Sunday 11 May 2014

April - where did it go?

Yet another month has disappeared without trace.  Only Mother Nature seems to have made an impact during these four weeks.  it is lovely to watch the garden change from twigs to leaf.




The cherry blossom is doing its thing, following on the heels of the lovely amelanchier (June berry)..... 




Then the crab apple catches up.
 Meanwhile the narcissi follow the daffs.  They come in all shapes and sizes so there is something for everyone.  I favour fairly simple ones and white in the back garden and yellow in the front.  I don't like to mix them; I have no idea why.

In addition to these two I have a third white variety which has just come out called Poeticus - you really must try it.  It is so dainty and has a lovely perfume so grow it in pots or near the house.  It is just the best! 

I have decided to quit my garden blog - lack of time and even worse lack of commitment to my garden any more.  

I had a willow that I had been sold as the small and unusual and hard to get cuprea variety - in two years this has grown from about three feet to over ten!  It has even spawned a six foot baby in that time.  Methinks it is not the small variety!  I had to hire someone to take them out.  The someone is a lady who seems to have enough knowledge to be able to take care of the garden for me so that's the path I am now on.

It is very frustrating to watch someone do a job you have done (and loved) for sixty years.  I am itching to step in and say do this or that but I have resisted and try to just shrug and say I don't have to weed and dig and work hard - and walk away.

So, unless I wanted to do an imitation Lady Penelope and report on my gardener's activities the blog seemed pretty pointless.  Hence these photos here I have no doubt I will thrust more garden stuff at you as the year progresses.

I have started the Garden album for this year if you want a look - might not be worth it just yet as there is very little other than weeds!  Garden 2014

Free of garden chores I should have been able to do other stuff but  as to how much I've achieved this month - probably not a lot.

Usual meals with friends and visits to 'aged aunt' fill a couple (or more) slots each week.

We did have an evening out in the first week of the month like proper 'growed-ups'.  A friend gave us tickets for Much Ado About Nothing at the Royal Exchange.  Being me, I did the mental chunnering about - I am 68, seen it a zillion times and used to virtually live at the Exchange so why bother????  So glad we did - it was an excellent production with a great cast and a I had a lovely time.  Thanks D.

I am still backing and forthing to the doctors with the ongoing ramifications of the minor accident to my leg back in October (!)  Incredible something so minor can turn out this way.  It is also pretty exhausting doing battle with something or other non-stop for six months - however minor.  Non-stop=no respite so it wears you out physically and gets you down.

To be fair to me, Ken and I did manage to finish the clearing out of my aunt's flat.  When I tell you it took two men and a van two days to take the stuff to the tip and that was after we had put a load in a storage facility and taken stuff to the charity shop, you may forgive me for being idle the rest of the month.  The chaps that came had been to the flat previously to move a chair to her care home for us and said they had no idea that amount of stuff was there - and wondered how could it be (very small flat).  It is truly incredible what you can squirrel away in a spare bedroom and two tiny box rooms over thirty years if you really try.  You begin by bringing a lot of it with you and never touching it again.

My kids are so lucky - we live like Spartans - devoid of 'trinklements' as my mom would call them and no collections of anything and neat and tidy and organised.  Indeed my mother once described my chosen style as 'prison cell'.

She says this sitting a doll's house workroom!  It would still only take an hour to empty!

My dolls house show of the month was Pudsey at Leeds which is one of my favourites so I had a great day there, nattering to everyone and his brother (or sister in this case) and buying a few bits and bobs for my latest project.  Ken bedded in in the cafeteria with his laptop and endless cake and coffee and a nice chatty companion for lunch (me!)  Win, win.

At the end of the month there was good news from my daughter and her chap - they have finally found their new home.  So a whole other chapter begins for them and, therefore, me.

The following day we had our house valued.  We think we would like a bit more room so played with the notion of moving up a notch - three to four bedrooms.  When we realised we were talking about a huge gap between ours and the sort of house we want where we want it, we decided to stay put and add on.  More of this to come over the next few months I think....  but for now....