The open day that nearly exhausted me.

[Emettman]

I've just had my big garden open day. It went well, with the weather clearing up just in time, though it had made it seriously difficult to get ready. I'm almost back from exhaustion!

I didn't get a chance to take any pictures, but one visitor has just sent me a nice set of little ones. I'll try to mention the plants as well as the trains.

One of the two steam railmotors at the North End cottages.
Dwarf conifers make nice scale big conifers.
The yellowy-green at the back is two bush fuschias, just beginning to show flowers.



The railmotor on the bridge, crossing the stream and the mill leat, with the mill and working waterwheel.
"Mind your own business" (baby's tears) has made a home between the stream and the bridge supports.
A great weed suppressor, where it's happy to grow.



No. 5, (#5 in American) the Avonside loco (ex-LGB Stainz) waiting to depart the terminus with a passenger train.
I use Lobelia and Alyssum for summer colour. I use the range of colours: white, red, blue, violet... (oh, and green, of course.)
I stay away from pink, yellow and orange to avoid clashes and overloading.



The end with lots of more planting to do, and where the bugle has failed to thrive.
A passenger train approaching the exchange station with the old beam-engine house atop the hill.
Around the railmotor in the bay platform is the low-height groundcover I am aiming for.



Quarry Hunslet waiting for the goods train to depart before running round its own train.
Effectively no plants in this picture...



...but they are only just out of view.
Conifers and another small bushy shrub, and...



... the camomile almost completely joined up.
In a couple of places I am starting to take out sections complete with good roots for transplanting.
I may try it on the bare bank where the bugle failed.
It's all coming together quite well: another couple of years...


Now for a bit more definite whimsy: I have an idea or two for scenery for my battery shunting layout, and I'm almost clear on my plans for a new Emett layout, though that will be a year or two in the making, I suspect.

That's all, folks...

[Ferd]

Great pics. Looks like a ton of work and it looks incredible.

[Emettman]

Thank you.  That is much appreciated, but there is a lot of Rommel's dictum involved:

"If you have a difficult job to do, give it to a lazy man.  He will find an easy way to do it."

[Tommy Two Strikes]

Thank you for the tour of your garden!

I'll be looking forward to information about your new Emett layout.

[Emettman]

I'll be looking forward to information about your new Emett layout.

My new car, from which I expect sixteen years of life, like my old one, is a few inches shorter in the back (seats down) , but wider and higher.  Overall, a bit more volume., but I need a layout that A) displays more trains and B) that I don't have to duck under to get into to operate (my mobility has dropped a lot in the last 17 years.)
So, playing quart into a pint pot games...

[Tommy Two Strikes]

Are you planning new locomotives too?

If I can take the time out of my mire of an existence I have an idea for eliminating the duck under for you... I don't know how precisely practical it will be for you though.

[Emettman]

New Emett locos, yes, eventually.  I have three fire-wrecked ones to replace (one may be restorable) and have unconventional chassis on hand for at least two more.  And at least two more sets of rolling stock: the sleeeping cars and the observation car, which will need an accompanying passenger coach.

I want to build some garden railway ones too: I have the basic chassis ready for a single-Fairlie, and I have two good bodies that need new power units.
I also intend to build a few more "Puffing Billy" era locos, with more impressionistic whimsy than historical accuracy.
And then a couple of armoured trains...  I did make a start on that, and have an armoured coach with R/C turret and machine-gun blisters mostly complete.

Not to mention other ideas, most of them AWNUTS.

I'm afraid it's fighting my depression to put the enthusiasm together that's the main problem at the moment.

[Tommy Two Strikes]

I too suffer from depression and know how difficult it can be to get anything done at times. You'll be in my families prayers.

[Emettman]

I'm sorry you're familiar with that, but thank you.
ECT is pencilled in for the autumn if the latest changes in medication, one still pending,  don't make a significant improvement.