Today’s guest picture comes from a couple of weeks ago and shows a rather slanted view. The sunshine will give you a clue that it was taken in East Wemyss by our son Tony.
It was cooler than yesterday here, but it was fine again and the wind was nippy but fairly gentle. We spent most of the day ignoring the fine weather and keeping our heads down as we put in a lot of work on the slab part of the drive project.
We probably went on for longer than was strictly wise, but once we could see the end of the road as far as laying slabs went, there was no holding us back.
This was the end of the road that we could see.
As we have another slab elsewhere in the garden with an almost matching broken corner, we might lay a final slab in the penultimate row. But that will be on another day. When we counted up, we found that we had raised, shifted and laid nine slabs between us today.
We took a long view of the project later on.
(The curious white thing at the end of the drive is the magnolia, partially protected against a forecast frost tonight.)
Now that the slabs are laid, we have still got a lot of work to do in getting the rest of the drive level and neatly gravelled. And Mrs Tootlepedal is going to plant up the new space to the left of the slabs. We are not likely to run out of thing to do for a while yet.
There was not much time or energy left in the day for anything else, but there was a moment to watch the birds at the lunch break…
…and we did manage a walk round the garden at the end of the working day.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that a projected week of frosty nights won’t do too much damage, especially as things are starting to come out, like the climbing hydrangea…
…the pulmonaria…
…and in the white corner, the primula and bergenia.
I have hired a gang of jackdaws to pick the moss out of the front lawn for me and they started work today.
I had carelessly let one of the slabs drop onto my big toe in the course of the works, so to make sure that it didn’t seize up, I took it for a short three bridges walk after we had had a cup of tea.
The Ewes Water, the Esk and the Wauchope are all lined with daffodils now…
…and the Esk has added blossom…
…as well as familiar faces…
…so there was plenty to enjoy on my way to the Sawmill Brig.
Once over the bridge and onto the Castleholm, I could enjoy the lengthening shadows…
…while the sun picked out male flowers developing on the noble fir….
…and lit up the willow flowers at the Jubilee Bridge.
The final few yards of my walk were illuminated by blossom in our friends the Tinkers’ garden, and some bright colour on our neighbour Hector’s flowering currant.
When I got home, I found Mrs Tootlepedal putting the frost protection of the magnolia and that ended our actions for the day.
I did have a moment to take some late bird pictures while I was cooking the evening meal. A greenfinch showed both its hard stare and its appetite for seed….
…and the flying bird of the day is a goldfinch, shot earlier on.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Oh my goodness, that flying bird, what a stunning picture. The paving slabs look great though sorry about your poor toe.
Beautiful, beautiful photos! Fingers crossed that the frost doesn’t do too much damage. Mostly in Maine we don’t have that problem as most of the plants here are used to cold weather. 😉 Bravo with the driveway!
Our plants can survive a winter. It is when late frosts come just as they are coming out that the trouble happens.
The slabs look great. You’d never know you were working with a compound angle where they met the road. Compound angles can be tricky but you got it right.
What a joy it must be to see all those daffodils each day.
I love the wing colors on the flying bird of the day.
We were relieved when the drive and the road met without too much argument.
I understand your extra long day on the drive project. When you’re so close to being finished a big job, it’s hard to stop with just a bit left. You’ll sleep well tonight.
We started our own big job today: re-roofing our garage. I’m quite happy doing all the other parts of the job, but removing the old shingles is an absolute bear of a job that reminds me I’m not as young as I’d like to be! I have great respect for people who do that for a living.
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Removing things is always harder than putting new things in. Are you perched up ladders while you work?
No, we’re not. We use a ladder to access the roof, but for the most part we just wander around up on the roof. We put up ice dam and paper, and then strapped it so we have the strapping to give us purchase while we put the metal on. We did use one layer of scaffolding on one side to put on the first layer of strapping though. And that’s far more than you needed to know, isn’t it?
I like the thought of you two skipping about on a roof.
Beautiful afternoon light and lengthening shadows – and brilliant bird pictures. How satisfied you must both feel having completed the laying of the slabs at last. You can admire the fruits of your labour all year round.
Mrs T went out and walked along them several times today. 🙂
I enjoyed your photos from a lovely day there, and I am quite impressed with the work you and Mrs. Tootlepedal have done on the stone slabs. That is not easy work. It will be interesting to see what she plants on the side there.
I hope your spring flowers and trees survive any freezing nights coming up. We are still getting some mornings below freezing here. We are fortunate the fruit trees have not started blooming, yet, but I am watching the buds swell and show signs of pink now. Today was 36 degrees in the morning and low 70s again by afternoon. I am a little worried we are not getting more rain. Now that I have said that….
Yes, it has come early enough to avoid harming the fruit trees. We are keeping our fingers crossed as they were ruined by a late frost last year.
I hope that you get a suitable amount of refreshing rain.
We need a good bit of rain before going into the annual summer drought.
Let’s hope that there is no damage, due to the low temperatures…. Happy Easter weekend.
We survived the first frost but there are more to come.
Lovely pictures in the evening light. The slabs look great.
Very well done – clearly no lurching involved. I once dropped a slate slab on a sandalled foot – you have my sympathy.
It turned out better than I deserved for being careless.
The slabs look fantastic!
We were modestly pleased….we were very pleased.
“Who dropped that slab on my toe bone Musky?” Glad there was no damage done to that important digit. Cheers.
Thank you. It is colourful but not painful. Very lucky.
Lovely photos from a sunny, busy and productive day. Love the blossom photo, the panel of daffs by the river and the willow. Hope your toe is OK and that you both can move tomorrow after all your superlative work on the slabs …it really looks great.
The daffodils along the rivers are pretty!
Oops, sorry about your toe. That hurts a lot.
Mrs T’s vigor gives us hope that one can recover and get back to gardening mode pretty quickly after a hospital stay…especially with the determination that I bet she felt to not miss springtime.
I think Beechgrove should come visit your garden when they do garden visits again. I’m surprised they haven’t been. (Oh, I do miss Jim McColl so much!)
They are at the other end of the country.