Chelsea Flower Show this is not...

The Wonderful Chelsea Flower Show started this week

*sigh*

I love the show, I've never been there but I've watched it every year since I was a little girl.  

A few years back the garden, my garden was quite pretty.  Lived in but it did have flowers and pots and a quite impressive selection of strawberry and tomato plants literally overflowing on the patio.

My hubby Bob used to work away for quite long periods of time, his job could take him away for 3months at a time.  Not just one offs but all through the year.  

This meant lots of quiet evenings by myself {pre internet}...I spent a LOT of time painting the house, moving furniture, moving rooms and come Spring I would spend time in the garden. 

You'll chuckle but I'd watch the highlights of the Chelsea show on TV then go out and do a spot of evening gardening!  

It's actually quite a good time as the slugs come out around then and I managed to keep on top of them without using chemicals...just checking pots, plants one by one.  Dead heading as I went along and at the end I'd fill the watering can and give them all a drink before sitting out on the patio {weather permitting, but I remember it being warm enough to sit out with a jumper} with a cuppa tea watching the bats flying over before heading back in feeling I'd done my 'bit'!

The garden is now a walk of shame and in all honesty I don't know where to start.  

I stripped it back a couple of years ago to put fencing up and then we got the chickens and let them have free reign and now the garden is simply a dusty mud patch.

Oh well small steps...I suspect getting the tape measure out will be a start!

A burst of colour...

on what has been a very dull, grey, cold and snowy time.

I have often thought about other countries I would like to live in and the Scandic countries have always been quite high on that list...but... I could just not cope with the prolonged winters and grey days!

So what can £2 buy you these days? A loaf of bread, 4 pints of milk maybe but if the body is fed and you have that £2 to 'spare' then this has got to be simply the best way to spend that £2 and feed the soul!!

This modest little bunch of daffs has lifted the soul no end...I have them sat by the TV so I see them constantly

Feast or Famine

for reasons I cannot fathom we lurch from one thing to another in a state of feast or famine.

For weeks I've made 'I'd like flowers' noises and in the end spent my £2 very wisely...then my eldest arrived home with a bunch of the most headily fragrant...

{photo by Loopy!}

We too have had snow!  I think the whole country has seen snow, in comparison to others we've only had a slight snow fall and my hearts go out to those who have had to spend time in the dark and cold.

We have done what we do quite well, we've battened down the hatches, closed the curtains and settled in for the duration

What we do best I think though is potter around, all of us in our own little worlds!  Sometimes we get an overlap, one of the older kiddos will spend a half hour with the younger ones, showing them tricks they learnt in times past.

Last week also saw our eldest turning 21!

How it happened I don't know, I swear on all that I hold dear that I stopped blinking years ago but still this time has been stolen past me. 

I had a whole post on her birthday in my mind but I said a lot of what I want to say in her birthday post last year.

We don't always see eye to eye {she is far too stubborn for that to be so}, I often find myself the peace-maker between her and others in the family {all too stubborn} and yet I still see the little girl.  {that 'little' girl is long gone she now towers above me at 5' 11"!}

The capacity to love my children hasn't shrunk or been stretched beyond capacity...it has grown at an incredibly, fierce pace to keep up with them all

Now and then

xxx

Spring is Sprung...

I am feeling Springlike, I want to see daffodils or tulips in our home.

Re-hashing Loopy's picture of the rice-crispy cakes she made last Easter for the blog header, until we have a happy snap or two of pretty flowers.

These were from last  year, the Spring sign in the background is out again this year.

A trip to the supermarket should remedy the lack of prettiness this week.

In other not so interesting news the great Spring clean has almost finished here!  2 bin bags full of rubbish from the kids rooms, seriously how can we have had 2 bin bags of crud hiding in their already crowded rooms?!

I feel chuffed with the clean up, Winter is a time to batten down the hatches, snuggle under blankets, close the curtains and ignore {to a certain extent} the mess.  Spring is the time to throw the windows open, blow out the cobwebs {literally and metaphorically} clean the rooms, breathe life back into it all.  A slight change of rooms, get them working ready for summer....Summer I can hardly wait.

Feeling bright despite it all