You might be wondering why news of the new patio has dried up over recent days, after all it was all going so well, too well in fact.

I last wrote about piecing together the new patio, and since then we have levelled and straightened the rather rough version that you saw in the last photograph.

We then had a neat patio and 2 large piles of rubble plus 2 large piles of pebbles and lots of bare soil. The pebbles were to be recycled, the rubble needed carting away, so that just left the turf to be gathered.

Peter’s back was playing up after all the hard work, but despite that we managed to do ‘Pythagoras’ on the vegetable beds which made available quite a lot of spare turf ideal for filling in the areas of bare soil we had just created in front of the house.

However, there was no point in lifting it and re-laying it straightaway as a rubbish skip had been ordered for the following day, and we didn’t want to be trampling on the newly laid turf. Not that we had the energy anyway, as I’ve mentioned before, Pythagoras is hard work.

The following day arrived, but no skip, Peter’s back was no better. A phone call mid afternoon said the skip would be delivered this morning around 10am.

Around 10.15am we got a phone call asking for directions. We had already given them our full address and postcode when we agreed a price.

Having given the directions we sat back and waited. In less than 5 minutes there was another call. They wouldn’t come all the way out here unless we stumped up another £20 for petrol.

Anybody would think we lived at the back of beyond. We declined to pay more than the agreed price so that was that.

Peter’s back is even worse, so we are stuck. No skip, loads of rubble to dispose of, turf cut but not laid. If we wait too long the mathematically precise, perfectly straight new edges will ‘heal up’ again and to top it all the weather is set to turn wintry.

Hey-ho the joys of gardening, living in the ‘sticks’ and being old.