Garden

Over the last few months, I have found life a bit dull. Well, extremely dull. There was a massively exciting 10 days where Alice came to the UK, but since then, it has slipped back into Duller-than-Dull. I love to be travelling, and although we have done quite a bit of that this year, the summer is when J likes to be at home, sorting out the garden/house etc. and so we didn't go anywhere for a bit. (oh, except Bansko with some lovely friends, that was good! But seems like an eon away now.)
 And, although he spent an enormous amount of time sorting, building, collecting other people's throwaway building supplies etc etc, The garden (and house) still needs quite a lot of sorting, even though we have been here nearly 16 years.  16 years!!! This is the longest I have lived anywhere in my life, and it's still a bit of a mess, tbh.  Doesn't help that the garden is a giant slope, with house in the middle. It would be perfect, if only it were flat........

But it isn't, and so we have abandoned it to the elements for the last 16 years, although J has attempted (and succeeded!)with a fair few hard landscaping projects now and then, including many steps, some large portions of decking, and a tree house around the the incredibly annoying apple tree in the back garden. I can hear it even now, continuously throwing its produce onto the decking in the most annoyingly random manner ....blam............blam..........blam, well you get the picture..........bloody drives us nuts. Well, it's going to get it's comeuppance come the winter - it's getting chopped by more than half, and then we should at least be able to reach the apples and make some use of them. And hopefully bring some light on to said decking, so that it won't be quite so damp in future. (put my foot through some rotten bits earlier in the year - oops)

And then there's the front garden....sigh....... 24 steps up to the door, a nightmare for the Tesco man and the postman.......... and me.....

And a complete building site, after the eventual and lengthy construction of the lovely new porch. But John is  manfully persevering with the front garden, to transform the seven, (yes seven!) layers of crappy walls, debris and  never ending bramble into something that could be called, 'Kerb Appeal',  (should we run out of cash and need to sell) (which is a distinct possibility, considering the amount of holidays I have planned).

And then there is the side garden bit outside the back door. Which has been kinda done, but now needs completely overhauling -  sadly listing pergola, weedy gravel, crumbling shed, you get the picture..........and then that leads on to the 'Building Site', an extremely scary area in a back corner  next to the aforementioned tree house, which has been entirely abandoned for the last 16 years. (Because of  Life, My Beautiful Daughters, and  Other  Stuff, yeah, like that C thing, duh.....)

Crumbling stone, old bricks/breeze blocks/broken pots, bits of carpet, nettle city,  you name it, this is gonna be an entire summer's project. I can see it from my office window, right behind my little 'office garden', which is actually thriving - lots of pinks, lavender, my hibiscus from way back when.....(still alive, still not flowering much,).........lovely to see though.

So it will be a joy to be able to see something other than Breeze Block/Central, but I am resigned to waiting until next year, or maybe the year after. This is a garden that challenges even the most determined enthusiast.

Actually the bit leading from Outside The Back Door up the slope to The Building Site, has been transformed somewhat. He has managed to clear the hedge right back to the fence all the way up to The Site, and has covered it with carpet, ready to transform it into my veg plot next year. And it's about 10 feet wide! We have reclaimed enough garden to build another house! There is certainly enough room to add an ensuite to out bedroom.......but that's another story.

I am able to clear stuff, and cut down weeds and the like, but digging and wall building are completely beyond me, as I am quite pathetic in areas requiring stamina, and flexibility, sad but true.

Once the Building Site is sorted, there is an immense and steep slope (I can't even get up there any more) to the rest of the garden, comprising of a slopey bit that could've been a veg plot once upon a time, with a shed, - hah, this has almost disappeared beneath the vegetation. I fully expect it to have vanished completely the next time I go up there!!
 And further up still, there is the bonfire site, complete with enough nettles to supply the whole of Glastonbury with soup and tea for a year. And an overhanging tree, covered with Russian vine, and god knows what else. Tbh, I'm all for building a wall halfway up and forgetting the rest of it. Lets plant 20 trees and then ignore it forever!!


When (if) we have to move, I intend to buy something that has a small flat garden. No steps. No slope.No room for building extensions.
I guess I am living in a dream world....