Today's Gardening Efforts

The rain held off enough this afternoon to inspire me to pay flying visits to two garden centres today.  I could not resist the beautiful, heady scent of these Nemisias (Wisley Vanilla).  I also picked up two different types of chamomile.  What do you think?

The leylandii hedges on either side of the lawn in the bottom half of the garden were monsters.  We've recently had them cut back and, as you can see, the result is not very pretty as they're pretty much dead on the inside.  Any gardening aficionados out there got any advice on what we can grow up them in the meantime?  The ultimate plan is to replace them but not for a while yet.

The Sky at Night

On these beautiful, clear nights we are having, it is easy to spot stars, constellations and planets. The brightest star in the sky at the moment is the mighty Jupiter. You can't miss it. I was excited to locate for the first time last night, with a lot of help from Google Earth and other astronomy websites, Orion. Gazing up in awe in the early hours, I was extremely lucky to see a shooting star. Apparently it was part of an Orionid meteor shower this weekend caused by the dust stream from Halley's Comet.

"They" say that Mars will be viewable with the naked eye as a ruddy coloured star from now on, if you're up early enough!

I'm off now to search the web for a telescope. Always wanted one since I was a child.

"The heavens declare the glory of God" Psalms 19:1

Before/After

After .....

Photos as promised, though I've got a lot to learn about uploading them and moving them around on the page!

You can see here the new pitched roof going on which was so exciting to see after our leaking old flat roof.

And, just for pure entertainment value, the little girl who makes me laugh every day:

Oh dear. I'm not very good at keeping in touch with anyone who might be out there reading my blog. There's been so much going on here. Well, the kitchen extension is almost finished apart from a few little things on our snagging list. Then we'll be getting the electrician in. When we've saved some more, then we'll get the plasterer in and so on. Hopefully be posting some piccies soon of how things progressed. My hubby just said to me "we bit off more than we could chew with this house and that it's like a millstone" around his neck. It may be true that we did underestimate who much there would be to do and how much it would all cost. But it's our home and so much of our personality, blood, sweat and tears have gone in to it so far. And it's exciting watching it evolve into just how I pictured it from when it was a filthy, unloved nightmare when we bought it. I hope he comes out of the doldrums soon as it makes me sad.

Hugh's Fish Fight

Deeply shocking. Can't believe the waste and stupidity of this. If you've not caught the show on Channel 4, I urge you please to catch it on Channel 4 od.

Hugh, you're my food guru!

Kitchen

This is my kitchen. Not quite condusive to cooking up gastronomic delights! When my husband, the dog and I are all in it at once, it gets quite cosy. See! You really couldn't swing a cat.