Finally we have a broadband connection in our new home so at last I can start telling you all about it.
Since we moved in it felt like I was taking quite a few photos, yet now I look at what's on the camera I notice that they're all actually of the garden! Ones of inside the house will follow just as soon as I tidy up a bit more.
Above is the view from the back of the house down my new garden. Well, I say my garden, yet it technically belongs to Mr C and me, and the Building Society. But, the latter haven't shown much interest in it as yet, and Mr C's not here right now, so I guess it goes back to being my garden!
As you can probably see, the previous owner wasn't much of a gardener, and, as my Mum declared after she'd had a good look around, anything of interest that we appear to have is actually from one of the next door neighbours who both appear to have beautiful gardens.
Down the bottom of the garden, the blue/green building that you can see is a log cabin the previous owner put in to teach children music in. At the moment we're just using it as storage as it needs a really good clean and a lick of paint. I have plans though. My hope that that we can turn it into a craft cabin so that I can have somewhere where I can leave my sewing machine out and all my fabric, yarn and other sewing bits and bobs can all be easily accessible so that I can spend my time being creative, rather than wasting time rummaging in cupboards for things that I'm sure I have but can't find. It may be a while until we get it into a good enough state to be able to do this properly, but fingers crossed my plan will come to fruition!
Not many plants had been left behind for us, but this sweet pea (lathyrus odoratus - as my new gardening book tells me!) has some lovely flowers on it whilst needing a bit of untangling from the variety of other stuff either growing in the same tub, or coming over from next door.
It also looks like we're unlikely to run out of rosemary any time soon!
The garden is almost split in half by this old tree stump that is half way down. When we first visited the house a fallen branch from it was laying across the grass and they also had a dovecote in it. Both have been cleared away by the previous owners and our first thought was it get rid of it entirely. After just a couple of days we were both having second thoughts though. As well as providing an ideal position for attaching one end or my new washing line (I am so much enjoying the idea of drying my clothes for free with wind power rather than having them sat inside a tiny flat for days trying to dry them!) it also seemed a useful place to attach a bird feeder. We've noticed a couple of birds like to perch on it, and various other insects (especially what we think are wood-boring wasps) also seem to make it home. I guess it's therefore going to stay put for a bit longer.
Talking about wildlife in the garden, one of the first things I did when we moved in was get a bird feeder up in the hope if attracting some birds into the garden. We've now actually got a couple up, but the only interest that we've seen so far is one visit from a tit, possibly a blue tit. There is a robin that is very territorial about the garden and wanders around the lawn as if he owns the place. In the last couple of days a male blackbird also seems to have decided that our lawn provides a good place for collecting food. He seems to wander around the lawn collecting a huge amount of stuff in his beak before flying off. He doesn't seem to be at all concerned as to whether or not Mr C and I are in the garden and often comes very close to us whilst picking up stuff. I've not yet been able to determine exactly what it is he's collecting, but I've now got the binoculars positioned by the kitchen window in the hope that I'll soon get to inspect what he's doing a bit closer.
A large number of long tailed tits seem to be attracted to one of our neighbour's bushes that's overhanging our fence. I'm sure my mum did tell me what it is, but possibly I need to find out again so that I can work out why they are so attracted. As well as our hedgehog sighting the other evening a frog (or possibly a toad - I'm still learning to tell the difference) hopped across the decking as my brother in law was visiting us last weekend. It was possibly visiting from next door's pond, but it bodes well for us being able to attract wildlife when we get round to digging our own pond.
I know we're not exactly having much of a summer weather-wise here in the UK, but the difference being able to spend time outside is making is unbelievable. I feel so much more chilled out now that I can go and sit outside with a cup of tea than I have done in ages. The decking on the back of the house provides a great sheltered place to sit, and picking up this table and chair set for less than £80 in a sale the say after we moved in also helps greatly.
This has turned into such a long post and yet there's so much more to write about. A further post will follow with details of our plans for the garden, especially to attract more wildlife, and I've also made a start on where I hope to have my first veg plot. No wonder I'm not having time to get everything done in the house as well!
