sanding sir digby

The benches in the garden have been looking increasingly grubby so over the next few sessions the Sunday Workers will be giving them some much needed attention.  Some of the benches were varnished long ago and this has not stood up well to the thousands of backsides gracing them over the intervening years while others have lost their sparkle under layers of particularly persistent city grime.  Earlier in the year one bench received a soapy water and scrubbing brush quick fix but it was clear this wouldn't be quite enough of a treatment to bring them back to their best.

Here is the Sir Digby bench, released from it's chains for treatment.

Here are Peter and Pauline chatting as they sand off the dirt.

"Get back to work!"

(Look at that sun! I am hiding in the shade looking busy)

Here is Delia getting to grips with the grime on Louis Green.

I have to admit it is rather a grim task, all dust and dirt and blisters, but the persistence of the group does pay off - they are tenacious!  A few coats of linseed oil to feed and protect the wood (this doesn't flake like a varnish) and Sir Digby is clean and bright and once again ready for bums.

The clouds of dust floating about reveal the hidden webs of spiders and it is apparent just how many  are busy spinning in the garden. 

I read it is meant to be good year for spiders so I'm sure to be enjoying them as they hang mid-web in early autumn.  More on them then but in the meantime do be glad you're not a fly.

a quick brick trick

has once again been the solution for new seating in the garden.  Last autumn a miscalculation with the paving brick order left us with an enormous stack of bricks unused outside the office and I've been wracking my brains on how to make the best use of these.  The Sunday workers are dab hands at knocking up gabion benches filled with random broken rubble but with whole bricks aplenty I thought we could try something  rather more sophisticated to provide seating to encircle the new south-end lawn.  

I mislay tape measures regularly so usually resort to sticks, my feet or similar to measure up.  The new bench was measured to be exactly one long piece of string in length.  Pauline and Michael, used to my methods and length of string in hand, cut the required pieces - two long sides, two end panels and lots of dividers - from a new roll of steel mesh, making do with a rather dilapidated pair of bolt cutters.  Laid out around the curve of the lawn, side by side and upright, the sides, the end panels and dividers were simply connected with steel spirals  'twizzled' into place.  

This made a long, curved, bottomless, topless box with sections along the whole length.  Lightweight and flexible, it is easy to adjust the position before firmly pressing the bottom edge, 'toothed' with the cut edges of the steel mesh, firmly into the soil beneath.  Full, it will be immovable.  

To make the body of the bench the sections are filled with a double layer of bricks stood on end and jammed in very tightly so there is little room for movement.  It was filled in no time.  To finish off the   cut ends of the spirals will be ground down smooth and it will be complete.  A big brick bench finished in a day - a bit bumpy on the behind maybe but it does look rather elegant.  

I sit and drink tea in a plastic chair by the office so will not be troubled by the bumpiness myself.  Let me know if you are.