Weekend

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in the UK so I got spoiled (kinda). Normally at weekends DH and I take turns getting up with Lia so we have one lie in each - he does Saturday and I do Sunday but we swapped this week so I got to have a lie in on Mother's Day.

Did I lie in? No. But I did at least spend some quality time with my Touch instead. My little Villagers are doing very well for themselves and I got quite a lot of Weeks and GAST threads listed in my database.

I then ventured downstairs to find DH lying on the sofa with Lia on top of him watching CBeebies. So much for breakfast in bed...

Lia then gave me a card telling me 'Mummy this is for you because it's your last day...' No idea where that came from but she was insistent that it was my last day - 'it's not your birthday, it's your last day, Daddy said so' - if that's the case I'm kind of glad I didn't get breakfast in case he had anything sinister planned!

Anyway, I spent most of the day quilting or stitching and we watched Enchanted together in the afternoon which we all thoroughly enjoyed (even DH which surprised me). DH ordered my gift from the US and so it's still somewhere in the postal service but that's okay, I know what it is and I don't mind waiting for something so lovely.

It was nice to relax as we ended up doing a serious amount of work in the garden on Saturday. It was such a glorious day that I decided to get started with clearing up a bit and started to seriously attack the ivy growing through from next door. We then started the bonfire that we'd had piled up for around six months and ripped out anything we could that would burn so the garden has much less junk in it now. We took out all the rest of the manky fence that separated us from our neighbour and will replace it with some cheap pvc covered wire fencing for now (eventually I want a low hedge). It's more to keep Lia from wandering over there than anything else because there's nothing stopping her from getting out into the road from next door.

We also spoke to the neighbour about the ivy and she was more than happy for us to rip it out and also get rid of her rotting trellis and stuff that was tied to our fence so we really went to town. We're now just left with a couple of fence boards and the main trunk of the ivy. Poor DH gets contact dermatitis from the ivy and it's so bad today that he's stayed home from work and is going to the Doctors - all of his forearms are red and swollen and he's constantly scratching.

Unfortunately the ivy is all over the side of our patio so if we don't get it out and killed off he'll keep having attacks (he got patches of it all the time last year).

So now we need to get on and clear up the boundary between the two properties and get the fence up which is next weekend's job if the weather is kind to us. It was nice too because Lia spent pretty much the whole weekend in the garden. Admittedly we have to keep an eye on her as there's so much rubbish around still but it's good to know we're working on getting it better and she'll soon be able to run around without us constantly shouting at her to be careful.

We had one quote for the garden that was extortionate! We're waiting to see if the second guy is cheaper. DH really doesn't want to embark on clearing, rotivating and laying the lawn himself with my help and it'd take us most of the rest of the year to clear all the stuff from the end of the garden so I'm hoping we can afford that work at least.

It was nice to get some quilting done yesterday, it's a while since I did anything, and my stitching is coming along. I haven't been quite as productive this month as in the last two but I have managed a fair amount of stitching. I know that my productivity will go down a bit now though as I'm determined to get as much done in the garden as we can so the better the weather and the longer the evenings (clocks change next weekend) the more I'll be outside.

Things are slowly moving with the front garden too. The builders came and assessed on Friday and will put their report and quote in to the insurance company who will then authorise the work. I need to get out the front clearing ivy too as there's a whole load of it out there. Again, it's next door's plant but it's taking over our garden. I know it's not strictly our problem but if they don't cut it back it becomes our issue - the old lady who lives there is 89 and certainly won't be doing the work herself or, I imagine, that able to pay for someone to do the work.

Finally, just to say we hear about Lia's primary school at the end of this week. Fingers and toes crossed it's the one we want!