So summers defiantly here, the unpredictable weather, the days of rain, but on those days when the sun does grace us with its presence, obviously the first thought is to make good use of the long neglected garden. I can see the excitement on my boyfriends face when I mention the prospect of a BBQ, if it means he gets to play with fire and be all cave man, the bribe of being macho hopefully will lessen the blow that my whole family will be attending.

So, all arrangements made for two days time, a Saturday, with all weather reports confirming that the good weather will continue until this time. I venture out to the garden to have a look at the damage of leaving our little garden to its own devices for the past 8 months. Weeds, expected, long grass, expected, however I then go to see our pond, which although it was cherished last summer (one of those 'boy projects') has now turned into a weedy, murky, misshaped bog. Anxiety then swept over me, the relatives cannot see this state, especially the Uncle and Aunty from hell, who never miss an opportunity to criticize my home and tell me how I should be doing things.

The enormity of the damage kicks in, if I have to sort out the rest of my garden, where will I find the time to de-weed the pond, re-line it, install fresh plants and generally renovate the whole thing! This is going to need some serious pond cleaning, and fast.

I trawled through the internet trying to find a pond maintenance company who could come and see me promptly, after one short phone call it was arranged for a company to come and review the pond that afternoon.

After a short look at the horrible water feature the pond man was quickly to work, settling my anxiety by telling me that the pond would most defiantly be ready for my family BBQ. He even suggested hiring some fish for the event, as the price was so reasonable and I thought it would make us look REALLY sophisticated in front of the snooty relatives I agreed.

For the next day we worked around each other, renovating my little garden, I mowed the lawns, weeded and cut the trees back, whilst he relined the whole pond, installed blanket weed control and fitted a filter and pump. Finally did some water testing and my hired fish were delivered to my brand new pond. I thanked the man and he also mentioned that their company not only did pond maintenance, they also did fish tank maintenance and even driveway and patio pressure washing! I told him I would keep that in mind, however I felt like I had spent quite enough money on this event as it was, and I could always convince the boyfriend to give the tank a scrub.

So the BBQ was an awesome success, the weather stayed dry and sunny, the food was lovely if a little burnt, and for the first time in my life I found my relatives had nothing to criticize! Definitely worth it!