Got wood?

We sure do!

We have decking planks for the top of the deck; a bunch of 6x2 for building deck frames; the deck frame being worked on; big, big chunks of untreated hardwood for an as-yet undisclosed use; smaller chunks of 'pre-aged' untreated hardwood (i.e. ex-display from the garden centre.)

The latter has now been used to build a raised bed for me to grow vegetables in. It's already proven itself in that Kita no longer runs over that patch of ground!

I love it:

The back is made of treated offcuts of 6x2 from building the deck; it will prevent the earth that's going to be put in there from rotting the fence.

That's gonna need a lot of earth, though:

First barbecue!

Contrary to all expectations and experience with the British weather on bank holidays, we've had a truly glorious Good Friday. Besides a short shower this morning, it's been blue, sunny and summery; and we had our first barbecue - both of the year and in this house - this evening!

It was a bit of an impromptu affair; I suggested it because J was going to Tesco anyway, and I thought he might be able to pick up a cheap barbecue. It turned out that he could pick up charcoal, meat, salad and cheese - but no barbecue.

So he improvised:

We had halloumi kebabs, chipolatas and mustard marinated escalopes of veal (don't shoot me - no crates involved! It will never be my favourite meat, though). Cooked halloumi, particularly barbecued, is one of the favoured foods of the Gods. Raw, it just squeaks.

Mmmmm!

And Kita learned to eat sausages off a fork:

Bless.