January 23rd

On January 23rd, I did some draught proofing on the observatory. I had some mMylar sheet which I cut into strips to go around the joints between the roof and walls. They were nailed in place to help prevent draughts and insects.
 

Garden Railway and Lawn

March 7th

I haven't used the observatory much over the winter. It has either been raining, overcast or too cold for my old bones. I've also not had much energy to go out due to working so hard in the garden. On the 7th, I did do a little wide field photography of the Jupiter/Venus conjunction. It was one of the few rare evenings of partially clear sky.

March 21st

On the 21st, we had 6 tons of top soil, slate and gravel delivered onto the drive. I didn't fancy pushing dozens of wheelbarrow loads, 200 feet down our gravel driveway to the back garden, so split the loads into slightly smaller bags and used the crane on my WW2 Dodge truck to lift and move it all to the back garden.

March 25th

On the 25th, all the arrangements were in place to collect the railway parts for the garden feature. I returned from a local preservation line with seven sleepers, rail chairs, screws and enough rail to make about 16 feet of track.

On the 26th, we started spreading slate around the veggie planters and behind the observatory. There's two to three inches over the top of a weed membrane to help to prevent unwanted growth. While there's a small negative impact of the slate creating unwanted thermals from soaking up solar heat, if I'm planning a summer session, opening the roof will shade the slate from the sun. I doubt it will gain enough heat in Autumn, Winter and Spring to have much effect.
 

By April 3rd, we were making good progress on levelling the earth for the new lawn and for the railway track bed. There's still a bit more work before the final surface.

It was a hard day's work digging out high spots and filling in low areas with a combination of earth and gravel for the track bed. This area is now looking pretty good as far as surface preparation is concerned.
 

I now need to work on levelling the sleeper edging between the lawn and trackbed ( shown laid in place ). There will be a slight gravel slope down from the sleepers to the trackbed to account for the different heights of the track and lawn. There will be further sleepers that run parallel to the hawthorn hedge to form an edge to a pathway. This will allow steps to be used when trimming the hawthorn.

The 19th saw more weed clearing and earth moving. The earth for the first two sleepers, separating the new lawn and railway, was levelled and the sleepers laid in place. They are not staked down yet, as I want a weed membrane laid below the sleepers and across the railway trackbed. So until all the earth moving is complete, I don't want enything permanently fixed in place.

April 20th & 21st

The 20th was spent clearing weeds, loose earth and plant matter left over from the woodland to get down to solid earth. On the 21st, I began excavating parallel to the hedge for the lawn edging sleepers. They still need further lowering to match up with the railway/lawn dividing sleepers. It is heavy clay soil and was slow going, having to cut through tree roots and stones ranging from pebbles to half bricks left over from the old air raid shelters.

Towards the end of the day, I brought the additional edging sleepers down from the workshop patio to the bottom of the garden ready for use. I laid them out along the track bed to get a feel for the look of the railway and the space around the track for the crossing gate.