As a writer, I’ve self-published two novels A Suitable Young Man and Bittersweet Flight (links to images below), a collection of short stories Entertaining Angels and am currently editing book three.
I should probably be on book six or seven by now except that I share my love of writing with my other passion - gardening. Which is what this blog is about.
When we first moved into this bungalow in Derbyshire some 18 years ago the garden was, quite honestly, a mess. It’s a large corner plot bordered by a busy main road and slopes upwards. The previous owners had built an extension some three years previously and the land to the side of it had been left to a weed-infested wasteland. What’s more all the unused building materials had been left at the side of the garage. The path at the back of the house was horrendous and held three coal bunkers, (this is after all a former mining area) filled not with coal but accumulated rubbish. My husband’s language when he discovered that wasn’t fit for anyone’s ears, let alone our neighbour who was at that moment putting some rubbish in the dustbin!
The mess that awaited us at the back of the house!
For the first three years, we concentrated on getting the house as we wanted it with me just about keeping the garden tidy though mowing the grass – I won’t dignify it by calling it a lawn – was a tricky procedure the grass being on a slope. Finally, in 2003 a start was made on the garden and for the next seven years, my lovely husband laboured in the garden, hard-landscaping and terracing it and, after a problem arose with a natural spring, prevalent in this area, installing drainage. I can’t remember how many waste skips we had in that time but it was a LOT. It’s been worth it though as it’s given us so much joy and pleasure over the years, not only us, but to passers-by who quite often tell me over the fence what a lovely garden it is.
Just a few of the cyclamen coum
This is particularly so when the cyclamen coum that we planted as five plants in the early days have naturalised all over the garden. It’s a glorious sight in late February/early Spring.
Summer Splendour 2
Sadly, with an ageing body, I can no longer spend as much time in the garden as I used to. I do what I can when I can and manage to keep up with it, just about. Originally, we had a greenhouse which I loved pottering in but that’s had to go as it wasn’t being used as it should. The patio which housed that is now a bare paved area now and I have plans to make a courtyard garden there with lots of different sized containers over the next year or two. Fingers crossed I can do that!
A short blog this time but lots of photographs.
Summer Splendour 3
EDITOR: Simply click on one or two images to go directly to Amazon and buy the books.
