10/10 Happy

What do we really need in order to be happy?  I have been thinking about it a lot lately and have been pondering my dreams and aspirations.

Over the last couple of years quite a few people have asked me how happy I am.  When I've told them the truth - 10/10 - they have all been genuinely surprised.  No one seems to believe that ordinary people with ordinary problems can be 10/10 happy.  When I've asked those people, in response, how happy they are, I've been shocked at their answers too.  The lowest answers were 5 and 6 out of 10.  The average has been around 8 out of 10.  Every one of the people I've chatted to has, in my eyes, a really lovely life and a lot to be thankful for.  How, then, can they only be 6/10 happy?

I am convinced that we are slowly being brainwashed into thinking that we need 'more' of everything in order to be happy.  More money, more sleep, more spare time, more friends, more holidays…. And so it goes on.  I think that the media is largely responsible for people's concept of happiness.  It also occurs to me that people just interpret the question 'how happy are you?' in different ways.

To  me, happiness is a spiritual thing.  It has very little to do with anything that I own and is not materially affected by my problems or the anxiety that I occasionally suffer with.  When I'm asked how happy I am my answer is always consistent because I don't consider how happy I am that particular day, I answer with my gut feeling of how happy I am, in general, with my life.  And that's 10/10.

So, I thought I'd share just a few of the things that make me feel happy.  Ten things that make me feel 10/10 happy.

1.  Breathing in fresh air.  Noticing how warm or cool it feels on my skin, whether it smells of dairy farms or car exhausts, and allowing my lungs to fill.

2.  Sunlight.  Whether it's blinding sunshine on a hot summer day or a small patch of sunlight on the kitchen floor, it never fails to lift my heart.

3.  The way my dog's mouth relaxes when she sleeps to reveal a row of tiny white front teeth.  She looks like she's smiling in her dreams.

4.  The taste of my first coffee of the day. Always brought to my bedside by my husband (wearing pants and socks - sexy!) every single day.

5.  Peace and quiet.  I make sure that I have a few minutes alone every day just to be quiet and calm. Sometimes I use that time to knit or sew.  Other times I just sit.  It is vitally important to my wellbeing.

6.  Flowers.  Wild flowers, spectacular blooms, supermarket bouquets or weeds… I love them all and always have a jug of something in the kitchen.  It is an extra special treat for me to have a posy of flowers by the bed.

7.  Laughing.  I have a proper big laugh every single day.  I find Andrew hilarious, my stepson is funny and I seem to have chosen my friends on their ability to make me laugh.  I often laugh at myself even if I'm crying or sulking.  I have a close family and we have always laughed together; mum and dad still do.

8.  Nature and wildlife.  I love animals but am especially fascinated by wildlife and pondlife.  I love watching the birds from our conservatory.  I love to see rabbits, hedgehogs, foxes and game on my walks around the fields with Andrew and Lizzie.  I am a huge fan of Chris Packham and Bill Oddie; they would be on my fantasy dinner guest list.

9.  Stretching.  I love a good stretch and used to practice yoga for an hour every day.  I've let it slip in the past few years and I'm just getting back into it now, using free videos online from Do Yoga With Me (thanks for the recommendation from A Beach Cottage).

10.   Hugging.  I am a really tactile person and often feel compelled to hug even strangers.  I realise that a lot of people don't like their personal space to be invaded so I manage to keep control of it but, man, I hug the life out of Andrew and my family - especially my gorgeous little niece.

I know that my list might sound trite but these are genuinely the things that give me most joy in life.  I acknowledge that I am a very accomplished shopper and collector of random things, which obviously gives me pleasure too, but this is a compilation of the stuff that makes my soul properly happy.

Now, with all that said, I've got to press on because Cabbages and Roses are releasing a couple of new dresses tonight and I cannot miss it!  Ha! #iloveshallowstufftoo

Have a great weekend. 

Love

Nicki 

x

PS The photos throughout this post are from our visit to Coton Manor in Northamptonshire last weekend.  If you live anywhere nearby I would definitely recommend a visit.  It incorporates so many of my favourite, happy, things and is stunning at this time of year.

Home-making, baking and faffing about

Was it really only last week that I was on holiday?   My first day back at work, predictably, was super busy but I managed to get completely up to date and there are now just three emails in my inbox which require attention today.  Smug.

