Trees, trees and more trees

Busmans holiday for Jon today. Planted 5 new fruit trees for our friends in Hoddesdon. It was nice to see Liz and Isabel for a quick catch up. I love the house and Jon loves the location, so it won't be long before we are back! It's lucky that they like us :-) We then drove to Crews Hill. Many years since we have been there, but Jon knew of a bushcraft shop and conveniently I was able to get him a birthday present. We then had coffee and scones in a small garden centre before heading back to mum's.

Jon started to take down a huge lilac which was growing between dad's garage and the other block of 4 garages. Then we stopped for pizza which mum had prepared, and to patch up a nasty cut on Jon's finger - he has a new blade on his saw.

After lunch Manda came over and we tried to reduced the mountain of brash from the tree which Jon was throwing down to us. I had hoped to chip it, but dad's chipper was on strike. I suspect it has not been working properly for some years, but dad never threw anything away. He had another (definitely working) chipper in norfolk. It meant we could only reasonable break down a small fraction of what came down. Rod filled one wheely bin, and I cut the branches down, which Manda then chopped into tiny bits and filled two big garden sacks. It was a great team effort, but as the light faded we still had an enormous pile. In the end we moved some of mums pots, and piled it up on the old crazy paved hard standing area built by dad 50 years ago for the caravan. It's a temporary solution until we can dispose of more via the garden waste/recycling routes.

We finished when it was too dark to see, and had a well earned cup of tea, before getting loaded up and heading home. I drove to Brandon where we bought a tesco meal deal for tea. Jon has taken over the driving and we have just passed Swaffham, so should be home by 9.30.