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My neighbour painted their side of my nice new fence last week.  Everyone has to learn, I suppose, but it was a shame they neglected to slip some cardboard under the panels while they painted them and allowed them to dry.  Luckily,a neighbour to one side of me spotted them and gave them some good advice so only half of the panels are affected.

The result is seen in the first photo below.  I tried everything from bleach, white spirit, wire brush and a rotary brush to remove the drips – all with varying degrees of failure 🙁

I’ve been looking through the online masonry paints trying to find a suitable colour because it’s becoming obvious I’m not going to be able to remove the runs without adversely affecting the concrete surface. I specifically didn’t want to use brilliant white because, I think, it looks unnatural and was struggling to find a suitable colour.

My brother suggested I try using a ‘cement wash’.  I made up a weak, runny,  mix with some ready mixed mortar in the garage and brushed on a coat in an out of the way place…. Result – success!

It remains to be seen how it will stand up to the weather but it looks like I’ve got my job for one day this week while this nice weather stays with us. One down, 3 more to do.

After over four months of interruptions, I’ve finally finished my “Garden FM Radio” – something cheap and cheerful to sit out in the garden with.  All I need now is for it to stop raining!

Full details on my main site, here.

(Click for full size)

Cut both lawns this morning for the first time in a week. I deliberately let them grow long while I tried to deal with whatever it is that’s ailing them.

Anyway, ended up with a pile of grass cuttings that, when added to the other garden waste I’d collected, ended up way to much to stuff into the green bin.

So, my first garden waste run to the local tip. Looks like I timed it just right: eight minutes to get there, one minute to dump the waste and eight minutes back.

The Council claim they’ve broken the 30,000 break-even number of £35-a-head subscribers and are hailing the brown bin charge a success!

That still leaves 80,000 previous users of the service who haven’t subscribed, a huge increase in landfill (the cost  of which, to us taxpayers,  rose by £8 per tonne this year and will rise again to £80 per tonne next year), an inevitable increase in fly-tipping (with the associated costs dealing with it) and loads more carbon dumped into the atmosphere as we all make individual “bin runs” or treat our neighbours to a weekly garden fire.

Success? Nah!

I seem to be fighting a losing battle with both my front lawn and my back lawn 🙁   Although I’ve been giving them plenty of water, they’re dying!

It looks like some sort of fungus disease in the back lawn and I’m guessing that I’ve transferred it to the front lawn on my shoes or with  the lawnmower.

It’s finally started to rain so I’ll see how it goes but I’m not hopeful.  Then it’ll be decision time: To have them re-turfed or come up with a nice flags/patio design.

I gave my new fence a coat of fence preservative a week or two ago. I wanted the natural wood grain to show through so I used a preserver rather than the usual ‘paint’.

Now that the shrubbery has had chance to re-establish itself, I think it looks quite nice even though the preservative was a bit expensive!

I was chilling out after a shower a couple of evenings ago when I spotted a car pulling up outside.  The neighbour on the ‘other’ side of the new fence  popped round and presented me with a super potted Azalea!  I thought a really nice gesture and it looks superb. Thanks!

I’m not a gardener so I’ll need to do a bit of Googling to see about its maintenance but the intention is to put it up against the fence once it’s stopped flowering.  Apparently, they prefer dappled sunlight under a tree but it’ll have to manage the best it can!

I like a good moan now and then but only a specially selected few make it to the blog.

Just getting out of my car at the local Tesco Express when a commercial van pulled in and parked (I use the word loosely) alongside.

I was standing at the checkout and the driver was waiting at one of the automated checkout machines a few yards away when he shouted across to me asking what I was looking at.  “I’m looking for your sticks. You’re parked in the disabled bay,” I shouted back.  “Oh, am I. I didn’t notice.”  End of conversation.

The one-and-only disabled bay, that everyone else had left free, is, sensibly, right outside the store entrance – the half-dozen or so empty bays would have entailed a 5 or 6 yard walk.

It’s good to see that Euro Car Parts are an equal opportunities employer but I question whether someone with eyesight as bad as his should really have been given a driving job.

Seriously, although the markings are a bit worn, they’re plain enough for anyone who should be driving to see.

Nothing annoys me more than a fully-fit 30-odd year old taking advantage of people who are disabled!  Pratt.

“Captain Crater” may be on the lookout for Wirral’s potholed  roads but, yesterday, I spotted a lamp post full of them!

Luckily,  the Council’s “lamp post man” was on the ball when I contacted my local Councillor and it was made safe within an hour. Not bad going for a late afternoon!  Job Done.

After some of the strongest winds that I can remember for a long time, spent most of today blitzing the front and back gardens.  Loads of tidying up after winter and the wind had wrecked some of the plants and bulbs.

On the plus side, I’d recently treated myself to a new 55mm – 300mm lens for the Nikon D3100 so the sun today gave me the chance to try it out briefly (click photo for a larger view)….

Well, after an 8-month consultation, my local Council says on its website:

“The consultation has now closed and over 6,500 responses are being compiled into a report which will be considered by the Council’s Cabinet on 7th February.”

One question in the consultation asked if we’d be prepared to pay to have our brown bins emptied and 51.7% of us said it would be totally unacceptable.

Err, so how come I’ve just received a hand-delivered leaflet telling me I’ll need to pay to have my Brown Bin emptied in future which is dated 31 Jan 13 – a full 7 days before the Council’s Cabinet met to consider it. Maybe they could pick the lottery numbers the same way and solve their financial problems at a stroke!

Really strange! There’s obviously something more to these Brown Bins than meets the eye. I’m hanging on to mine.

Even if I can’t get mine to travel backwards and forwards in time (it’s definitely not bigger on the inside), I should at least be able to turn it into a handy rainwater butt!