Great excitement at the site this week. I raked up a 'bomb'. Well, something that was suspiciously bomb-like and therefore quite alarming.I was tackling the dust bowl left by the weekend's excavation. Work on site will take a summer break before the proper build begins in September, so I was making the garden more summer-friendly by clearing stones and reseeding the lawn. I'd just begun raking when an object I thought was a root flipped over on the soil. I was about to yank it out and throw it in to the wheelbarrow with all the other roots until something made me paused. I had a bad feeling.  A root is not metallic. A root does not bulge in the middle. A root doesn't have a perfectly smooth collar at one end. A root doesn't rust. The bad feeling grew. Better to be safe than sorry, I thought. I called the police... ... who also thought it was suspicious. They emailed pictures. The recipient also thought it was suspicious. Mortar or cocktail shaker? Better to be safe …

I just realised it's been almost a month since my last post. I have an excuse. I've been super busy moving out of my cottage and doing someimportant ELECTRIGIRL stuff. The cottage sale negotiations are STILL ongoing (so I won't go there) but here, at 'the site', the first real work is about to begin.Look! The digger has arrived! They start work early tomorrow morning so I've been measuring the plot and painting new white guide lines on the grass. 
All the soil will be redistributed around the garden so we are all preparing ourselves for no lawn and lots of mud and dust for the rest of the year. Poor Dad is upset about the loss of his lawn. What WILL he do with his weekends from now on?