Thursday 26 June 2008

Gardening adventures.

Despite being complete novices, not actually having a garden of our own and it being so late in the year, the weekend before last, we decided to start growing our own vegetables. To make things even more complicated we decided not to just go out and buy some ready to go plants, but instead to start the whole process from seed!! To any experienced gardeners this no doubt seems utterly ridiculous, but already we seem to have some progress.
The garden in the house we are staying in at the moment and all the gardens of the houses we've looked at so far in our hunt for a new home, are very small and courtyard style, mostly just squares of concrete or decking, so anything we do grow will need to do so in pots. I found this great and very inspiring book, which made us feel that maybe in wasn't so completely impossible.



Not ones to do things by halves, here is the extensive list of what we've planted so far...

Carrots

Beetroot

Radishes

Lettuces

Rocket

Onions

Spring Onion

Cucumber

Almost of all of the seeds have sprouted and most of them have now been repotted in larger spaces. We've also cheated a little and purchased both a tomato plant and a basil plant.

It's very exciting watching it all flourish, I don't know if it will all work out as planned, but it's been fun and we'll just be a lot more clued up and ready to get on it earlier next year.



I shall keep you updated on our progress.

Wednesday 25 June 2008

Fresh starts and new beginnings...

I am really back this time, after many life changes, including 3 house moves, 2 job moves and some health problems, I'm finally (well nearly) settled again and ready to resume blogging!!

It certainly has been an eventful year, I said goodbye to the lovely Oxford, which provided a home for me since I left university 4 years ago and headed to the very beautiful Spa town of Leamington.




It was the first time in my life I had ever moved somewhere entirely alone, it was a wonderful experience and although I only spent a very brief 6 months there it taught me a lot about myself. I also discovered that there must be a lot of places in this country, alone, that I know nothing about but should probably go out and explore. When I was first offered the job in Leamington I had never even heard of it, despite it being a mere 40 mins away from Oxford on the train! It is such a beautiful town, close to...


Warwick,



Stratford-upon-Avon


and Birmingham

Also places I had never visited (I had heard of them though, I promise!), prior to my time in Leamington.


When I moved to Leamington I left in Oxford a lovely boy, although I knew being apart from him would be difficult, things got a lot more difficult when he took a new job further away still. So a few weeks ago I packed up my ridiculous amount of possessions once again and headed to my second Spa town...

Cheltenham


Despite still living in limbo until we find a house of our own (at the moment we're staying at a friends house in one room, ceiling high with our many boxes of belongings) this is my new home and somewhere I intend to stay. It is another very beautiful town with many similar characteristics to Leamington, I no longer have to miss to my boy, I have a great new job and besides, once those boxes are unpacked the thought of ever having to pack them up and haul them across the country again makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry!

Now I feel my life is back on track I've started obsessive crafting again and can't wait to share these new achievements with you. Lack of space is still proving difficult, but one of my main priorities in the search for a house is that there will be space for a craft room!!