3rd July 2007 - Rain again, and when will someone come and buy our house!
It’s still raining! I do hope that wherever you are, you haven’t been flooded out. The thought of the garden being under feet of water and everything slowly rotting would be too much to bear. I don't know how many times in this last month I've thought 'Thank goodness we live on a hill!'
'Thank goodness we live on a hill!'
Anyway, we, with our sandy soil, have been okay. I shall have to feed everything again, of course, because some of the essential nutrients will have washed away. Out with the blood, fish and bone this week, I reckon.
The drenching does seem to have been of benefit and all is really looking quite lush. It’s good to see the woods over the road looking so green – I hate it when we have long dry spells and start to feel what I can only describe as a sympathetic thirst for the land. It started when we were in Taiwan and the summer rains – the main rain of the year - didn’t arrive. As the place dried up, the plants withered and the city became in dusty. The sinking water table resulted in the tap water being ever more polluted, with the result that I could no longer soak my white cotton blouses because they started disintegrating. Quite a few of my clothes disintegrated that summer, actually. It was nasty.
To the garden. The colour-schemed beds are just starting to get going, though things haven’t quite gone to plan in places. In the ‘hot’ red/orange/yellow/green bed, I’d put in some Sweet Williams that I was expecting would be a dark enough pink that they’d fit in, but they’re pale pink and right behind a bright orange marigold. Wrong, wrong, wrong! In the orange/yellow/green/white bed, seedlings of Verbena bonariensis keep appearing and will have to go. The Achillea ‘Walter Funke’ have all been eaten down to the ground by slugs; they’re growing again, but I may get some more orange and yellow Achilleas anyway, as I’d like to see more of a variation in flower type and we do already have many daisy-type flowers.
Ordinarily, I would welcome such clashes but this year I wanted to try something different.
No!
Yes!
These little things are sent to try us, but on the whole I’m pleased with the way it’s looking at the moment and am looking forward to seeing it develop over the coming weeks.
That is, of course, unless someone buys our house! It’s been on the market since the middle of February and we haven’t had a single viewing. It’s really vexing as we want to get moved. Come on people, this is a real opportunity – you get a detached house in a village, but which is close to a number of towns with the motorway about 1.5 miles away. It has 300 acres of beautiful mature mixed woodland right across the road, as well as acres of open fields to wander about in.
Over the road...
The village is respectable, the neighbours are nice, there are shops, three pubs, at least two churches and two well thought of schools (primary and secondary). There is also a good sized allotment site with huge plots (70m long!) for about £12 a year.
The house itself is comfortable, neat and clean with a good sized, extremely well stocked and lovingly tended garden surrounding it. The house is detached so there’s no noise through the walls. We’ve done a vast amount of insulating too, so the house stays cosy even in winter. Best of all, it's on a hill so there's no danger of flooding. You can see the full details here: Our house - and we look forward to meeting you!
...and down the path
© Copyright Miranda Hodgson 2007