Almost spring…

My sunken garden. As much of a work in progress as my garden always is - and that's how I like it

We’re back in the garden again, and this time I’m sitting out in the sunken garden (AKA the bit outside the bak door!) And here it is, and I wish you could come and share it with me. We'd have coffee and home made cake and chat and then I'd recruit you t give me a hand.

It was pouring with rain when I came downstairs a little after five o'clock, but Iit had stopped when I got outside a little after 8 o’clock and swept up (which seems to be never-ending, what with all the mud coming off plant pots) and have moved more of the ones I’m keeping down to the rack behind the shed. That brings back more happy memories because it was a lock together construction kit that’s already been a go-kart, a couple of different climbing frames and a slide. Now it holds all my spare plant pots, and today I’ve been clearing out the pots that have lived under the chairs in the patio onto it, and the patio looks so much better. It’ll look better still if it ever dries up, and the forecast isn’t looking good for today, but right now I’m outdoors, the sun is shining and I’m really enjoying it.

My daffodils are just coming into bud, which is later than usual, but that somehow makes them all the more precious. I’ve also got some love,ly little signs in my pots on the windowsills. One reads ‘I will survive’, another ‘something green’ and the third one I can read from where I’m sitting says ‘flower of some sot.’ The last of my sedum cuttings arrived today, and I’ve planted them up and organised thet The o,nes I planted last week are already putting out roots, which is why I like sedums. They wan tto grow and all theneed is a bit of poor soil and some sunlight.

Best of all, my new lily fountain which arrived today, is burbling beautifully in its temporary pot. When it grows up it's going to be a wildlife pond because I want more dragonflies like the one who laid her eggs here last summer but the pot for it is currently entering Kazhakstan. The fountain is a solar one with, and this is new to me, a solar panel that’s separa,te so it’s in the sunshine for longer. And… oh dear, it’s started raining so I’ll rejoin you inside in a few minutes time.

Here I am, five minutes or so later, warm and dry while the rain thuds against the window, with chunks of the double chocolate chip brownies I made earlier ready to have with morning coffee. They’re all fudgy and might as well be asking ‘where’s the defibrillator?’ But I have been outside and busy and it is Saturday and all the ingredients are old-fashioned with no additives or preservatives. So as treats go, they’re practically virtuous, aren't they?

Taken individually, they’re all such small, simple pleasures, and yet I appreciate every single one of them because they aren’t costing a fortune and I’m not travelling all over the place. Instead, I’m making my own home more like the sort of bed and breakfast I used to love staying in, and I can enjoy it every single day. Yes, my garden’s only small, but it’s getting better and better. The house is becoming more and more luxurious, and I’m currently concentrating on my bathroom with a view to making every day like a luxury spa, and our bedroom into a lovely place to relax. I’ll work on that some more this afternoon and say ‘ha, rain. You’re not stopping me.’

Yes, it’s taking time. That’s fine because you tend to appreciate things you’ve worked on, don’t you? Or at least I do anyway, so have a good week till we meet again on Tuesday and remember that happy people don’t start wars or hurt other people. Happy people want other people to be happy, so right now it’s our duty to do the small things that make us happy without making anyone else unhappy. Or so I’m telling myself anyway, and you can’t say I’m wrong, can you?