New Year, New Blog!

A burst of sunlight on winter trees

Firstly, I would like to say a very Happy New Year to all my loyal readers! I’d intended to write another blog in December, but you know what they say about good intentions! When asked if I make New Year Resolutions, my inevitable reply is that I have ‘intentions’, not resolutions, as it doesn’t seem such a heinous crime when I, very quickly, fail to keep them!  

The long-anticipated fence erection is due to go ahead within the next week, which will help me massively in the planning of my garden. I finally fought my way down the other fence line to the bottom of the garden and discovered the filled-in remains of an old pond and associated water course, which is going to cause me a few issues as the ground level drops away at that point. I’m now wondering whether to try and construct some form of bank/terrace to separate the ‘utility’ area of the garden from the ‘pleasure’ area. The utility area, with no-dig raised beds, really needs to be the next thing under construction, as I have pots of sea kale and rhubarb from one of my gardening clients, that need to be planted out; a pot of rescued raspberry canes; a potted gooseberry bush; yacon tubers and four fruit trees, and that’s just for starters! Once the fence is completed everything to and from the garden will have to come through the house, so I am hoping to get at least the four fruit trees brought over from my old address before that happens.

Before pruning

After pruning

Last week Jeni and her partner came over and pruned the large Bramley apple tree that takes up a lot of space at the bottom of the garden. It was heavily festooned with brambles, as well as having been left unpruned for several years, I would guess, so it looks a lot more open now. More pruning, to reduce the height, will be required next year to bring it back to a good shape and size and, hopefully, I will be able to control the brambles so that it doesn’t get choked again.

At the beginning of December, I also acquired a small shed, through Facebook Marketplace, and am hoping to find a suitable place to put it once the new fence is finished. It was delivered, disassembled, and Jeni and I managed to woman-handle it into the garden, via my next door neighbour’s side gate, where it is now lying on top of the large pile of uprooted sedge grass that I’ve created. All of the components for the fence were also delivered in December and left in my front garden, so I had to carry all of those around to the back in the same way – 7 x 2m fence posts, 130 x 1.5m feather-edge boards, 18 x 3m lengths of rails and the capping pieces! I was exhausted at the end of that mission! I’m just very glad that the fencer is bringing the Postcrete to set the posts in the ground!

3D felted vessels

The full display of vessels

Also, at the beginning of December, I tried to kick start my creative mojo, which has been dormant for far too long, by going on a day’s felting course with Jeni. I’d been to a couple of courses with the tutor before and am really lucky that she holds them at the community hall just up the road from me, so we could walk there. We were making 3-D decorative vessels and could choose between small ‘pods’ or a Christmas stocking – needless to say, I chose a pod shape, as did most of the attendees. She only has 8 people on each course, so that she can give individual attention, and this works really well. We had great fun and were completely absorbed in what we were doing and are hoping to replicate the day at my house sometime soon – after all, I have got most of the materials required!

I felt very old on December 17th when my 'baby' turned 40! I felt the occasion should be marked in some way, so made the first birthday cake that I've done for about 30 years! It was a triple-layer chocolate sponge with chocolate butter icing, a mascarpone cream filling and a dark chocolate ganache with piped decorations - that got the seal of approval! Dave and I had clubbed together and bought Jeni a second-hand ceramics kiln so that she can get creative again with her pottery, and we had a lovely weekend celebrating.

Work on the interior of the house has slowed to a virtual stop although, after complaints from Dave, I have now put up a couple of mirrors in the bathroom, so that he can see to shave when he comes to stay – gotta keep the boy happy! He has been to stay with me a couple of times which is lovely, after so many years of living in a one-bedroom home and unable to accommodate him comfortably. I cooked a roast dinner for us the other day and we then realised that it is probably upwards of ten years since I last did that! It feels so wonderful to have the potential for family (and friends) to come and stay.

Bathroom mirror #1

Bathroom #2

As a family, we had planned to spend Christmas at my sister’s house in Sheffield. I was to travel to Cheltenham on the Tuesday, stay overnight and then travel onwards the next day, with Mum, so that she could have a couple of days to rest after the journey and prepare herself for the onslaught of the rest of the family; Jeni was going to travel up by train on Christmas Eve and Dave was going to drive up early on Christmas Day as he had to work on Christmas Eve. However, things nearly got completely scuppered, and not by Covid: I’d noticed increased ‘road noise’ from my car over the last few months and had asked for the wheel bearings to be checked when the car was MOT’d back at the end of September, but nothing was found, so I put it down to a change in my hearing and turned up the radio (like you do!), but then I gave Dave a lift to Shepton and, out of the blue, he said, ‘You might want to get your wheel bearings checked, Mum’. Of course, this was on the Friday evening before I was due to travel on the Tuesday, so I had a bit of a meltdown and spent the weekend stressing about how I could still make Christmas in Sheffield happen. First thing Monday morning I rang my local garage and explained the problem, but they couldn’t even look at it until the next morning. However, on Tuesday they looked at the car, took it for a test drive, diagnosed a wheel bearing problem and agreed to try and fix it that afternoon, even though I could see that they were insanely busy. By the end of the day I had a supremely quiet car and the confidence to drive it to Sheffield and back. My brother-in-law drove down to Cheltenham and collected Mum and Jeni cancelled her train ticket so that the two of us could drive up together on Christmas Eve. It was more than a five hour journey but made so much better by having company and when we weren’t chatting away we were singing carols along with the radio.

Max!

Christmas was lovely – I got to see my great-nephew, Leo, and finally meet his little brother, Max, who was born back in April and, even though I’m not that keen on small children (give me a lamb, calf or piglet any day!) I had to admit that they were both real sweeties – I even had a cuddle with Max, but no-one got photographic evidence. All too soon we were dividing up the Christmas leftovers, packing our presents into the car and heading South. Jeni and I took Mum home and stayed overnight in Cheltenham before returning to Somerset, where I got to see the New Year in with both of my offspring, for the first time in many years.

Dave (revisiting his childhood) and Leo

I am now embarking on my winter stay in Cheltenham, although it will be slightly different this year as I will be travelling home more frequently than in previous years, so that I can do some more jobs, supervise the fencers and have some ‘me time’ with friends and family.

Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy and look after yourselves x