You'll remember a while back I went along to Woodfest which is sponsored by STIHL and saw some of their new compact cordless range. Oh and there were some lumberjacks there too, ah yes, you remember now. Well since then I've been able to give the cordless trimmer a closer look, and I'm still impressed with it.
Sometimes, I find things that manufacturers say are intuitive, far from intuitive but I'm pleased to say this isn't the case with the STIHL trimmer. The removable and rechargeable battery (the black box in the pictures below) was easy to fit, remove and replace. Phew.
The other thing that appeals to me is that you don't have to have - or buy - a battery with each of the tools. Clearly you need it with the first one you buy, otherwise you wouldn't get very far, but after that you can opt not to buy the battery and use the one you already have. And then if you need a new battery, you can just buy the battery. How sensible, and useful, is that?
When I picked up the trimmer shortly before Christmas the man in the shop offered to assemble it for me. He said it was easy to do and after looking at me curiously deemed it would be something I could do myself. And never one to duck out of a challenge, and because I thought I should find out if it was easy or not, I said I'd take it unassembled.
And so, I thought I'd film it.
Like you do.
With the camera attached to the fence, no expense spared here - I mean just look at that backdrop, I set about unboxing and assembling my new STIHL compact trimmer.
MOH couldn't help himself, could he. Usually the grass is his domain and I'm not sure he was overly keen on me muscling in on his territory. I think by taking it to the end of the garden he was just making sure I wasn't going to ruin any of his grass near the house!
But I did get to have a go, and it was easy to use. I wouldn't call it lightweight, but I wouldn't call it heavy either. At the demo at Woodfest they showed how it was designed to be perfectly balanced so that it could be held with one finger, so I was keen to try that.
And it's true. I could. For some reason I don't have a picture of that, blame the cameraman! But I do have some shots of me in the rather cool tinted safety glasses, which were clearly just the thing to wear in December.
Dispensed of camera duties, MOH retreated to the patio and finished cleaning his bike (that's what he was up to when he was wandering in and out of shot in the video, in case you wondered). Meanwhile I looked for some more grass to trim, which is no mean feat in December I can tell you.
I remembered the other thing that had impressed me with the trimmer was the twine, or cord, or whatever other technical term you want to use for it. There's none of this twiddling it around a spool malarky, it comes as a sealed unit which means it'll be easy to replace, and we won't have spools of the cord hanging around the conservatory, because MOH is going to rethread it at some point in the next twenty or so years.
I've not cut enough grass yet to encounter any issues with the cord, but I know that a simple bang on the ground while it's trimming will reset it and deliver the right amount of cord to continue trimming without needing to stop. Sadly I'm quite looking forward to trying that out.
I'm also looking forward to our grass growing! As I've got big plans, involving challenging MOH to a strim-off. Knowing that he'll not be too keen to let me loose on "his" grass I've a cunning plan.
And yes, it's as cunning as a fox that's just been made Professor of Cunning at Oxford University.
I've deemed that our strim-off will take place on our allotment. Cunning hey?
If you've not spotted how cunning my plan is, then I'll explain. Clearly I'll want to win this strim-off, and I think even as a novice strimmer I will. Having the STIHL trimmer will give me an edge, because obviously that's the one I'll be using, but I'll bide my time, as we've got a lot of grass still on the allotment. So just as it's almost all strimmed, I'll declare myself the winner - it's my challenge, so I can set the rules, MOH will graciously accept defeat and I'll let him finish the plot with the winning tool.
And so the real win will be an almost tamed allotment. I told you. Cunning.
Obviously I won't be sharing the tinted safety glasses, I was rather taken with those, but I will let him use the clear ones as I've no idea what we'll be strimming over there, or what might be thrown up when we're least expecting it.
So once the grass is growing, I'll let you know when our strim-off is planned for. I'll most probably have some more STIHL-related news for you before that though, as I'm off to visit the VIKING factory in Kufstein, Austria on Thursday, after flying into Munich. I'm looking forward to finding out more about the friendly, family-run company who made such an impression when I met them last October.
It's pretty chilly there though, when I looked earlier in the week the "high" was a minus number and there were snow showers. The current forecast for Kufstein is a high of -2 and a low of -16, and similar for Friday in Munich. I don't think I've ever been anywhere with weather forecast to be so cold. Layers, it is then. I'll let you know how I get on.
In the meantime, just admire the scabiosa which was already trying to flower.
I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to, I'm sure it's meant to be a summer and early-autumn flower-er, but I'm not complaining. Do you have anything flowering unseasonably?
PS. It'd be great if you could follow me on YouTube, it's an elite crowd over there, well if you can call four a crowd...
* This is a collaborative post, but all views are my own.
448 items short of 2016
Remember back in March last year when I hit on the slightly crazy idea of having a declutter with a difference? The idea was I'd try and replicate the idea I'd read about where a family committed to throw away the same number of items as the year, and they did this for more than one year. I was curious to see how many things we would get rid of, and not starting until March made it a tougher task.
But it started well, by June there was only 1778 items to go and I was pleased with the progress I'd made. But by October I was disappointed with the progress I'd made, as there was still 992 items to get rid of.
And for the first time I seriously began to wonder if I'd get anywhere close to 2016 items. And I almost gave up.
Almost.
But I didn't.
In November I had a bit of a pause, a disheartened pause I guess. But realising that wasn't helping get near to the target, I started to throw more things away.
- I cleared out my craft supplies and all the things I thought I might use one day, well I went through those and quite a few that I would probably never use, were recycled or thrown away.
- We replaced some everyday glasses - with these from TK Maxx - but sent more to the charity shop.
