Sunshine

It's been a busy week at home, the boys came over and we walked to our village barber, Will loves his spiky hair and spent time looking at the barbers motorbike parked outside. 

It's not so easy to get Georges hair cut, he does not cry but he won't keep his head still, hubby uses the same barber, he is a very kind family man and understands children are not easy to work with. Both boys have only had their hair cut in this barbers. 

We had new gates fitted to our house in the shared drive, we were planning to have tall wooden gate at the entrance to our garden, our lovely neighbour heard our conversation and said she was not so happy with her security, so after a chat, these gates were chosen across our shared drive. Hubby put a huge padlock on them, so we all feel safe, and bonus for me, I can still access my water butt's and hose, just outside our metal gates, handy for these dry days. 

I am enjoying seeing our garden come to life again, and finding a few surprises, the tall blue flowers in my spring pot, is a total surprise, whilst I planted these, they are not what was shown on the packaging for the bulbs, they are the best surprise. The yellow blooms should have been white, they are again very pretty. I always save the packets fronts on bulbs as I do forget what I have planted, and this year for the 1st time, I have wrongly packed bulbs. 

I have sorted my Belfast sink, one of the grasses was huge, I had split it twice before, but it was too big for this display, I replaced it with Scirpus Cernuus, which has tiny flowers on the fine tips of the grass. It's in the front right hand corner, which is where any water sits.

I got another plant Juncus Spiralis and the blue pot , it's a tender plant so will go into the greenhouse over winter, it loves partial shade, this spot is in shade most of the afternoon. 

Originally we were talking with our neighbour to change her gate when doing ours and bring it level with ours, creating odd angles, but adding the new set in this location looks neat and tidy and our neighbour loves the extra security. One job always leads to more work, we now enter our house through our side door, which now is left unlocked more, instead of our back door into the kitchen. I had become worried, when I am home alone and in the garden, I could not hear if anyone came in, so hubby has fitted an alarm, so every time the door opens I can hear, the bell is plugged in near the patio doors. We also have purchased a much larger mat inside the hall, we can now step inside and drip on the mat not our wooden floor, ever hoping for rain. We are now totally private in the back of our house, we no longer get different cats coming into the garden, Purdy can't get out beyond our garden, she is happy to stay close to home, Grace has not left our garden for years. Hubby replace the net along the side of our garage so foxes can't get in, but there is enough space for hedgehogs to scuttle under the gates, with gaps in fences for them to get out a different route.  We just need to watch in case the cats from next door start coming into our side. 

We did pop to a large independent garden centre, the plants are always healthy and not too expensive, we normally pop there once they have put their Christmas decorations out, I got the couple of grasses, and new reclining chairs for the garden, we sold our wooden steam liner ones, they we getting too heavy for me. 

I am in the garden and greenhouse everyday, and loving it, we have had a sunny week, cool at times, but when pottering around it does not notice. I am now watering a few times a week, having so many tubs requiring more water, I am having to use the hose, I have 1 half full water butt, and I am saving the rainwater for certain plants which need only rain water. Our Magnolia tree is still bare, but it's still a bit early for the leaves to form, I have missed the big pink blooms this spring. I have just sown the French Marigold seeds for 2 long tubs, hubby loves these flowers, so I try and have some each year, my other smaller plants have grown, I have loads of plants to pop out in a few weeks. 

We are enjoying having lunch in the garden again, the outside space enhances our lives so much, the boys were playing outside earlier this week,  having the patio doors open and allowing the birdsong into our home is refreshing and calming.