It's All About the Garden

Hello all, here I am in to week six of working from home and getting very used to it. In fact I think I had started to go feral. I haven't worn a dress since day one and have only worn make-up once until today, but today I was interviewing some students so I frocked up to feel more work-like, and put a face on so I didn't terrify them!

Nothing much to report other than a kidney infection a couple of weeks ago to break the monotony. I've always been prone to them but it's been a while and the timing could have been better.
I did what I usually do when I'm sick, that is to ignore it and hope it will go away until it gets to the point where it either does, or I admit defeat and go to the doctor.
Typically I had niggling symptoms until Friday night when they started to get a bit worse. Himself left for work on Saturday and told me to call the surgery as he was sure they were open, turns out they weren't. So I figured I'd just drink a ton of water and wait until Monday. By Sunday I was feeling very bad and luckily for me my brother and sister in law had called by to drop something off. From the gate my sister in law suggested calling 111 as they can get you a consult and a prescription if needed.
So I gave them a call and even with everything that's going on, and the fact the recorded message warned there would be a long wait, I got though in a few minutes. After the initial consultation I was flagged as bad enough to need a call with a doctor and told one would call in 2-6 hours. Well in 3 hours I had not only had a call from an out of hours doctor, but also an emergency prescription for antibiotics.
3 days into the prescription I woke up feeling so good it made me realise just how crap I'd been feeling the whole of the week before. So is it likely to make me change my ways and go to the doc sooner? Hmm probably not.

I got to see my Dad again this weekend which was lovely. He's been a bit low so it made it even more special to get to talk and cheer him up. My Mum managed to finally have a skype call with him today too so they have seen each other again at last which Mum said was lovely.

Otherwise I have been doing much like everyone else and gardening! I never really did a lot here as of course we didn't think we were staying long and also it's a hell of a mess but you can only suppress the natural urge for so long!

This gorgeous weather has certainly helped as did managing to get a coveted soil delivery. 

First job was potting up this hanging basket I had bought back in February. It's made from recycled plastic and I loved the shape, it reminded me of one of those old fashioned diving helmets.

I decided it would be ideal for the poor baby white strawberry plants I have had waiting to be potted up for an age. If you have never seen a white strawberry they look exactly like they sound, white instead of red but they have the most delicious flavour.

My Azaleas have been stunning this year.

I group one lot with some foo dogs I bought years ago in Past Times (oh how I LOVED that shop!) 

and the rest with some bronze cranes I've owned for 30 years. I fell in love with them and bought them with my second ever wage packet from the library. They were stupid expensive at the time and my Dad had a fit, but I love them just as much now as I did then so I figure every penny was well spent.

There was one vague flowerbed in this garden that I have just tidied previously, but this year I decided to extend it and dig a load of manure into the rather crappy soil ready to plant it up with some colour. 

I also sowed all the random seed packets I had knocking around left over from when we moved 3 years ago.

They were hugely out of date but I figured so what? Especially as they were unopened and so far they have mostly started to grow. Though I have been doing battle with a crazy nesting blackbird who has been stealing moist compost from various pots and trays. I swear it's building some kind of mud Taj Mahal the amount of soil (and seedlings goddammit) it's pinching. I do hope the neighbours weren't in the garden to hear my language today when I discovered it's latest vandalism.

There were also a load of vegetable seeds in my old tin as well, so this is my next project

to turn this into a bit of a veggie patch. It's pretty much the only bit of the garden without a tree, so roots shouldn't be an issue, and thankfully as until recently it had a huge pile of ivy cuttings on it it isn't too overgrown.

This is a view of our garden from over the road, to give you an idea of just how overgrown it is and quite how much ivy I have to deal with, yup that's pretty much all ivy! We need to tackle the stuff at the front of the picture that's on the garage once the nesting birds have fledged, in three years it has pretty much covered the roof and is close to encroaching on the passageway so it's needs a haircut.
The huge conifer is also in our plot, frankly if I owned this place it would be the first thing to go.

This is a shed, yeah really. The landlord hacked the ivy back enough to peek in when we moved here, then declared it unsafe and left it as was. Last autumn my Mum cleared her shed and gave me her old telescopic loppers so I randomly attacked the ivy on the top to try them out. You can clearly see how far back I could reach with them!

I always have to have rosemary growing where ever I am and was delighted to see some here. I never knew it could grow so tall, it is about 8ft high and taller than the old dead tree it's leaning against!

I hacked a load of stuff back last year and found a honeysuckle that has now gone crazy too, it smells amazing though.

This laburnum self seeded itself when we moved in, three years later it adds it's gorgeous yellow to the spring mix and another handy nesting spot as it is also smothered in ivy.
I'll maybe share some more pictures when I've done some more and providing the cold snap we are due doesn't kill everything off. Fingers crossed.