I’m afraid there’s only one thing I can start with, though it’s not DIY related. When I heard solar flares meant we would have the best showing of the aurora in a decade I decided to poke my head out the door, but I didn’t think I’d see anything. We’re very lucky to live in a dark sky area, meaning we didn’t have to drive anywhere to enjoy the lights. It was amazing, though not as bright as it looks in the pictures. It started with a haze of green, which slowly formed into a wide band across the sky. In time a pink starburst settled in the center, with a bow of pink and green heading out from it. Simply amazing.

But the week wasn’t all staring at the sky in awe. One tedious job was filling the gap around the windows inside with expanding foam, cutting it back, filling and sanding it. The bottom didn’t need filling as the windowsills will hide it, and Chris told me not to do the tops for now… Only to turn around and ask why I hadn’t done the tops….

Outside, with the scaffolding taken down, the remaining first floor windows are too high for me to fill even on the ladder, so that’s Chris’s job. Instead I filled around the double door.

In the spare bedroom Chris cut out a hole in the new cupboard, so we could thread the ventilation pipe through.

Outside I put together a flat packed rose arch. It’s a fairly flimsy frame, but all the more robust options were several hundred pounds. In time the two climbing roses we’ve planted should climb up and over, knitting together and making it more solid.

Another rosey job was to tie down the climbing roses that are a remenant from an historic garden. These rambling flowers seemed to just grow straight up into the air last year, whereas I’d like them to cascade over the front wall, which will require continuously tying them down. While they’ve only just started growing I’m tying down what I can and will keep adding more and more throughout the summer.

The side garden has been full of rubbish from hedging and piles of wood in need of sorting. We started having a tidy, taking five bulk bags to the recycling center. Chris then sorted through the wood so we now know what’s being kept and what needs to go. Chris has made a neat pile ready for building the frame of his shed, while another pile is set to be kindling once we have fires. Only a small amount needs to make it’s way to the recycling center.

I started building a small single stone wall along the edge of the garden. Though much smaller than the walls I built in the front garden it’s slow progress as the stone aren’t as easy to get hold of – mostly buried in the garden. This will form the edge of the patio in time, and with a little work we can plant flowerbeds above them.

We’ve had a fair few animal visitors lately, from lambs wandering into the garden to bees turning up in the house. Asking my bee expert friend, it turns out they are chocolate mining bees, solitary bees that have probably made their home in the walls and are now hatching in the spring sun and emerging into the house. Completely harmless and great pollinators.

One of my favourite returning guests are the swallows, that like to perch on the telephone wire outside the front of the house. At some point I’d like to put up some nests for them around the house to encourage them to move in, but for now they come and go as they please.