Wood Wood Glorious Wood

Disinfecting Pilsdon's bee-keeping equipment the oldfashioned way

I'm back to it. Working the soil, sowing the seeds. The broken panes in the greenhouse have been replaced, the tattered remnants of my winter veg have been removed from the garden, the thirsty soil in the polytunnel has been given a dousing.  Rotted horse manure, the good black stuff, I have tipped barrowload after barrowload onto the long narrow vegetable beds, spreading it evenly then forking it in.  After a winter away I'm putting things back in order, it feels good.

This week is also the time that Gwynedd Council have decided to begin their work improving the safety barrier by the roadside at the far end of my land. This means the felling of eighteen of the larch trees that line the road at that point so that they can extend the concrete base further into my land to support a better barrier. I am rather glad they are doing this as several of those trees have branches overhanging the A road, and the liability rests with me should any branch fall and cause an accident. Not only that but they have agreed to give me all the timber, driving it down and dumping it onto my land. As they are sectionally-felling them from the top down, I'll get them in short-ish pieces so I doubt I'll be able to make planks from them, but it's gonna be a lot of firewood!  I've got a couple of areas cleared and ready for them to dump it all.

The consultation period for the planning application I submitted for my polytunnel and greenhouse ended last Friday. I got an email from the planning officer saying that she had heard from the North Wales Trunk Road Agency asking me to submit all kinds of details about the access to the land, but she thinks they've misunderstood and thought I wanted a new access, so she's told them it's an existing access and hopefully they will relent.

Popping into the Brigand's Inn last week to upload my blogpost using their WiFi, I bumped into the local vicar who I had got to know quite well last year. He introduced me to the new manager of the inn, and I ended up being offered work managing the grounds on an occasional basis! I'll be mowing the front lawn there tomorrow. He also seemed interested in taking my veg, once it's grown. Also the waitress there said she had another job at a cafe in Corris and she believed the manager there would be interested in taking my fresh salad in the summer. Quite a useful trip to the pub all told!

I've also been on the lookout for somewhere else to live that's close by, as I can't stop for long here in the caravan before the (same) planning officer will begin to issue threats of formal action. Talking to neighbours and friends around, there are one or two possibilities. Someone in the local village, Dinas Mawddwy, might have a spare room they'd be willing to rent out. And some neighbours up the lane have offered me something in return for a bit of labour each week, which I'm discussing with them further tonight. I don't think I'm going to be homeless.

p.s. Apologies for the lack of pictures of my land, it's due to technical difficulties (my laptop deciding it doesn't want to charge up any more in my caravan).