garden railways – The Wargaming Erratic

Well it’s another warmer than usual and sunnier summer which means less time wargaming.

Pond-life proves interesting – we inherited the garden newts and an almost buried pond. The one goldfish in it was actually brown so we did not find it till we tidied the pond up.

He is long departed for fish heaven. In the meantime the newts rule which also means the frogs get a raw deal as newts voraciously eat frog spawn apparently.

That’s pond life – eat or be eaten.

Egg laying newt

So newts should have laid their eggs by June yet this one was spotted cuddling some floating leaves – looking like egg laying. Who knows. They are fun to watch.

Not so much fun is tidying up the outdoor track although watching the train go by is!

Garden railway

Not much rain or cooler weather in the forecast so wargaming might go a bit thin for a while ……

Distractions

Since AHPC finished in March like last year my wargames activity has declined. I didn’t even make it to partisan. So VAP and Hammerhead proved to be the two shows attended in the first half of 2025.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Last year the war gaming fell away due to a month long road trip round the southern Rockies. It recovered to be very productive during Dave Stones season of scenery challenge.

Well this year I am away this summer but the real stinger has been two glorious months of a dry uk spring complete with sun and warmth. What more could you ask for?

Well my garden seedlings and plants needed rain – so I had to substitute that for lots of watering can events.

Really it’s been fantastic weather and no complaints given how our normal maritime climate often delivers wet and windy and cool temperatures. – sometimes all at once.

The fine weather also meant the garden railway got an early run out. And this meant some long overdue building work started.

So modelling but “not as we know the scale of it JIM!”

And yes I have managed a little bit of figure painting in the end.

So this is a long post to say, not much miniatures painting this spring and zero wargames done!

Mind you I have been reading quite a bit which is always ominous for my plans.