Living Fences and Structure Day

We had a very interesting day today even though the weather was not so good. It just so happened it was perfect for what we were doing. We were on a day course on "Planting Living Fences and Structures". It had rained during the night and all day yesterday was dreadful and we thought today would have been called off, but no, "dress up warm in wet weather gear and get your buts over here", I seem to remember hearing. The wind was bitter cold but it had died down a bit by the time we got to our friends house, so after a coffee and introducing ourselves, we set off to check out the site. We prepared this and then went to cut the willow, they were wanting a bower so they could sit and survey their land. I can't believe how quickly it all came together and it was such fun to do. That's me with the pink wellies, and so many clothes on I could hardly move. Half way through building the structure it started raining, not hard so we carried on, we were on a roll now and could see it all coming together so quickly. With Richard being tall 6' 4" he was the one to hold the arches together while they were being tied. Once again the weather was very kind to us and it stopped raining, well, just drizzle, so we were determined to finish it. We had to keep going back and cutting the willow, all different sizes for the particular jobs they were doing, whether they were the outside structure or ones for weaving. Of course near to the end, the rain really set in, but would we stop, NO, we were determined to sit in this bower and drink our health and congratulate ourselves on a really good mornings work. So satisfying to see it grow so quickly and it was really quite straight forward to do, so we were all planning working parties at each other's houses to build whatever we required. We have a hot tub that hasn't been used for a very long time, so we would like a fence around it for a bit of privacy, and one of these living fences would be superb. You can't really see in this photo the shape of it because of the trees behind, but once it has leafed up, it will be really good. We were absolutely drenched by the time this last photo was taken so it was all back to the barn for a late lunch. We all take something to share and our host had made a wonderful soup, and in their barn they had a roaring log fire going, so it was soup, quiche and salad, cheese, cake, strawberries and cream. Wow, what a feast and superb company. All in all a very interesting day and one that we shall certainly put into practice at some point.