This could be considered to be Colin’s finest hour.

One week last September, Colin came to spend a week here and this is his main achievement while here. It’s a path or patio dependent on whether the size of it makes it one thing or the other. Last winter it was a mud bath, literally. It was so muddy that my wellies would get sucked down into it and pulled off. I lost count of the number of times I returned to the house looking like the participant from a mud wrestling session after slipping over in it and being unable to right myself. On one occasion, I was trying to move a garden shredder and lost my balance, pulling the shredder over on top of me. It was truly horrible.

The main problem is that it’s a thoroughfare that’s vital to the smooth running of our lives. We use it twice a day to let out the chickens in the morning and then shut them back in at night. We also use it to get to our sheds and out through our back gate into our field where we exercise the dogs. Obviously the dogs and the chooks also use it. There isn’t another practical route because the only other route is currently blocked with firewood (that we can’t use because it’s too wet).

So we cut back all of the vegetation along the dry stone wall (that’s a laugh, it’s not been dry for months) then skimmed out what was left of the soil, most of which had already been washed away down onto lower land behind it. We built to the “Geoff Hamilton” method – a layer of weed control matting, a thick layer of sand then the slabs then filled in around with gravel. It’s a tried and trusted method in my world.

What’s not illustrated in this shot is the granite steps that lead up to the path, which were also salvaged from elsewhere. It all needs finishing off with mortar around the steps and I’m thinking of planting creeping herbs into the gravel to consolidate the whole thing. The dry stone wall also needs repairing because it’s full of rabbit holes. When (if) we get some good weather then those things will get sorted.

For now, though, I can follow the pink block road to the hen run without getting sucked into the mud and Lola (princess puppy) can wander about without getting her feet muddy. She’s standing there staring at me intently because just outside this shot is a stick that she’s hoping I will throw for her. It’s funny – when she’s chasing things she doesn’t care about mud but when she’s just mooching about, she’s very particular.

When DM looked at this pic he said “it shows how hideous our weather is too”. Yes, indeed it does. This shot has the path in the background, it's shot from the opposite direction. The pic is Patti, one of my dearest friends who came over from the USA to spend our wedding day with us and I'm sure didn't imagine it'd mean hauling around wheelbarrows full of logs!