There's been some big frosts this winter but the one on 1 July was the biggest yet. Minimum temperature was -2°C and this was the view when I drew the curtains in the morning:
There was thick ice on my mud puddles which stayed over the next 4-5 days despite the warm sunshine we had. Great for the blackcurrant trimmings that I planted a few days before! Any washing left outside is as stiff as a board the next morning too.
I've had a few 4-day weekends so easier to be more productive. I had some metal delivered so set about improving the paths to the house and garage. My previous solution was to put down cardboard which didn't take long to get soggy and slippery - the weka/possum/kiwi had fun ripping it to shreds as well. The path from the driveway to the deck was made up of pebbly sand which tracked into the house and didn't pack down well. Day 1's task was to skim it down a few centimetres and put it on the path to the garage.
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| Path from deck to garage |
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| Path from deck to driveway |
The next day (another big frost) I put down weedmat and covered it with the newly-delivered metal - not as easy as it sounds as the mound had frozen solid in the frost. Also frozen solid was the final few metres of the path which hadn't yet been dug out. I couldn't make any impression with the spade and finally left it to finish it off when it warmed up.
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| Newly-metalled paths |
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| The frozen solid bit |
Today was lovely and mild so a good chance to finish it off. Here's the final result:
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| So much neater! |