We had taken an extra day off on Friday to finish off our holiday so it was nice to have a long weekend.  Having unpacked and tidied everything away the night before, we were able to spend Friday doing nice things.  We were up early and headed straight for Milton Keynes to run a few errands (returning library books etc) and drove from there to Bedford (with a takeout flat white, natch).  As regular readers will know, Friday is pocket money day (yay!) and I wanted to treat myself to some blooms from my favourite florist.  It's only a small shop but I spend ages in there in admiring the flowers and trinkets.  I chose a selection of country cottage-style flowers and they look beautiful on the dining table.

Of course, we nipped through Primark where I bought yet more pretty tea towels, PJs and a nice cheapy pair of leopard print ballet pumps.  By one o'clock we were safely ensconced in a nearby village pub, tucking into proper scampi and chips and downing large glasses of ice cold white wine. 

We picked up the pooch from my MILs on Friday night - as always, she was super happy to see us and looked pretty as a picture in a little pink bow  having been freshly bathed and trimmed the day before (the pooch, not the MIL).  

J was with us again this weekend and the three of us spent the whole time cosying up in the living room together, reading, watching Harry Potter movies and playing about with our phones/ipads.  We left the house just twice, both times to walk the dog.  If J eats well, sleeps well and gets a bit of fresh air when he comes to stay, I feel I've done my bit as a stepmum!  

It was nice to have time to mooch around the house with nothing very important to do.  As well as buying a proper bunch of flowers in Bedford, I also bought a couple of bunches of sweet williams at the Co-op and filled a few pots and jugs with them around the house.

I love this old marmalade pot I bought for pennies at a local antique centre but it isn't the most water-tight of vessels and I have to use this little vintage saucer/bowl thingy to catch the drips.

I have a teeny obsession with vintage Wee Willy Winkie candle holders

As if that wasn't enough, I came home to find that my sweet peas had positively blossomed and I was greeted by a tangle of colour and fragrance (cue: a happy little jig on the lawn).  Having been reliably informed that they will regrow with gusto if I snip, I (gingerly) chopped the majority off and filled a few vintage bottles with the stems.

There is a little posy of sweet peas on each of our bedside tables, too.

To my mind, there is no better way to bond with your home after a holiday than to fling open the windows, put out some flowers, make fresh coffee and bake a batch of something delicious.  I made plain scones to have with clotted cream and jam after lunch on Sunday:  always a crowd-pleaser and takes just minutes.

I store all of my ingredients in these jars on a shelf in the kitchen.  I think they look lovely, and a little bit 'homespun'! 

On Sunday evening I finally got round to applying floral decals to a couple of glass mugs that I bought ages ago.   I'm chuffed with the result.  I have got a large rose decal to use on a little milking stool that I bought and gave the Annie Sloan treatment to a while ago.  I'll blog that when I've done it, but I know it will look gorge!

So that's how I settled happily back into ordinary everyday life after a delicious week in the sun.  I started work yesterday refreshed, relaxed and raring to go.

Hope you had a nice weekend, too! 

Kisses.

Nicki 

x

PS - Sorry that I've just reused my Instagram images, I know it's a bit lame.  Sometimes it's just such a palaver to get my big girl camera out and the iphone is sooo easy to take little snaps of my life throughout the day.  I'll try harder next time :-)

The Novice Gardener

This year I am determined to make something of the garden.  We have an odd garden; the house is two cottages merged into one house but nothing was ever done with the gardens.  As a result, we have two very small, kind of separate, gardens - one yard and one lawn.  I'm focusing on sorting out the grassy bit first.  The yard is U-G-L-Y and needs a little more time (and money) spending on it.

With the sun shining brightly on Saturday we hit the garden hard.  Andrew's mum came over to help;  she also brought yummy scones and clotted cream for our mid-afternoon treat :-) 

There I was; forking up earth, snipping away dead stems, yanking out old [blind] daffodils and other dead 'matter', having a whale of a time.  Really enjoyed it (and the endless enamel mugs of tea)!  

I am determined to have a cutting patch this year so that I can have jugs full of my own flowers all through the summer.  Andrew's mum dug an extra [small] flower bed for us in the sunniest spot of the garden and I'm seriously considering finding some enormous pots or barrels to plant more flowers in the yard area.

So, before we went on holiday I sowed a few seeds.  (Ha! Get me!)  I am trying to grow my own scabiosa, cup and saucer flowers, cosmos, helianthus, salvia and cleome spinosa (confession:  I don't know actually know what the last one is).  I bought a tin of seeds from the Sarah Raven website which seemed a good place to start for someone like me who doesn't have a clue when it comes to gardening.  I think for just £30 I can give it a whirl and just learn from my mistakes.

