The only bloom open on a lovely Magnolia bush: (Click for a bigger image)


Easter was spent doing DIY, the back wall of the yard needed repointed, I didn't know how badly until I climbed up and started removing the moss between the decorative bricks that cap the wall. These bricks probably hadn't been repointed in 50 years, the moss was holding them together. I removed some moss and ended up being able to lift whole bricks out. This meant I had to learn how to repoint pretty quickly. My initial attempts last year were pretty untidy, but I soon got into the swing of things. The secret appears to be to slap it in to the gap and make a mess, then when you clean it up with acid and a wire brush at the end it looks pretty decent. The bannisters which I started stripping in November 2002 were never going to look good, a hundred years of gloopy gloss left far too many remnants in between the decoration on the spindles, so after a bit of sanding we painted them satin white, they look a hell of a lot better now. I wanted to rip them out and get new ones put in, but I am not allowed to replace anything unless it's beyond redemption.