Out & About

After a little hiatus, I'm back. The poor blog got neglected as we attacked the house with gusto, but it does mean that things actually got done. More to come.

Right now, I am all about the garden. It's sunny and warm here right now, and in England, we get maybe 2 or 3 months of that, so I'm working furiously to get the garden into shape.

This is what I have to work with (and I didn't bother tidying it up for its close-up):

Not exactly Palm Springs, right? The front and side gardens are mainly lawn and plants, but out the back it's a little courtyard garden. This is what held me back from buying the house at first. After growing up somewhere with a couple of acres outside space, I couldn't imagine the thought of having kids and not owning a couple of trees for them to climb. But hey ho. I decided that instead of worrying about things that might never happen, I could relish the fact that it's virtually maintenance-free and can just be for entertaining.

And that odd silver building in the corner? That's an observatory. The previous owners had an amazing telescope and would star-gaze - the room slides back and revolves...the whole she-bang. Unfortunately, the poor building is being used as a shed. Not quite what it's used to. Still, I love the fifties words "atomic" and "sputnik", so it's not entirely lost on me.

Bought some plants this week...


A little too much red? I had to buy the purple hydrangea and some yellow plants to even things up a bit. The colour is stunning. My mum is coming over this week to show me what to do with them. I'm not very green-fingered just yet.

This is what I would like to aspire to one day.


I'll just keep on dreaming...