It has been several weeks since I last gave an update. I seem to have been very busy although as usual I really struggle to remember everything I have been up to !!!!
I have been engaged in some substantial work in the front garden. We decided to remove the brick pavers at the side and front of the house. These had been down many years and we have been experiencing puddles at various places when we get heavy rain. Clearly the water was no longer draining away properly. Anyway the pavers were dug up over the course of several days and taken to the local tip. (15 trips altogether but still a lot cheaper than hiring a skip !!!!) The ground was levelled and a number of soakaways were dug and filled with broken bricks. The whole lot was then covered in a little over a ton of small gravel.
In addition a couple of small conifer trees were dug up and the small flower beds in the front were also removed and gravelled over. The end result is a much tidier and nicer looking front and side and hopefully the elimination of the puddling issue. The whole exercise involved the hardest work I have done for some years but to my surprise I suffered little which at my age was somewhat of a bonus !!!!
On the modelling front I have continued to build vehicles and paint soldiers for my new fourth army. I have now added some 2500 soldiers towards the new army since starting last year. Currently in hand is a batch of 40 house bodied command wagons as shown below. Construction is complete and painting is about to start.
I am also currently working on a cavalry regiment and yet another infantry battalion.
Readers may have noticed I have started reviewing books about Vietnam recently. It has been some time since I read any books about that war and I wanted a change of subject. As I have another four books yet to review I hope readers will continue to find the reviews interesting.
Lastly, I have noticed that some of the blogs I follow have not had new posts for some time. There has been discussion that some blog authors are not getting the feedback to encourage them to write as regularly as before. I have certainly noticed a drop off in the number of "hits" I am getting since the start of the year. Maybe it is about society opening up and people having more to do with their time now the pandemic is fading away rather than a loss of interest generally. Any thoughts ???
Gardening has been taking up a lot of my time too Tony, but then that's another one of my hobbies, so a bit of a given for large parts of the year. Good to see you working on another army which I still enjoy seeing. Keep up the book reviews as I'm a sucker for a good book, not matter the period really! SWMBO puts up with my library fortunately, but as long as it doesn't get too large.
ReplyDeleteBlogger hits seems fewer but the comments have increased a bit, which is the most important bit to me. Gone are the days of being swamped by auto generated views coming out of Russia! Maybe I get up to about 50 hits on a post, which then very slowly increases overtime. If I get 10 or more replies to a post, then I'm 'doing well' and am pretty happy with that.
Hi Steve..Yes I love my books too. However space is an ever present problem. I envy the number of views you get for a post. I was getting up to 15 but now down to 5 or 6 at best with usually just one or two comments if I am lucky. Regards Tony
ReplyDeleteWood screw armies are certainly niche and not to everyone's taste, but they strike a chord with me! As a fellow Blogger commented some time ago, think of it as Blogging for a few select friends who appreciate what you do. It certainly helped me to carry on when comments or page views were minimal.
DeleteHi Steve....Yes that is exactly how I see it...I write for just a couple of friends and of course, my own pleasure. I know my stuff is very niche which is why I do so many book reviews just to add in something with more general appeal. Regards Tony.
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