i pulled back the kitchen curtains at about 6am this morning and was surprised to find everything covered in a layer of frost, but even better a pale blue sky that hints at another nice day here in this ancient forest.
we have had a few days of nice, but cold weather which is raising the spirits no end i can tell you.
i am hoping today will be the day for a photo shoot for the first of my etsy goods and i have set aside today for creating more goodies.
my 'secret nook' is up already!
i just need to encourage the long strands of climbing jasmine to start their looping journey around it~although i don't think it will need a whole lot of encouragement.
i am now thinking that once the pots have been put back i shall light a small fire in my little iron cauldron and sit in my chair wrapped in a blanket to welcome my nook.
i am thinking i need another green man to decorate it...
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in the garden the snowdrops and crocus have nearly finished now and our daffodils have started to flower bringing a nice burst of assorted yellow tones, the forsythia is still a glorious burst of yellow and i was pleased to find tiny buds on my oak, birch, hawthorn, beech and rowan.
we were in a small garden center the other day looking at tree's and found a small~well its about 7 foot~snake bark maple that had been reduced in price to under £10.
no other tree had been reduced and i can only think it had been passed by so often that they wanted rid of it the poor thing, so it is now happily sitting in our front garden.
there is a story behind my wish for a tree...and a whole lot more, in the front garden...
the front gardens in our small part of the village are rather...sterile to say the least.
we have two cattle grids that keep out the ponies, cows, donkeys and pigs as the front gardens are all open plan (my mum has two catches on her gate~one of them a special safety catch which means ponies cannot push it open easily). but that is no excuse for sterility...do you know there is nowhere for the birds to perch?
shocking.
when we moved in we were 'encouraged' to keep the sterile atmosphere for assorted reasons...even not to have anything grow up the walls of our house~none of which would stand up in my fictional gardeners court.
well now, if anything was designed to make me rebel is to be told how to have my garden.
but one house just around the corner is one i find so exciting...rebellious you might say and has been frowned upon!
they have bushes and plants everywhere and it gives it a nice feeling of privacy...then you walk around to our end of the cul de sac and its sterile city-central~board expanses of open lawn with flower beds only under the window. woe betide anything that eats into the expanse of lawn.
well no more i say!
we started by erecting an arch over our front door and planting clematis that could grow over the arch and then along under the eaves of the house...no?! how vary dare...
last week we planted two small beech hedge plants in the wall of bare cream brick wall between our kitchen and living room window, these we are going to grow up into a raggle taggle high but narrow hedge...and of course the maple which went in right in the middle of our lawn in front of the living room window...how vary dare...
we have a small acer in a pot which is going to go in the middle of the lawn the other side of the path and...we are going to put a narrow bed either side of the path and grow a lavender hedge...how very, very dare!
and we are going to paint our front door a bright poppy red...
to use the talk of my childhood...'ummm I'm telling...'