Muck and Slig

So work begins. What was a field is now a mess. But a promising mess.

Here's where the new gateway is going to go. The wire has been taken down.

The digger has arrived and is about to turn the first sod. A very big sod.

The tractor and trailer were blocking the road - good thing there isn't much traffic, and extra helpful that the work is being done by the neighbours from up the road. Builder neighbours, not just any old neighbours.

Here's Joe directing operations.

The pile of earth is getting bigger.

In fact it's much much bigger than anyone expected. This is good from the point of the view of the gardener (me) as it turns out we have some splendid topsoil. From an initial position of thinking there may be none, this is terrific. The neighbour whose sons are doing the work tells us this part of the field was for many years a garden with crops of potatoes and cabbage, so had years-worth of manure piled into it. That topsoil is going to be put to work again.

The downside of this beautiful pile of growing medium is the hole it has left.

In order to create a driveway you have to remove all the soft stuff, replacing it with slig. Big hole = many loads of slig.

Here it comes:

Oops! The telephone wire! Joe's just noticed. Thankfully so has the lorry driver.

Load after load is delivered and spread.

Until finally:

We have a driveway. This is the first working layer. Eventually it will look prettier but this will take the heavy vehicles necessary to any building endeavour. How much cleaner it all looks when the sun is shining.

And this is Rambo and Aoife.

Aoife loves going up to the site. She has three friends, all the same size as her. Rambo is part sheepdog part terrier. The sheepdog is the top bit, the terrier is the legs. He looks a little odd when he stands up. He's one year old and terribly enthusiastic. They play together until Aoife's had enough when she tells him to feck off. Good for a puppy to have a crotchety old lady to put him in his place. Rambo belongs to the family who are doing the building work, so is around a lot. I'm enjoying him. He comes for walks with us too.

There will be more when I've downloaded the latest pics.

Lough Derg, high water

The levels are rising. We were in Mountshannon yesterday, and the water was very near the top of the wall in the old Council section of the harbour.

 The newer Waterways Ireland part has a higher wall so is a little less scary:

Aoife the dog was on the other side of this part of the harbour. We thought she was going to run across it towards us it looked so land like. The small white sailing boat has damage to the mast. It's a very exposed harbour in wind. The boat on the left that's listing is often at that angle - it's not because the lines are too tight.

Hard to believe this was full of swimmers and sun bathers only a few months ago. The short piers that had children running up and down them have disappeared altogether.

More rain forecast.