Ouch -- Conifer Burn

I am having a very active weekend. The weather has finally improved and I have been eyeing up our unkempt and out-of-control leylandii hedge. Our elderly neighbour on the other side has let her side grow to over 6 feet above our height, but she told us earlier this year that she'd dearly like it cut down again to a more manageable height. This has got to be sorted out before we do anything pretty with our beds.

So after a lovely breakfast I got our ladder out and the lopper and the shears and gave our side a good trim first. Then a customary cup of tea and a Kinder chocolate at 2pm. And then onwards and forwards on the ladder. When I'd finished, I had an impressive case of "conifer burn" all down my lower arms -- the scratches you get when reaching forwards and backwards across old leylandii branches and twigs -- but the garden was now unrecognisable. For a start, there was a huge pile of leylandii clippings in the middle of it. OH had started to make a dent in it already, feeding half-inch-thick branches into the shredder through the small chute because that's the only one that still shreds anything tougher than apples.

I did feel a twinge of guilt about taking down one pigeon nest (I frightened off a hen who was sitting on two eggs) but if truth be told, I didn't mind since there are too many pigeons in our garden already.  I was a little sadder about disturbing what I think might have been Mr and Mrs Kropotkin's nest, which had one egg in it. I left it in the hedge but because of all the hullabaloo, whatever had been sitting on it was not coming back to keep it warm. The Kropotkins were initially quite put out at having their favourite perch -- the elder shrub growing tall through the hedge-- taken away but they adapted quickly and were back hopping around in the garden and singing at us by the early evening.

All muscles aching now. OH had caught and roasted us a Tesco chicken yesterday. That giant chicken and mayo sandwich has never looked so good. Put the woodburner on, opened the last 2 litre bottle of OH's homemade superstrength cherry cider and gently dozed off to BBC4's new Scandinavian crime drama.