Clay

With spring just around the corner, and with two days of wall to wall blue sky, we thought this weekend was finally time to tackle the steps up from the courtyard up into Hillside's elevated garden that sits a full storey height above our courtyard. Whilst the builder had left us with a muddy slope we are understandably keen to turn this into something more practical and aesthetically pleasing - the photo below was taken last November when we'd just completed laying the courtyard slabs and when the slope was at it's mudiest and most lethal!


Several hours of digging in the sun we now have and some seriously aching muscles and the rough shape of two thirds of the steps. So far it seems that we've been digging out clay that dug out and then backfilled when the builder built the retaining wall. Whilst it's been hard work it's not been as bad as it would've been had it been the clay rock that Hillside is built on. I have a slight concern that the top three steps are far enough away from the retaining wall to be in ground that hasn't previoulsy been disturbed so we may well find rock. Time will tell.

At least it means we'll get another good workout as we certainly don't have time for other forms of exercise!