I finished J K Rowling's 'The Casual Vacancy', which was brilliant, a great page turner. She makes her characters jump off the page and it is so well written. Maybe I ought to have a stab at the Harry Potter books one day. It just seems a daunting task when there are so many of them. The next on my list is 'Two Brothers by Ben Elton which I bought for Derek for his birthday and he has just finished so it's my turn; he loved it but thinks I'll cry!
Just spoken to Becky and family which was lovely. Phoebe was about to go to bed so looked all cosy and warm in her pink fluffy dressing gown. She is going to see her GG tomorrow so is looking forward to that. They have been away on a 'forest' holiday near Winchester and had a lovely time so is lucky in that she has her Daddy for two weeks and has two weeks off school too!
We had a nice long weekend, again Derek was tired so we tried not to do too much. We did go to the plant sale on Saturday, Derek even went out in his shorts and was being a little heroic but had to change when we got home as he was freezing! We bought lots of plants, 7 bushes to break up parts of the garden as we can't afford the trellis we want just yet as it is £55 a piece for the ones I want and I need 5 of them so £4 bushes will have to do! We got lots of herbs, flowers and grasses too.
(The following slideshow are just a few of the plants in the garden that are already doing well despite the cold weather.)
The ranunculi are beautiful, the pansies and violas are flowering their little heads off and the lemon smells so good. We have coffee in the courtyard and sit by the bush just so we can smell it. The jasmine is in the same place which is flowering now too so it's a little overwhelming at times. And we are going to have so many broad beans from the veg garden we will be eating them for ever.
Derek also went up the ladder (he wasn't too steady up there either as it was on gravel) and trimmed the bushes that grow against our border with Paddy. I don't know where he put the big tree trunk bits, down the side of the shed I suppose so maybe we can burn them next winter but at least it is one level now and looks much neater. Paddy was pleased too!
Take care everyone and have a good and safe week/half term for some. Lots of love and thanks for looking xx