It’s been pretty cold here this week…

We are waiting for the plumber who we are expecting any day this week, so continue to find jobs to do that don’t need the pipes to be moved. We have replaced the last of the 6 Velux window panes, so no longer have a view like this from the third floor.

and we have completed various other totally un-glamorous tasks around the property.

Yesterday, we decided we needed a break from indoors, and set out to do some Rhodo bashing. In the photo above, you can see a line of Rhodos around the centre of the shot which are holding up our attempts to clear the view down to the river. In the shot below you may be able to see how steep this bank is, with the river flowing gently at the bottom of the slope.

Here we show the view from the road, so you can see the extent of the Rhodo infestation (hint: most of the green stuff you can see is either ivy or Rhododendron ponticum)

and that remains true further down the river bank, much of which we will need to eradicate over time.

Mike was clipping the top growth away and passing this to me before treating the stumps.

We had hoped that the photo below would show just how much we had achieved, but maybe not! We will try to take a shot from the road tomorrow to show you next time…
