Backyard Blitz (Part 1) . . .

DH Russ is in renovation mode at the moment. Ever since we moved into this house back in February last year, we've been talking about completely overhauling the backyard. The house is on a good size block, unfortunately, the majority of space is in the front yard, as all the houses in our cul-de-sac are set quite a way back from the road. It's nice to live in a quiet cul-de-sac with loads of trees out the front, but the downside to that is that we have a tiny backyard.

In reality though, that doesn't really bother us all that much. We don't have kids so there's no need for a large yard for them to play in, all the outdoor entertaining takes place on our back deck (granted, that doesn't happen all that often, since the weather in Melbourne for the majority of the year isn't conducive to dining outdoors), and although we have a dog, Toby spends the majority of his time either in the house with us asleep on his bed here in the office, or else sleeps in the shed.

Since Mum moved down, Russ has got his butt into gear and decided to start work on the yard. Mum loves tending garden and has a green thumb (I, on the other hand, could kill an air fern at 10 paces), so that's given him all the incentive he needed to make a start on transforming the yard. We're planning on having our own vegetable garden at some point, and Mum is talking about a whole load of flowers and plants she'd like to have (most of which leave me totally confused, since I can barely distinguish a weed from a wattle).

So far Russ has pulled out all the nasty rotting railway sleepers from one side of the house and replaced them with volcanic rocks he picked up from our 100 acre property. Here's a photo of the area before he started (and these are very early photos - there's loads of work to still do before it even nears completion):

And after he's put in the rocks:

The brick pillars (near the gas bottle) will be going at some point - at the moment, that's where the barbecue is, but as its never worked and we have plans to purchase one we can move around, there's not really much point in it being there. What we hope to put there at some point is a hot tub. It's all very difficult to imagine at the moment, but I have no doubt at all that Russ will work it out and (eventually) it will look wonderful.

Russ is taking photos of each stage, so it will be interesting to see how far it all progresses over the months (years?!). Russ is actually very good with this type of thing, and although he bitches and moans the whole time he's doing it, I know he actually loves it. It keeps him out of trouble I suppose, and God knows I'll never be the type of person who will enjoy doing this sort of stuff, so just as well he enjoys it! LOL.

Oh.. and beads! I started on a new set today, but I only managed to make about 4 or 5 beads, so unfortunately, there won't be anything new up on eBay. I'm hoping to get a chance to finish this set tomorrow, so make sure to stop by Tuesday morning if you want to check them out.