Good Friday? Wet Friday more like

The weather forecasters did it again - got the forecast right today. It was wet but warm, but we had no choice but to get some work done in the garden, as Lucy and Sergei were coming to visit. Lucy looked after Lara, so Olga could help Sergei and I to get the vegetable patch well under way. The HSS Hire shop didn't cover itself in glory, delaying me for some time because they hadn't got my order correct, so instead of coming home with two rented pickaxes, a manual post-hole auger and a multi-purpose ladder, I came home with a purchased pickaxe - they did me a very good deal, and will be delivering the missing items free of charge tomorrow morning, and only charging a day rate rather than a weekend, and will collect the stuff free on Tuesday. So although they did delay me, they have done their best to make it up to me.
Poor Sergei had done most of the work with a spade that would have been made a lot easier if he'd had a pickaxe by the time I got home! That was to turn over the compacted earth in the raised bed, but after that had been done, and it was level, he and I started on the 20 return trips down to the driveway to ferry up 1000 cubic litres of soil that had been delivered on Wednesday.
He'd been working a night shift last night, and they had come straight here and he'd had no sleep, so he worked on all day without stopping - if he stopped, he might fall asleep! It even meant that at the end of the day they took a roast lamb dinner home with them that we'd cooked, so Sergei could eat it there and fall asleep, rather than eat here and fall asleep driving them home! Very good thinking...
Anyway, it was definitely worth the effort, the pressure now will be on Olga to produce the produce (that'll test the non-native English speakers). Tomorrow we have to finish off a bit of the veg patch, build a fence, fit a baby gate and maybe mow the lawn.
I forgot to take a "before" photo, but here's a "during" one:

"Me Tarzan, You Lara" at JungleMania

Yesterday I had my day off with Lara, and seeing as she can move about much more freely now, I thought we'd go to one of those "ball park" places where the kids can play in relative safety. It was quite busy because the schools are off for Easter, but there was a seperate area for the under 3's, which only had a three or four kids in it. Parents were allowed in too (shoes off!) which I was relieved about, in case Lara felt lonely or lost in there, but she seemed confident enough had I stayed outside and watched. I was glad I was in there with her though whenever her instinct to climb on things took over. She's very good at getting up on to something but not so good at coming down again.
It was a bargain for £1.50 (cheaper rate because she's not a "proper walker" yet!) and we'll definitely go back soon, with Olga, so one of us can look after Lara while the other takes photos. Here are the best ones I could get though:

Slaving away in the garden

We finally got ourselves into gear yesterday, and built the latest addition to the garden - a pergola over the lower decking. In time we're going to cover this with some clear roofing, so we'll have an area to go in the dodgy English summer weather, when it might be warm enough to sit outside but could shower at any moment - Lara will have a dry place to snooze.

The finished product looks like:

Once it was safely erected, Lara helped Olga with some of the Spring gardening....