finishing things and making a mess

it’s been too long, and I apologise for that, stuff has overwhelmed me and underwhelmed me……it’s all taking a while to settle in and recover myself, finding myself without a meaty project is very odd and has taken some time to adjust to….life is ticking along at a very measured and calm pace and I’m seeing where I fit in to it all and slowly slowly the house and garden are reflecting that

I finally finished the stairs, there was a lot of sanding involved and a lot of swearing and then a massive throwing down of everything and giving up, I used a paint that I’ve used on a lot of furniture, it’s a great paint, it’s self-priming and self levelling, it seems to be hard wearing and looks and feels nice too

and as a rather unusual departure, inspired by a hat I wore last winter, I’ve painted a wall bright pink

the landing is mostly done but still waiting to have a Velux window put in

I finished my dining room floor and painted some of the walls

I’ve been growing and selling plants, which has been a lovely thing to do, my front garden was a mess after it was used as a dumping ground by the builders so whilst I was deciding what to do I scattered loads of seeds I’d collected, mostly poppies and cornflowers, it was an absolute joy to wake up everyday and see the explosion of colour from my bedroom and lounge windows

by the time all the flowers had finished and I’d collected yet more seed, I’d made up my mind about what to do, the ugly, lumpy wall was removed and a fence installed, raised beds put in and . a homemade raised bed put in the middle, it’s taken quite a long time, mostly because I needed to dig and the ground was too hard, but finally after a huge amount of rain the conditions were perfect and today, I finished

The new herb bed has really taken off, I’m very pleased with it

All my veggies have been great, I’ve made chutneys and sauces and relishes and jams and piles of onion bhaji’s, courgette fritters and beetroot burgers for the freezer, given rather a lot of stuff away and stored butternut squash and onions

The fruit area has been less successful apart from the tayberries and loganberries who finally produced some fruit and I suspect I will have a lot next year judging by the amount of new growth. It’s all change in the back garden again, new plans afoot, so far all thats happened is the old concrete path has been dug up and it’s all a bit of a mess

but now that I’ve finished the front garden I can concentrate my efforts on the back garden