- Packaging. Somehow I still had quite a lot of this. Well no more.
- Old bills. No not that kind of old Bill, the paper sort. At a rough guess I shredded almost ninety, with some going back to 2013. Technically I still have the shredded bills, as they're in a sack in the greenhouse, ready to add to the compost with the grass cuttings. But I'm counting these here as they've decluttered the house and are waiting to be put to better use. I could have recycled these, but then I would potentially have had slimy clumps of grass in the compost; mixing shredded paper in with the grass cuttings as it's added, avoids this.
- Bras. Old but not knackered ones. I've sent a small package to Smalls for All, a charity who collect underwear to help women and children in Africa.
So, with those and more I'm still 448 items short of the 2016. Given where I was in October I'm pleased, but the things I thought were dead certs to get rid of - like the old Dyson, a plethora of pictures, some china and an old coffee machine - we still have.
That's pretty frustrating, especially that old Dyson. I've tried to get rid of that a few times, but MOH has always said, we've one more project to do where it'll be useful, and so it's stayed. Although today, he said we should get rid of it and it's as much as I could do not to stop myself from wheeling it out to the front of the house and hoping it might find itself a new home. But I resisted, because I'm sure there's a more ethical way of finally getting rid of this.
In ten months I've got rid of 1,568 items, which is quite some going. It's not the 2016 items I'd aimed for, and that's disappointing, but it's not bad going is it?
I do wonder how much closer I'd have got if I'd started in January though... I thought about carrying on until March, but then it wouldn't be 2016 would it? But don't worry, I've no plans to repeat the process, but it was interesting to see how much we've thrown away.
I will though carry on clearing things out, as with immaculate timing only yesterday MOH said the dreaded "we have too much stuff, we need to have a clear out..." Which is where I think this started! It's clearly a cyclical thing.
Are you in the process of decluttering? Could you get rid of 2017 items this year?
2016: French gardens, my garden and on the plot
As well as my usual end of year round ups, this year I thought I'd also look back at some gardens I've visited, my own garden and our plot too. I've realised that I enjoy sharing my love of gardens and gardening here on the blog and so I thought I'd acknowledge that with a gallop through the gardens in the Loire from our cycling trip in the summer.
French gardens
Most of the French gardens we visited had a rather large chateau attached to them too, which were also great to wander around. Our first chateau was Chambord and while the grounds were extensive, and the chateau breathtaking, the gardens not so much. In fairness we arrived just as it reopened after the floods, but thankfully the gardens at Cheverny and Chenonceau made up for it.
And would you believe it but I stumbled upon a garden full of hedges too!
And the good news is I've still got at least a couple more French gardens to share. I've been rather slow to get on with these, I think because so much has happened since we've been home. But coming up you can expect more hedges, this time from the very famous parterres at Villandry, which was one of the places I designed the whole holiday around. As well as those little hedges, there were plenty more "garden rooms" there, and the chateau, which for me was a side event, exceeded all my expectations.
The other post I'm excited to share here is our cycle through a French allotment site, which we *may not* have done entirely by mistake <insert innocent face>. I'm also rather a little bit too proud of these photos as many of them I took "on the go" as we cycled around looking for a way out...
A year in my garden
In my garden 2016 will forever be known as the year of the circles. Although at the rate we're going adding the edging that could easily stretch into at least 2018! But it's good to have a project, isn't it?
Obviously there was more going on than just circles; it was also the year of the gardening gloves, and mouldy pears and much, much smaller trees. At least that's a job that won't need repeating this year.
This year in our garden we'll be making progress with the edging (we will make progress, we will make progress!) and there'll be all the usual maintenance jobs. This year the greenhouse needs a good scrub because it the glass is rapidly becoming green, ahem.
We'll be aiming to get the black sheeting down and top that with slate so we can finally get rid of the giant bags of skate that have been decorating our garden since 2013. I'll be looking for some low maintenance plants to accompany the little Christmas tree and other plants I keep acquirin, and we'll be getting our garden summer party ready - as this year we'll be having a 110th celebration out there. That's two significant birthdays and a tenth wedding anniversary in case you were wondering.
A year on the plot
We've had a good year on the plot and are still pulling up turnips, and eating our homegrown butternut squash. There's still the promise of some celeriac (fingers crossed), some leeks, although the ones that survived MOH stomping on them are pencil thin - but the small ones are more expensive to buy right?
And there's all my brassicas too.
And because I'm a geek a hear I've been keeping a spreadsheet of what we picked and costing that against the price of produce in the shops, it was prompted by MOH questioning if it was worth having an allotment.
Pffft!
The number of years I waited for one, I'm not about to give it up yet!
And gardens closer to home too
I've also visited plenty of gardens in the UK. I was wowed by my first visit to RHS Hyde Hall in Essex and rekindled my love of roses, which started in the Loire. It was a gloriously sunny day the day I visited and I was glad I was able to wander around the gardens instead of the long bike ride MOH was doing.
As well as Hyde Hall I've been to RHS Wisley in October and I haven't shared anywhere near enough photos from there. In October we had a few days in Devon and I clocked up many National Trust property visits, and have shared none of those yet. And of course, in November there was unquestionably my garden highlight, when I got to visit River Cottage HQ. Yes, that was the day I drive to Devon and back and yes, that was slightly mad!
So quite a lot to look forward too garden-wise in 2017, and that's before my trip to Munich later this month. It is just a flying visit, but I'm pleased to be visiting the STIHL and Viking factory at Kufstein. I will, of course, be sharing what I get up to.
What's your garden plans for this year?