I pressed on with the scenic work over the long weekend, doing a small amount at a time and trying to preserve as much as I could from the original arrangement. The layout probably doesn't appear all that different, but I promise it did when the bushes were off the board!

I finally managed to expand the static grass right to the depths of the layout now, so all of the ground work is quite consistent, with the smaller lengths of grass being used in the undergrowth and longer lengths in the yard.
Looking closer here you can see just by removing one bush from the left side has allowed more space here, and moving the log that was here means a decent camera could probably take a good shot of the yard...I need to re-locate my tri-pod before doing this!

The yard has gained weeds, from the couple of bushes that broke apart when being moved – all the replaced bushes are further in the board, meaning the protective case doesn't rub against them now when I put the layout back! Rather than chuck anything away, I felt everything would benefit from recycling. I think I'll develop this little area a bit more over time, it doesn't quite look 'natural' at the moment.

And finally Eddie, the loco and the shed all received their final Matte varnishes this weekend in the sun! Thanks to this they now appear a little more solid than before and 'complete'.

Next step is to re-paint the board surrounding the layout – I've sanded it down and tidied the edges ready for work!
Also I have just noticed the cat has knocked the platform hoist...I'll be having word with him later.