Sunday 2 August – Back to Work

I can’t believe that my last blog, 2 weeks ago, was written the day we completed Priory.  It already seems like so long ago …  Thankfully, both families who have stayed in Priory in the last 2 weeks have absolutely loved what we have done and have left us some lovely comments.  The family who arrived yesterday also seem to have fallen in love with it which makes all the hard work worthwhile.

The blog mentioned that after we had taken a few days off to relax there were a number of projects we needed to pick up including hedge cutting and finally finishing Grange, and this is what I began last week as you can see it desperately needed it.

I think hedge cutting will take more and more time each year as the metres and metres of new yew and lonicera we have planted grow and mature.  However, it always looks so much better when done.

Sadly, as you can see on the last picture, the honey fungus that appeared a couple of years ago has continued to destroy some of the old privet hedge surrounding Granary.  It is very sad as the arch which we creating into the Granary garden is now destroyed.  Sadly too most of the griselinia cuttings I planted in the spring have also died possibly, despite watering, the very dry spring and summer so far didn’t allow them to root.  Because we cannot get rid of the honey fungus we have decided to plant griselinia, which is not prone to the pathogen, to eventually replace all the privet.  It is disappointing that these cuttings have died as we have lost a year’s growth but we have a plan for the autumn which should mean the next plants we add will survive.

The other task I began is one that I have meant to do for a couple of years, stain the exterior of Grange.  Since we clad the building in 2017 the wood has aged from the bright yellow of the pressure treatment to a soft silver but it now needs assistance to keep it in a good state.

I have started with the easy side – the front – which looks much better now it has 2 coats.  The other faces will be harder to access but I hope to get them done this week.

Last week we had some guests, friends now, staying with us for their 3rd stay.  Their previous visit was for Christmas when one of them received a drone.  In the 7 months  following they have been practicing how to fly it so, when they brought it back with them this time they were able to get some footage.

The first film was sadly taken on a fairly overcast day (before I had cut any of the hedging!) but shows how beautiful the countryside is around us, and how close we are to the Lac du Drennec which is a wonderful place to walk, swim or kayak.

We understand that they took more footage later in the week, on sunnier days with better hedges(!) that we should be able to share soon.  David is looking to do some of his video editing to put something lovely together.

Next week hopefully I will complete the whole of Grange without doing myself an injury and, who knows, perhaps even start to empty it out!

Kenavo.