From drawing to job complete

 My Grandson lives in a house with a terraced garden.  His play area is on a patio with a metre drop into thorny flower beds.  He fell into this recently and looked as if he had been mauled by a lion, so a fence was needed to prevent this from happening again.  First, the flowerbed was cleared, then I surveyed the site before drawing up the plans. 

A profile of the fence and wall including posts.

A plan view of the general layout.

Dimensions were added and the material chosen.  Not having worked in wood before, I was unfamiliar with the sections available, but after a bit of research I made my choices and the material was ordered.

Three 70mm X 40mm X 3 metre lengths for the posts and 70mm X 20mm X 2.4 metre lengths, four packs of five arrived, then the job began.

Marking out and sawing the sections to length

Laying the cut sections out before fixing

Putting the finishing touches to the gate

It was a very hot day and working on the lawn in the back garden was like working in a desert.

Fence in place

Gate looking good

Job complete

My son Jonathan helped to manufacture and fit.  We work well together, celebrated with ice lollies.

 

What are the chances?

 So, there I am six miles into a forty five mile cycle jaunt when along a narrow country path I catch my arm on a thistle and draw blood.  Moments later a wasp flies into the the vent of my cycling helmet and stings my head.  In the ensuing pandemonium the chain comes off and I cruise to a halt while struggling to release the wasp and avoid being stung again.

On a more positive note, some twenty miles later I stop for a refreshment break in a layby and promptly discover a pound coin laying on the ground.

Breaking my silence.

 So, not a lot has happened on my blog for months.  I've decided to have another go and post more regularly using this as a test to see just who is about and who actually reads my blog.

I'm busy at the moment writing my ninth novel, fifth in the crime series featuring DI Isobel Woods.  Woods first appeared in The Cellist, published in 2017, when she was a Detective Sergeant working with DI Terry Ashton.  Her character has developed since then and she had a greater part to play in The Photographer, published in 2020.

Both of these books are available from Amazon as a kindle download or in paperback format.

They can also be ordered through bookshops such as Waterstones.

Two more books are ready to go to the publisher, but I'm using these to help me find a larger publisher and/or attract a literary agent.

Anyway, enough of my news.  If this is successful and attracts some attention then I will write more updates about my work and other things.

Happy reading!