Restorative gardening

Hello there,

Despite my promises, I have somehow avoided blogging this weekend.  All has fallen through with our house-buying, someone else put in an offer and was accepted after the seller put it back on the market whilst we were unsure about proceeding and we are back to Square1 and £700 poorer for fees paid out. It is rather sad and we are feeling rather glum about the whole torturous process. But thank you for your kind thoughts on my previous post where I talked about it.

We discovered that the house had gone and also that a house we had seen yesterday and rather liked had also gone and there was a feeling of despair so I went out into the garden to take some blog photos and somehow, felt that I was needed out there - my thoughts were miserable and I knew I was no good inside so I headed out and ended up doing a lot of pruning and cutting back of roses, brambles, ivy and other misc. shrubs.  Then I began the interminable process of trying to rake leaves.
 The oak tree and 5 other trees plus a myriad shrubs have all done their hardest to try and completely coat the lawn in leaves and all the beds are completely obscured in addition.  I raked and raked and ended up on my hands and knees scraping off leaves from between my leeks very delicately in my veg bed.  I then ended up removing all the decaying tomato and bean plants and relocating plant-ties and bamboo canes to the shed.  Finally, after picking 3 leeks (hurrah), I headed inside after 3.5 hours and felt much the better for it.  Much calmer, much more able to think objectively.

I then continued inside with cleaning and tidying and washing and ended up making a delicious tureen full of vegetable and lentil casserole with the three leeks, bag of organic carrots, red lentils, left-over potatoes and about 100 of the remaining tomatoes from the garden. It was rather delicious and we have leftovers for tomorrow night meaning after our twillight at school, not much prep is needed thankfully.

I record the difficult as well as the happy times here and I wanted to just explain why I didn't get around to visiting today. I will promise to get back to you asap.

Sending you love and so many thanks for your kind support.

Kezzie xx

The Saturdays are on Monday!

Hello there!  Isn't it freeeeeeezing?!  Thank the Lord for electric blankets!!!!  It's inspiration Monday over at the Two birds and though there was a choice of 4, I was pretty stumped!  I just couldn't think laterally about what to wear that was weather-friendly!  I really wish I had a pair of red trousers (I have a pair of red,pink,blue and orange striped trousers but anyway!)

 Anyway, I decided to go with the colour scheme of number 2 (I don't know anything about the Saturdays- which one is which!?!)
It definitely suggested a naval theme to me!

Honestly, you'd think I'd straighten my cardigan for photos but no!

 Skirt ASOS, Cardie, binoculars case Primark, Top and brogues- Peacocks (RIP), tights, Tescos and necklace- gift

 Lovely new teapot and charm necklace from Sophie for my birthday!

 It may seem very little to you but I was quite chuffed to have made leek, potato and courgette soup for dinner tonight!  I just made it up really, didn't follow a recipe!  5 leeks, 2 large potatoes, butter, 1 courgette, Kallo Organic Vegetable Bouillon and seasoning.  Just fried the leeks, boiled the potatoes and courgette, mashed them a bit and mixed it all together with Bouillon.  It's delicious! There's enough for 3 meals!

 Talk about willpower:  I bought some socks for CBC in Primark on Saturday (also looked for a bow-tie) and there were so many pretty things I had to  avoid because of the shopping fast!  It's a good thing!
Anyway, I just had to buy this top for a young friend from church who has dalmations- it's so pretty.  I still owe her a Birthday present from December- I can't find the one I actually bought her!

 Anyway, go and check out the other girlies at the Two birds!  How are you??!!