St Petersburg Update

Our holiday is rushing up on us, nothing is packed yet, the currency hasn't been ordered, and I've not posted up our itinerary yet. I have checked the weather though, which makes interesting reading! I'll be leaving out the flip-flops and suncream, and packing scarf and gloves..

This is only the three-day forecast, on the BBC site you can get the five-day forecast, and it's suggesting Monday will be "light snow showers" and Tuesday will be "Sunny". Actually, those conditions would be perfect, much better than if it was predicting just grey skies and rain. Snow makes anything look prettier, and sunshine onto snow will make for some spectacular photographs (I'm servicing my cameras today, I'm being very prepared and taking four, which will mean leaving clothes out of my suitcase to make room... how we suffer for our art!).
I'm getting used to Russian weather - it did snow in June in Petrokamensk, after all, and that was at a lower latitude than St Petersburg.

Mishka's not going to be abandoned, Lucy is having a week's holiday from Reading and coming to house- and dog-sit for us.

Ticking off those jobs...

So back to work today - for a rest!
The weather finally relented yesterday, and it was lovely from 10am onwards, which was all the better as we went to see some friends in the afternoon who were back visiting the UK after they emigrated to Oz a few years ago (hi Karen & Steve!). It did mean that we had the morning to get some last jobs done in the garden, like trimming the conifers and painting bits of the summerhouse that never got painted last year. I thought I wasn't too bad with heights, and this photos makes it look like I'm not very high up, but it's higher than it looks!!
The weather on Saturday and Sunday was very disappointing, just like Friday - wet! At least it was warm though. I had no choice but to get jobs done, as I'd hired the auger, ladders and scaffolding board until Tuesday. Saturday's job was to erect a fence to keep Mishka off Olga's veg patch. I decided to try and do it properly, by cementing the posts in. Well, it rained all day, I listened to three whole football matches on the radio while digging 6 post holes. That was a fun job in our very clayey, stony soil, and it was only after I'd popped to the DIY store after hole #3 (for more cement!) that I found the tool that made all the difference - a long, heavy pole with a sharp point on one end and a chisel-like blade on the other end. This halved the time it took to dig a 30-45cm hole, and meant that I pretty much finished the whole fence by 7pm, including hanging the gate. Then it was straight to the pub for a well-earned drink with Chris & Cara and back to ours with a Thai takeaway. Here's how the garden looked before and after (one photo taken this morning, with lovely sunshine, typical!!):

Sunday was another wet day, but after a late night on Saturday, and with some friends from Planet Airedale visiting us in the morning, we didn't achieve too much in the afternoon, other than some trimming of hedges, conifers and the apple tree. I did bottle out of trimming as much of the apple tree as we'd like as it got seriously high and I was using a rickety wooden ladder - I'd like to live long enough to see Lara grow up!! Oh, and I fitted the piece de resitance to the new gate - a spring so it closes on it's own, and I improvised a way of locking the gate shut after it turns out some git had nicked the important bolt out of the packet for the gate lock that I'd bought. Some people!!!! Is it sad when fixing a spring and lock are a highlight of Easter Sunday??!

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....