No it's not a candid camera trick

All day Friday I was in London at a union meeting, and then at 5ish when I walked down Belvedere Road from the station, I thought... just a minute... our house looks a bit different.... and this was because there was the hugest pile of earth dumped in the driveway, with a rather sheepish looking Pete and waving Vincent there to greet me. Well, we have been wanting to get rid of our pond for some time, it is just too dangerous with Vincent, and especially now he is completely independently mobile, so we were talking about having to buy some topsoil etc to fill it in. Well anyway apparently Pete was taking Vincent for a walk and there was a house at the end of the road that was obviously having a lot of work done and they had a big digger hoiking huge clawfuls of soil, so Pete took the initiative and asked if it would be possible to have a few loads. Anyway, I think he was thinking just a few clawfuls... but the man dumped the entire lorry load on our drive!!! It looks like one of those candid camera tricks that someone arranges for a neighbour! So it looks like we'll have to get a skip to dump the rest.Here are some before and after shots!



Pete began dealing with the pond this morning (Saturday) and first had to rig up some drainage system for all the water, and then bale it, watching out for the 11 fish (which Pete and Louise Bagley are having for their pond) and collecting them. Anyway, the pond was drained pretty quickly really and we said goodbye to the fishies. Then began the hard labour for the day.


We hired in some help (Gennie's brother Lewis) and together shifted through wheelbarrow loads of soil from the driveway and into the pond. Five hours later and it was full... and even allowing for some settling... you can see that while a big impact has been made in the pile of earth, there is a hell of lot left!!! Oh well... what do you expect for free!

Vincent was happy as larry all day wandering about the garden and "helping" Daddy. I dont think the tadpoles really appreciated having rocks thrown in their bucket though (we rescued some frog spawn from the pond as last year the fish ate it all). And on Thursday I managed to get Vincent some sandals... he finally fits into 4s and so could get some from Clarks.. hooray for cool feet. And yes... they are broad like Stephen's: Vincent is a G width fitting!