and railings. Still as an idle retired person, what else have I to do but clean bird poo off the deck.
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Another side effect of the dry weather has been the dust thrown up by traffic passing the house. Our windows and door at the front of the house have been covered by dust for several months but it had always been our intention to have the 100 yard driveway resurfaced. With no apparent likelihood of more heavy traffic to any of the houses at Brookvale, we arranged for a company to fill the holes and resurface the drive. Much to our surprise, all the neighbours agreed to have their respective bits done too, so during May, the complete drive from the public road to the far end of Brookvale was transformed over a two day period. It looked marvellous and transformed the whole appearance of Brookvale. Would you believe that on the afternoon that the drive had been finished, the owners of number 1 Brookvale (absent landlords) had arranged for a tracked digger to carry out some work on their back garden. So with fresh tar still setting this idiot tracked the digger down the drive, chewing up the surface where he turned on the corners. It took me an hour to restore the drive to something like it short-lived former glory. We were assured that when the work was finished the digger would be tracked back up the lawn. Guess what? It went back up the drive. More work to cover up the track marks. Bless 'em!
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For the future, it will be the garden that receives most of our effort as we generally move clockwise round the house, taking our time so make sure we (Jan) get the planting as right as we can, given sun, shade, wind, and other factors to consider.
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Jan and Rog (enjoying Brookvale)
