Arch Doings in the Hills

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Been a fine day today, around 21C, and although a tad humid earlier on, very pleasant to be out in the garden and doing stuff. Pictured is the little plot I've been paying some attention to today. Some years ago, I created a little turn of steps down from the 'patio' into the side garden. Also, some years ago, the second cypress we planted suffered fire damage and we had it cut down as it was mostly dead. The ivy-covered post to the right of the picture is the remains of the thing. For some time I've been wanting to create an ivy arch from it to the shrub on the left, over the steps.

Today I actually got around to starting the thing. I had some large withies left over from one of our annual culls of the old willows at the bottom of the garden, and one of them had set over a couple of years into a gentle arch shape, so I lashed that between the cypress stump and the shrub and tied the ivy that has been trying to find a home to it. I also took a slender branch of the shrub and lashed that back to meet it from the other side. The plan is that the ivy will make it's way around the willow pole and over to the branches of the shrub, both to complete the arch and to make it solid. It will either work or it won't...

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