Garden to Go

My friend L came over to shift my little fruit trees yesterday. They were planted some ten years ago right at the back of my garden where my new shed-textile studio is going to be built. So it's a case or do or die. They have to go.

It's not the ideal time to shift fruit trees. They're just waking up from their winter hibernation. After trimming back the --budding--branches of the nectarine, it was a case of digging out the root in as compact a bundle as possible. That proved to be a tougher project than either of us had anticipated. An hour and a half after this pic was taken, the tree finally agreed to let go of it's hold on my soil. There was a long tap root. It seemed to go on for ever as we dug around it with increasing determination. It eventually disappeared into the next door neighbours yard. Now that little tree is at L's house soaking in a soothing concoction of seasol and compost and waiting to be replanted. I don't know what L decided to soak herself in after her huge effort. She's coming back for the two little apple trees today. They are still relatively dormant--we hope. Though it's quite possible that they will prove just as tenacious as the little nectrine tree.

I also have a small army coming to dig out the lovely veggie patch soil which would otherwise be lost under the shed and another couple of people coming to take away some of my landscaping plants. It's going to be a crazy kind of day. Tomorrow I'll shift my attention back to the sewing room where I have boxes of files ready to be shredded and patterns to sort.

Castles in the Air

What's this? It's the manhole in the ceiling of my bathroom. That's the bathroom door you can see on the right hand side of the pic. Strangely enough, that manhole cover is the entrance to a dream. Above that ceiling is a roof cavity. Currently the roof cavity is filled with roof trusses--they hold it up. There's also a layer of insulation up there, plus a spider or two or three and a fair bit of dust. In my dreams there's a textile studio up there.

Last week I took two tentative steps in making the dream a reality. I rang a home extension company: they gave me a very rough and rather large figure as a ball-park cost estimate. Then I spoke to my neighbours: they gave me big smiles and all the encouragement they could. Those smiles are worth a lot! I'll see if I can take the next step this week. The next step is talking to the town planning department at the local Council office. I don't have any definite plans and I don't have the money, but I've been dreaming about this space for so long that I feel I need to at least know if it could enter the realm of reality. If it's a possible thing I can gradually work towards it. If not, I'll have to grieve it and let it go--and think of another way to accommodate the floor loom and workspace of my dreams.