I also bought a tin of salad seeds.  The amount of wilted salad I throw away from those supermarket bags drives me crazy and I'd like to be able to nip into the garden for fresh salad leaves this year.  I threw them in a few pots of compost and here they are:

Doing well so far.  Only trouble is, I am not sure what to do with them next.  Panicking a bit.  I have rocket, a couple of varieties of lettuce, mustard and mizuna.  Need to read the next stage on my instructions! 

I have pricked out some of the cosmos seeds already; they are growing like billy-o.  I think there will be a little more pricking out to be done this weekend too.  I bought a little tiny greenhouse to transfer my seeds to and now I am obsessing over finding some nice wooden plant labels!

At the garden centre I picked up some sweet pea plants; I was excited to use the teepee that I made.

It just about fits in this old Christmas tree pot.  Am so proud of myself.  If the sweet peas grow enough to wrap around the willow I'll be even more chuffed!  

I love this old wall behind the sweet peas.  A little further along it has this ornamental plaque thing attached to it.  Anyone know what it is?  I love it, but it does puzzle me. 

Enjoy the sunshine my lovely bloggy friends.  Thanks for all of your comments, I love reading them.  Just wish I had enough time to respond to everyone.  I get there in the end! 

Nicki

x

PS Not going to talk about my horrid dentist appointment on Thursday.  Thank heaven I am being sedated for the treatment. I am panicking about it so much.   Keep having comedy day dreams that I'll try to run away from the dentist before he can do anything and he'll have to get me with one of those darts that they use for angry gorillas on the telly.  :-)

New trinkets, pretty flowers and a fab weekend

Having seen the pretty tea towels from Primark on various blogs, I felt the rare urge this weekend to visit said shop and bring some cheap goodies home.  This meant a trip to Bedford.  

We never shop in Bedford.  I've always thought it was a bit of a scruffy town with old-fashioned shops.  Sorry if you live there but whilst it has the potential to be super-pretty, you have to admit it's kind of scruffy.  This put us off to begin with - we hit Primark pretty quickly (lots of little treasures and I spent £14!), had a wander round the market with a bag of hot dinky doughnuts and were ready to leave.  I'd spied a lovely looking florist on our drive into the town and, as it was a nice day, suggested we take a walk to try to find it.  

Man, am I glad we did.  We found a fantastic little row of homeware shops in the Arcade and the florist was even lovelier than I'd expected.  We spent ages in there, with me oohing and ahhing.  It's called Fleurette and if you're ever in the area I'd definitely recommend a visit.  It's a new favourite of mine.  I finally made my choice, but it wasn't easy: 

A gorgeous bunch of flowers and a distressed chunky candle holder.  L♥ve!  Even better, the husband surprised me by whipping out his card to pay for them.  I know, I'm lucky - he's dishy, funny and spoils me rotten :-)

I am so pleased with the flowers.  Don't they look pretty on my sideboard!  I make a little squeal of joy every time I see them.  They are exactly the kind that I hope to grow in the cutting patch that I am starting this year, with the help of Belinda's cutting garden series and a Sarah Raven book.  If you haven't been over to the Wild Acre Flowers blog before, pop over and have a look.  If I lived near Belinda I would treat myself to a posy a week.  Lush. 

Now, I know that the dark pink flowers are ranunculus and the white are anemones but can anyone remind me what the little pink flowers are called please?  The lady in the shop did tell me but I can't remember.  I want to grow this - it smells nice too!  And the little white ones?  I need to scribble their names in my cutting patch notebook.  

I managed to pick up some tea towels in Primark.   I went in for the floral, Pip Studio style but liked this bright check when I got to the shop:

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed to win LaaLaa's gorgeous blog anniversary giveaway which includes more pretty tea towels!  

£1.20 each. Bargainous.  I also bought a few cheap faux pearls which I really like.

These will do until I can afford the real thing!  I love the look of lots of strands of pearls at different lengths with chunky silver necklaces interspersed so that's how I'll be fancying up my frocks this spring.

♥♥♥♥♥

I've got loads more to waffle on about - I've been very crafty this weekend and have made some sweet little envelopes.  There is also some crochet goodness to share.  I will save all of that for another day and finish up with my rocking chair reveal:

I am so chuffed with my favourite little chair.  I loved it before but the dark wood in such close proximity to the oak cabinet just bothered me a bit.  I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in Country Grey (needed a couple of coats) and sanded down in places to make the chair look worn.  I then gave it a good coat of soft clear wax.  

