A record shot today so probably of little interest to blippers but this rather uninteresting photo belies all the hard work that made it possible.

M and I have slowly (and on a budget) been redesigning our back garden and this is the last area that needed attention.  The fence has just been replaced and the two chaps who came to replace it for us went above and beyond as while the panels were out, they cut back a couple of foot of the jungle that was behind it (with our neighbour's permission of course, who is elderly and hasn't been able to do any gardening for many years).  They also built us the bin store that you can see (we now need to stain it the same colour as the fence).  The area where it is stood was covered in rough uneven and sharp chunks of flint so had to be paved so we could run the bins over it the flint has been used in another area of the garden.  We also dug out an area of turf to make the lawn even in front of this flower bed.  We're trying to make the garden low-maintenance so plan to lay weed-suppressant matting onto the flower bed, then lay a 'figure of eight' design in large cobbles across the width of it, add a circular stone circle with a sundial in the middle and then shingle outside the cobbles with a larger grade shingle then plant with shrubs and grasses.  Inside the cobbles will have a small grade shingle and be planted with flowers.  We also have an old low butler's sink planted with house leeks which will also be included in front of the sundial.  I'm looking forward to planting all this up next spring.

The chaps also extended our steps by the conservatory doors to make a platform for Ziggy to use when exiting the cat flap, it was just a pile of old bricks before. I hope he appreciates it!