Jenkin Hill Cottage News

It is now the end of Ocober, and the pool is leaking. The water has been pumped out so that Martin can get down to trying to find the “hole”. Although to us it seems that the leak is in the side of the liner, around 15cm from the top, what appears to be a puncture is found in the base of the liner, under where the rocks were being placed. This is patched and the pool refilled.

The pump is turned on and everything seems just fine - at last.

In the meantime the weather has turned cooler,and the autumn colours are appearing in their full glory. The prediction that this year’s colours will be better then ever and a week or two later than usual appears to be correct!

Now a month since work began, and Nick paddles in the pond to site some rocks for water to cascade over. Without success, though, as the appearance is not acceptable to Nick or to us.

It is now over 3 weeks since work commenced on our hard landscaping, and attention is now being paid to getting the pool finished. The liner is in place and has been part filled with water.

The weather has remained unseasonably warm, with autumn still seeming a long way off!

Work has been steadily progressing on the replacement of our crazy paving and the extended patio area is now being created. A retaining wall for the garden is still to be built around part of this area.

The pond is just a hole in the corner of the garden, in the patch next to the car park where we used to grow herbs.

Somehow I don’t think this job is going to take “about 2 weeks”…..

The weather recently has been exceptional, and this must be heading towards the warmest September on record - or at least up there with the warmest! We would like to be having barbeques on these unusually balmy September evenings - but have to wait for the work to be finished. Somehow I don’t think this good weather will last long enough!

The picture shows Christine supervising the work.

Work has started today on replacing and extending our slate crazy paving paths and patio area. The paving on the paths has required an increasing amount of maintenance during the last couple of years, so we had been thinking about replacing it.

Earlier this summer we went to the Garden Festival at Holker Hall, where we came across a demonstration garden laid out by Sharp Paving Ltd. of Kendal, and after having a chat with one of the business partners decided to look at what they could offer.

A short while later Nick from Shap Paving came over to Thornthwaite to discuss the possibilities with us. After much discussion we settled on a rough plan to replace and increase the paved area in the garden, to move/rebuild a retaining wall, to rebuild the steps on the path and to create an ornamental pond in a corner of the garden. Christine wants the pond to be a memorial to her mother who passed away last December.

We have been informed that the work should take about 2 weeks to complete.

So this morning before 9am work started on ripping up the existing paving, moving and removing plants etc. We also decided on the type of paving to be used. It is to be “green” sandstone, which comes from India(!) but has the warm natural colours that we would like to see here - much better the the old grey slate that is being replaced.

Look out for news from Jenkin Hill Cottage appearing on these pages in the future - as long as we are not too busy!

Just make a note of the address (url) - http://news.jenkinhill.co.uk