Week 6: The Great Chainsaw Massacre

Farmboy decided today would be a great day to do some pruning in the garden. Only problem is his idea of pruning and mine differ in many ways. He uses secateurs and a little lopping saw, I use a ... chainsaw... I mean when you've got a garden the size of ours with the growth we get you've sometimes gotta take drastic measures.

So, armed with tracksuit pants. long sleeved top, riggers gloves, mesh mask and chainsaw, I mounted the quad bike (with trailer and chipper attached), drove down to the offending plant (read gigantic tree like shrub) and tackled the buddleia that had been taking over a large part of the garden. 1 1/2 hours and much, sawing, lopping, dragging and chopping later we now have a buddleia stump....

Farmboy hard at work.

.... and half a garden of rubbish that it'll take Farmboy a week to clean up he he he... I just make the mess I don't clean it up. Hey he's got a quad bike and a trailer it's not that hard a job. Unless of course the weather decides to take a turn for the worst (which it did just after we'd had lunch and the big cleanup was underway, torrential rain for over an hour). Oh well Farmboy will just have to try again tomorrow.

From one single plant to half a garden of rubbish!

It's gonna take a while to move this lot.

I'm really not much of a gardener, I mean, I can name most of the plants in the garden but I'm really more of a garden appreciator than the hands on type. Farmboy and I can take no credit  for the layout or beautiful plants that are in the 1 acre of garden that surrounds the house. The majority of it was planted over 18 years ago. We've just tried to bring the garden back from the brink (read completely filled with blackberries and elm tree suckers when we moved in) to something resembling a garden with some kind of plan to it.

 

More gardening that needs to be done.

I love seeing the spring arrive in our garden, it's filled with  rhododendrons, azaleas, camelias, bluebells, daffodils, lots of other spring bulbs and flowering trees and shrubs. Still one positive part of this mornings chainsaw massacre was the burning off of quite a few calories, that's gotta be good for me... right.

I love taking photos of the garden
at this time of the year.

How's this for a camelia with class.

Spring bulbs. 

More spring bulbs.

The Magnolia has been fabulous this year.

So for the next few weeks I can see us out in the garden taking drastic measures with some plants and less ruthless ones on others. Or maybe this year, I'll just leave it all up to Farmboy.

Nah, not gonna happen, he doesn't know a rose from rhubarb, and pruning has never been his strong point. I'll just leave him with all the mess to clean up as usual.

Quote of the day:

My neighbour asked if he could use my lawnmower and I told him of course he could, so long as he didn't take it out of my garden. - Eric Morecambe

Tip of the day:
Gardening is great exercise and yet it doesn't seem like it (according to my CalorieKing software 1 hour of weeding burns up 482 calories), just don't forget the hat and gloves to protect you from the sun and Jack Jumper Ants (my nemesis).

Week 6: Artistic changes

End of another week and yet another weigh-in. Again unsure if things had really changed during the week, But after stepping on the scales and once again opening my eyes (which had been clenched tightly closed) Yay another kilo gone. I've now lost 6 kgs in the past 5 weeks. For me this is a revelation, I can actually see the changes in my body. So I thought I'd explain the changes in the terms of varying art styles.

So to begin, this is me to start with, a rubenesque woman, at least that's what I tell myself! (Although I'm really too short to be truly rubenesque)

Truly did my bottom really look this big?

This one is possibly a bit more flattering
and slightly closer to the mark?

So after 5 weeks, some actual real exercise and my healthy Herbalife diet my body is changing, I've lost 29 cm of body fat, and I have the beginnings of a waist!!!! I haven't had a waist in YEARS! I'm now more Renoiresque in shape, a bit like this:

Still too tall to be me but a bit closer to the now me.

My goal is to continue losing a kilo a week, not forever of course just until I'm happy with my shape and overall health. I wouldn't mind looking a bit Van Goghesque at all:

This is more the me I want.

So long as I don't end up Picassoesque I'll be happy!

Ok this is really NOT the me I want!

Quote of the day:

It is not hard to understand modern art. If it hangs on a wall it's a painting, and if you can walk around it it's a sculpture. - Tom Stoppard

Tip of the day:
Eat vegetables before the main course. Whenever possible, make sure to have an ample serving of a vegetable (you get very few calories for the amount you eat) before eating the denser main course--often meat or fish. You'll need less of the dense stuff to be happy.