A pre christmas tidy

When you stand at the kitchen window gazing down at the newly strimmed and utterly gorgeous lower terraces (I exaggerate, but they do look good) something stands out.

We cut down four errant elderflower trees this month.  And I just lobbed the branches onto the first terrace below the road for easy removal.

But I have been stepping around them and ignoring them for too long.

We have a fun Christmas crowd coming soon. And I want the farm to look its best.

So with loppers, secateurs, wheelbarrow and tarpaulin. I beetled down to reduce them to twigs.

The branches that aren’t too large went onto the tarp and I dragged them just one terrace up to the stables where my chipper lives.

And oh joy of joys, I have sharp blades on the machine now.  So in one afternoon I managed to reduce these sticks to a very useful and decorative mulch.

Three bags worth. Which meant I was able to cover half the side of the shade garden.

And the large branches went the other way. I wheeled them to the far end of the terraces (behind the rabbit shed you can just see in the first shot) where I haven’t quite managed to strim to neatness. I hid them in a large pile there.

Out of sight; and now very out of mind.