Speaking of gardens - I once worked together with a bloke from Cirencester who exclaimed that "in Gloucestershire, we don't have gardens. We have land"

I never quite got that fully explained..

Quote from: Pellson on November 03, 2024, 11:07:49 AMSpeaking of gardens - I once worked together with a bloke from Cirencester who exclaimed that "in Gloucestershire, we don't have gardens. We have land"

Hah! Typical West Glos attitude! They think  they own the world on that side.

Nice to see some other works here Guy, do not venture down here much, but will try to remember the Blog holes exist more often.

Quote from: Old Wombat on November 03, 2024, 05:39:42 AMI then top-dressed the lawn to start trying to get all the lumps & bumps out of it & getting it smoother & more level ... This will take a few passes to get done right (almost like PSR, really),

So preparing the wicket for 25/26 already I see ? 

Quote from: NARSES2 on November 04, 2024, 05:55:54 AM

Quote from: Old Wombat on November 03, 2024, 05:39:42 AMI then top-dressed the lawn to start trying to get all the lumps & bumps out of it & getting it smoother & more level ... This will take a few passes to get done right (almost like PSR, really),

So preparing the wicket for 25/26 already I see ? 

If you tried to play cricket on my lawn there's every chance the bowler could hit himself in the head with an unintentional reversed bouncer!

Quote from: DogfighterZen on November 03, 2024, 09:27:07 AMSeems like you've been having fun in the garden...
Those types of jobs are some of my favorite to do in gardening... unless you have rock hard ground and there's no way to get a digger in there, then you're gonna have a sore back for a couple of days, depending on how many ditches you have to dig, of course... 

As I have a bulged disc in either the lowest/2nd lowest lumbar disc, back pain is to be expected. Luckily there were no trenches involved, just small sections required to remove & replace the sprinklers.

Also luckily, there is a decent amount of sand laid under the grass but I was still down to the underlying clay, which is either brick-hard or sticky & heavy (Littlehampton Bricks & Pavers are well known around South Australia &, I assume, Japan, as that is their major export customer) depending on the time of year and/or how much rain we've received (not much this year, despite the seemingly endless damp & cold over Winter).

But, yes, I much prefer industrial gardening to maintenance gardening. I hate our fruit trees (& would have them out in an instant, if they didn't produce better fruit than can be bought, even from the local fruit & veg shop) but I love the Japanese maples across the front of the house & all the various native plants that don't need pruning.

The lawn is just barely a lawn but just needs some TLC to bring it up to a child-friendly state for the grandwombats, so that's what I'm doing.

Quote from: Old Wombat on November 04, 2024, 07:09:57 AMAlso luckily, there is a decent amount of sand laid under the grass but I was still down to the underlying clay, which is either brick-hard or sticky & heavy (Littlehampton Bricks & Pavers are well known around South Australia &, I assume, Japan, as that is their major export customer) depending on the time of year and/or how much rain we've received (not much this year, despite the seemingly endless damp & cold over Winter).

But, yes, I much prefer industrial gardening to maintenance gardening. I hate our fruit trees (& would have them out in an instant, if they didn't produce better fruit than can be bought, even from the local fruit & veg shop) but I love the Japanese maples across the front of the house & all the various native plants that don't need pruning.

The lawn is just barely a lawn but just needs some TLC to bring it up to a child-friendly state for the grandwombats, so that's what I'm doing.

Sounds like the grounds of Chateau Rheged.  Heavy, sticky Herefordshire clay that bakes iron hard in hot summers and turns to slop when it rains.  Part of the garden was a temporary car park before the whole complex was converted from Rural District Council offices to housing, so that bit has a three inch layer of compacted gravel.  That's why I have to use a long chisel, a lump hammer and a wrecking bar to plant the roses..............but they are flourishing in the clay.

As to a "piece of green" for our  grand daughters to play on;  a great deal of heavy duty TLC  is needed before it is suitable.    I'm sure that your young wombatlings will enjoy  it whatever you manage to achieve.

Quote from: Rheged on November 04, 2024, 11:43:21 AM.but they are flourishing in the clay.

There's always an upside.    Though finding it can sometimes involve heavy excavation or an electron microscope...

The Dark Christmas Knight is finished, with the exception of a few blats of matt clear on some of the fix-ups.

Will do that later tonight.

Then photo's, tomorrow, when I find a suitable background - white, red, green, brown & black are unsuitable, as they've been used in the paint job, so I'll probably have to hunt down something (pale) blue.

Started my next build - an AFV Club Stryker M1128 MGS (Mobile Gun System).

It is the first of my 7 (yes, seven) Stryker kits*. I hope to get a couple more of these done this year. They probably won't be finished until I've built all of them, as I want to do them all in a single, cohesive camouflage pattern, as a unit of the Royal Australian Marines Rapid Airborne Deployment (RAMRAiD**) Battalion.

I have used Stryker kits before, on my M1137A3 High Mobility Battlefield Logistics Transport;



But this is the first time I've built one OoB.

And, as an armour kit, it's a nice, relaxing, familiar type of build!




[*: Eight, if you count the Panda M1296 Dragoon kit ... which I might, as the tyres (I just had a look) are a very hard vinyl/plastic, rather than the soft stuff that AFV Club & Trumpeter use.]

[**: Yes, I did have to think hard about how to get that acronym! ]