What a load of rubbish

A couple of minor disasters in the garden, the first was only to be expected. Unlike the very abstemious gardeners, some people found it necessary to sling their cans and cartons into the garden after there Christmas revels, even though there are a bank of bins right next door to the spot.

I need to get out with a pair of gloves to complete the clean up, but the worst is in the bins where it belongs.

I think this strengthens the case for a little bit of fencing or something to stop people doing this, it only need for the space to look uncared for again and we'll be back to square one. Hopefully Mick can guide us to the best solution.

Problem number 2 is the wall next to the garden, it was only mended in the summer, and it appears to be falling apart again. If you remember, the last time it was repaired, the workmen decided to use the garden as their site for mixing cement, so whatever happens, we don't want that again. On the other hand, broken walls are not only dangerous, but they also add to the general feeling of grottiness that we're trying to avoid.

I might just send this off to Ascham Homes in the hope they sort it out properly this time.

and more highlights

For those with more advance technical skills than me, you will doubtless notice that I 'm reduced to only adding a single photo with each post. If you saw the disaster when i tried multiple photos, you'd know why.
Anyway, good to see Paul and Angie, luckily with no worms in sight.

Lovely to see Mick and Margaret at the 'do', and even lovelier to see their very snazzy co-ordinating jumpers. Santa seems to have made an early stop at Number 34.

I'm ashamed to say that this is the only shot I got of Ivan, we were very sorry not to see Carol on the night, especially as she and Ivan have done such wonderful work in preparing the site.

Nicholas and Christopher both managed to join us, but had the sense not to get trapped on camera.

Highlights of the Christmas Gathering

A very Happy New Year to everyone from Joan, our President. It was lovely to see Joan and Joanna at the Christmas gathering, even though Joan was at pains to make it clear to everyone that she WON'T be doing any digging.

I don't know if this means that she's leaving it all to Joanna, we'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, she was in fine form and is expecting to enjoy the bulbs once they come up in the spring.

It's in the post.

Deadline for the Lottery Grants is 12.00 noon on Wednesday 13th December, so our application was in the post today to ensure it reached Newcastle on time, ( or should that read on Tyne ?)
Thanks to Tony for a brilliant job in putting together our aims and outcomes and all that technical stuff that had me scratching my head.
Thanks to Ivan for filling in his bit as our senior sponsor, and thanks to Michael for riding shotgun to the post office and doing the photocopying. There were more than 30 pages of questions, so it was rather a daunting task, but we got there in the end.
I'm sure there will be enormous competition for this, but at least we've tried. The results don't come out until May, so we've got quite a wait. Hopefully the garden will be looking lovely by then, so we'll enjoy it what ever the results.