13.04.2024 You call this a rest day?

 ~o~

  Saturday 13th 46F/8C. Overcast but dry. Increasingly windy from the SW.  Up at 6am after a reasonable night.

 7.45 It is brightening up. Time for a walk?  

 9.15 My post update about my walk has disappeared. A song thrush is shouting in the shelter belt. The sun is really struggling to break through the cloud. Not helped by the distant mistiness. The variation in brightness is remarkable. It almost looks like rain at its worst. 

 I thought I might have a tootle on the e-bike. To shop at the next village north. Just to get some fresh air before I have another go at the gravel. Or I could get some fresh air playing with the gravel first. Eeny meeny..

 10.30 55F/13C. Variable brightness with weak sunny periods. No bike ride. I had to come in for a rest and to cool off. I have advanced another two meters toward the boundary with the gravel. 

 It is very hard work dislodging it from the heap.     Then it has to be thrown three meters with a swing of the shovel. The gravel is much heavier than sand. I am laying a minimum thickness of 15cm or 6" and tramping it down as I go. Normal people would hire a machine! 

 12.30 60F/15.5C. Another hour of breathless, hard labour. Sunnier now and warmer. I am using a wheelbarrow to bridge the distance to the far edge. It is quicker but even more exhausting.  

 I am having to use my foot to push the shovel into the heap. The weight of the shovel itself wasn't remotely enough to make any impact. Raking was even harder work! 

 Almost there now. I'll take my builders level out and lay it on the planks to confirm a gentle fall to the left [west.] 

 Another image with a wider field of view. To avoid distorting the perspective. The newly leveled area is 8 meters beyond the steel pole x 4 meters wide. [26'x13'] The phone camera considerably foreshortens the view. For reference, the orange coloured building in the background is 160 meters away.

 Having the rubble base has saved me a huge amount of heavy work. The larger blocks, on the left, will be moved. Behind where the observatory is presently standing. Then covered in smaller rubble and topped with gravel. 

 That space is inaccessible at the moment. It really needs the observatory to be removed first. Meanwhile, the gravel heap is shrinking, but only very slowly.

 13.00 Lunch and I broke a tooth in half on something hard in a bread roll! 

 14.00 Time for another rest. I am getting a bit tired and achy now. Local adjustment of level is still required but it is getting closer to completion. 

 18.00 55F/13C. Overcast and breezy.  I am quite surprised how much I have managed to do in one day. Provided I paced myself I was able to continue. Without becoming too breathless. A rest every hour helped to quickly relieve any tiredness.

 18.30 Still 6F/19C in the room without the stove. It feels rather too cool. Dinner will be salad. 

 The view through the living room windows is suddenly very green. The mild, spring weather has really spurred the leaves on.

 

  ~o~