This was the view from the patio of Thorton in Craven Village hall, and the BBQ that we went to last night.  A magnificant view I am sure you will agree.

The weather was absolutely sweltering hot today in the garden.  In fact it must have been well over 30 degress C and working was particularly difficult.  Ticked off the list of things to do today was doing the electrics in the aviary, re-constructing the aviary and finishing off what my wife and I are now calling ‘Pets Corner’.

We have a south facing garden which is brilliant as it gets to sun all day long, but today it was relentless as the sun was high and very hot.  We started the day finishing off from yesterday with a quick trip to B&Q in order to buy an outside light and some wire.  We then finished connecting the electrics in the aviary as well as at the top of the garden on the new patio.  Hooray it all worked wonders.  So now the birds have a light in the aviary and one outside in the fly bit.

After cleaning all the aviary we then reconstructed it on the newly laid concrete slab that should make sweeping the floor much easier.  It went back together surprisingly easy and once the gate was changed to fit the new position of the aviary pets corner was finished.  Just a latch for the gate and some wood to go on top of the fence to prevent the rabbits from escaping.

Then at the end of the day, after a little pitch and put with the lob wedge from the golf bag (and 15 attempts to chip into the rabbit run without succeeding) we started to dig the footings (trenches) for the new shed to sit on when that arrives shortly.

After that it is a big tip run tomorrow to clear out all the rubbish and then on with the garage clean out ready for a conversion in the near future.

Its funny isn’t it how for so long over the last few weeks I have had very little to blog about, and then all of a sudden there is so much to say that you need lots of posts to do it.  For this reason this post is a mix of this and that, that has been happening over the last couple of days.

About a week ago now Daphne (our female breeding budgie) hatched another two young.  They are both coming along nicely and seem to be developing well.  They have even coped with the moving of the aviary (see below).  Another couple of weeks and they should really start to look like littlle budgies.  At the same time however Goldie is not doing to well.  She had a lot of mess around her bottom this morning and when Helen cleaned her up it is clear that she is bunged up with something.  A trip to the vet means that she is on Antibiotics.  Hopefully she will pull through in a day or two.

Yesterday and today was the big aviary move ready for concreting underneath the aviary.  We first had to dismantle the shed and avairy then it could be moved onto the patio that was constructed a few months ago.  There is was part reassembled so that the birds could go back in there for the next week or so while the concreting and electrics are done.

We have been waiting all day today for the order to arrive from Berrys (the local builders merchant) and as I write this the materials are still not here!  Therefore today has been tidying up this and that.

Finally the rabbits.  They too have not escaped the moving of the aviary, as moving it meant their pen was now open.  Therefore they have been relaxing in the sun all afternoon in the old rabbit run.  I think they have quite enjoyed siting in the shade next to each other, eating grass and apples.  They certainly looked relaxed.

Now that the holidays are upon us this means that it is time to finish the garden once and for all.  The only thing left to do is to concrete under the aviary so that it has a solid base.

You remember a while back that I have written about the work in the garden on many ocassions.  Although it has been fun to redevelop a plain space with grass into something much nicer and to be able to sit out on the patio with a glass of wine or a beer it has been hard work, and I am glad when it will be over.

Over the next few days I will be posting pictures etc. of the transformation of the underneath of the aviary.  The first job tomorrow is moving the aviary and with baby budgies recently hatched it will be a delicate operation.

After months of trying and the prospect of having to go through IVF treatment in order to become parents, my wife and I have managed to become pregnant - yeh!  Below is the 12 week scan of baby Wilkinson.

He/She (my wife doesn’t want me to call it, it!) will be around 6cm long in this scan.  He/She was not very forth coming in terms of having his/her photo taken as he/she wouldn’t really get in a good position for it.  Anyway I am going to be a dad so good news there.

My parents have always had a small vegetable garden at their house, growing all types of vegetables from salad stuff to peas in a pod.  With me now having a larger garden with some more space I thought it was time to give it a go.  So here it is, my first vegetable garden.

Well it is only really a few lettuce at the moment, but who knows, in the months, years to come it could be a fully fledged vegetable haven with all manner of colours in there.  Lets just see I if can get these to grow first shall we?

I thought I would also update on the escapee rabbits.  On Friday evening I put the top off the old run onto the corner where they were escaping and it has seemed to work.  Therefore today I have constructed a more permenant (although we will do it for real in the summer) ledge in order to stop them climbing over.  You might notice that it is a piece of the left over trellis from the back wall behind the new patio!

Working away on Saturday on a clients website I decided to open the window in the office and take a look at the newly (almost) completed garden and admire the view for a little break.  To my amazement I found two rabbits running around eating all the foliage in the garden.

Now for anyone that has been round to our house over the last month or so will have un doubtably been sheperded into the garden by my better half in order to show you the livestock living accommodation.  The birds live in the aviary and next door to them are the rabbits in their newly built rabbit run.  We have built them a fenced off run as they like to run about a bit.  Previously (in the old house) they ran around the garden and where free to come and go as they pleased.  However this meant that no plants or flowers could be left at or near ground level as they ate them all.  So now we built then a run area so they can run around, with one prickly fern thing in the middle, and that way they cannot get into the main garden and eat all the plants.

We first of all what we all thought would be a plants that they would not really be interested in eating they love.  In fact the plant in their run now no longer resembles a plant at all, rather a carefully sculptured work of art, eating away to perfection to give it a bare bottom and thick top.  In fact George loved it so much that as I looked out the window the other day I found him actually sat in the plant munching his way through it.

Worse still is that they have obviously learnt how to escape from their run area, which has a fence around 600mm high, which I why I saw then running round the whole garden eating plants in sight.  Clever rabbits as they have probably been plotting this for weeks, and then made their move.  So when we finish off the garden in the summer holidays we are going to have to adapt the rabbit fencing somehow in order to prevent them escaping.  Just when I though the garden was coming to and end as well!