Sunshine for Easter

Hi there everyone 😃

I’m a bit late with my Easter update but thought I’d just check in and let you know what we got up to before I move on to share our latest break in North Wales with you.

Like a big part of the country we were blessed with some glorious weather and the best part of the weekend was spent actually making a start on some spring jobs in the garden … starting with displaying my latest craft project …

I made these air dried clay ‘eggs’ at craft group at the beginning of April. Once they’d fully dried I lightly sanded down the rough edges, gave a couple of coats of watercolour paint, highlighted with sharpies and finished off with a couple of coats of yacht varnish and some ribbon from my stash.

I hung them at varying heights in the magnolia …

It was then on to the more mundane … Martin had finished treating the pergola to its annual wood treatment, having missed it last year, and we decided that we’d have a go at painting some fence panels. As we’d been next door a few weeks ago and cleared all their ivy, which had become a bit of a problem, it seemed a good time to get the panels painted.

We did five in the end and motivated by how smart they looked I decided I’d have a good go at the border and took a few bits out that were either way past their best or due for replacement with something a bit more suitable. I finished it off by sprinkling a good handful of purple poppy seeds, which I’d saved from last year …

It would be just amazing if the border ended up being full of these in the summer 💜💜💜

 One of the plants I took out was a white buddleia that we seem to have been moving round the garden for years. I was very pleased that I’ve managed to find it a new home with Jackie and Phil, who love anything white on the plant front … I threw in the violets for free …

We bit the bullet with our very expensive daphne that we bought last year and seemed to be really suffering. We completely chopped off all of the wilted leafage and are keeping everything crossed that it may make a recovery …

The little greenhouse also had a bit of a dust and brush up. Predictably, for us, one of the cucumbers that we’d bought seems to be on its way out … we are ever hopeful for it’s companion …

… and we couldn’t quite believe how the courgette we bought the previous week is flourishing …

As well as the gardening I did sneak in an Easter bake … the first time trying at millionaires shortbread … another very successful recipe from Jane’s Patisserie. I did have a bit of a Facebook chat with friends about whether it could be frozen, but the question was immaterial in the end it didn't last anywhere near long enough to make it to the freezer ...
Anyway I think that was about it for us … it was lovely to get back out into the garden, without needing lots of layers and we felt that we’d been quite slowly productive and I’m pleased to say that it’s starting to look like a garden again 😃

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