Todays Freecycle Win - 10 Paving Slabs

Todays Freecycle win was 10 number 225mm x 450mm paving slab from Pete in Cheam that I picked up late yesterday afternoon and took down to the allotment early this morning before it got silly hot. 

Backing up the car into the allotment is a real pain in the rear as the ivy has grown so dense in and around the hinges of the gates that it's hard to get both sides of the gates fully open. 

I backed back as best I could so that I was at the entrance to my plot and opened the car door wide, as it's the only way I can get in and out of the car nowadays now that I have mobility issues. 

This is one of the reasons that I'm hoping the Disabled Parking Badge comes, as I need the door fully open to get in and out of the car without pain. The other reason is now I'm no longer house bound, I want to get my full freedom back and build my stamina up so that I can walk further without it exhausting me so much, and eventually I want too able to walk without the need of the walker for stability and peace of mind.  

The photo above is after I trimmed back a lot of the overhanging brambles and Hawthorn. Idverde never trim this hedge, I will be pushing it back some more and tidying it up so that if I need to drop off materials to the allotment it's going to be easier for me.   

View of the 9 full paving slabs and one broken slab in the boot. 

It's really difficult to lift these slabs with the arthritis in my hands but with the aid of the wheel barrow I managed to get them stacked up at the end of the decking boards I picked up from Freecycle last week. These will become a path in the middle when I split the large beds into two smaller raised beds.   

It was so sunny and hot this morning that by the time I had moved the slabs onto the plot I didn't want to do anymore out in the open under the sun so, I attacked the ivy that has grown around the hinges of both of the gates such that neither will fully open and I trimmed back the foliage growing up the timber fence in the left and the ivy on the tree on the right. 

We have a new plot holder who wants to bring his car in on the allotment, to pick up rubbish to get to the dump and to drop off bags of compost. I have informed him it's OK in the summer when the ground is hard but as soon as we get lots of rain, it would be madness to try bringing in car as the ground will just rut and he will get stuck in the mud. 

Wally arrived just as I had cleared a blockage in my hand chainsaw and as he can reach higher than me because of my locked shoulder he cut the branches hanging from the trees along the fence so they no longer rub the cars when parking there and in fact we can park nearer the back fence in the left now. 

I was going to make my way home, but ended up having a coffee and a chat in Wally's shed that has double doors and is under the shade of a tree and out of the sun. Then it was lunch time and I made my way home to make it.