I have to admit that I didn't enjoy doing it; I got really bored halfway through, my back was aching, it was messy and I hated trying to coax the paint into all the awkward little nooks and crannies.  As a result, there are two little half-painted stools in my conservatory that I didn't have the stamina for.  I'm glad I did it though and considering the chair cost just £40 in the charity shop I think I've had a bit of a result.  Thanks again to Shabby Chic Sarah (the master of paint jobs!) for all of the advice on text and email!   Thanks espesh for the moral support when things were looking rubbish and drippy!  

So here we are - Sunday evening and I've got a bit of ironing to do and some crochet flowers to finish off.  There is also a small bag of dolly mixtures with my name on it.  It has been the most fab weekend and I'm not even going to let the prospect of Evil Monday dampen my spirits! 

Have a great week and thanks for reading, you gorgeous girls, you.

Nicki 

x

PS Other news in brief:  I've had a clumsy kind of a week. I fell out of bed in my sleep last weekend (ouch) and a particular low point was when I fell up the stairs the other morning wearing nothing but a towel (after a shower).  I found myself in an undignified naked heap on the floor with a sore ankle.  Thank heaven I was home alone.  

It's raining so much that we gave tonight's walk a swerve.  Someone isn't happy.

Obsessions

I get little obsessions all of the time.  Once I get something in my head it consumes every waking moment and I can't think about anything else.  

Current obsessions include:

• Crochet (even doing the odd stitch as I blog right now)
• Fabric (keep buying fat quarters of pretty fabric - can't sew yet)
• Smeg retro fridges (MIL is buying us one for our anniversary present... eek!.. now which colour?)
• Cake (can't stop fantasising about whopping chunks of sponge with tea)
• Socks (Great big cable-knit warm ones to wear with PJs and/or winter boots)
• Legwarmers (as above)
• Cushions (a long-standing obsession of mine)
• Bunting 
• Cake stands, domes and cloches (for my cake obsession)
• Embroidery 
• Scarves and stoles (making them, buying them and wearing them)
• Blankets (as above, but also for folding up and putting in piles or draping cosily over chairs)
• Boots (it's an Autumn thing.)

But my biggest obsession of the moment is utility china.  I totally blame the lovely Little Gem (see her gorgeous blog here) :-)   Of course I realise that I am, again, a late-starter and definitely behind the times in blogland - lots of people have been loving this stuff for ages.  I know I've admired a few bits of Jasmine Wood's Ware (amongst a million other pretty things) over at Coco Rose, for example, but I didn't really realise what it was until I started to read Gem's blog.  Didn't realise that there is a plethora of vintage china available, quite cheaply, in these pretty pastel colours that mix and match beautifully together.  Posts like this fuelled the obsession... and now I am well and truly hooked.  Thanks, Gem, for sharing your knowledge with me and pointing me in the direction of other lovely blogs.

 

I've always had a bit of a thing for jugs but it's getting out of hand!  I think I've picked up about ten jugs over the past two weeks (I'm not kidding).  

I was up early yesterday morning, before the husband and step-son, so I had a lovely time trotting backwards and forwards with various bits of pastel china and jugs of flowers, taking photos of my bits and bobs!  I had to laugh at myself, skipping about in my PJs with my camera and various random items.  

The top blanket (in the next picture) is my current crochet project - the giant granny I started on holiday.  It's coming along nicely, I'm really enjoying myself.  Have plans to make loads more (received a few requests from people, too).  The spotty one is a holiday purchase - a gorgeous lambswool red/cream spotted blanket.  It's red with cream spots on the reverse.  I ♥ it.

I bought this little string of shelf bunting at a vintage fair last week and popped it in the kitchen until I found a better place for it.  It has a nautical theme and I think it looks quite good with the kitchen gubbins so it might stay there after all.

We are about to start giving our dining room a bit of a facelift.  The furniture that we brought to the cottage just isn't suitable. It's very dark wood and too oppressive.  This house is very dark, cold and quite small so it needs light, soft, colours to lift the rooms.  We are hoping to have a new floor put in and I have started to consider the type of furniture we will choose.  I think I'm going for painted oak and I really REALLY want a nice dresser to display my new china collection!  The postmistress was laughing at me on Saturday morning as she delivered a couple more of my ebay purchases - the husband had moaned to her about the fact I was collecting this china and that he wouldn't mind but now we have to buy a cabinet to put it in!  

Are you still with me?  Sorry to bore you... I could go on all night so I'll start to wrap things up.... 

We've got J (the step-son) saying for the week so I've got a couple of days off work and we're going to London tomorrow.  We are doing a few touristy things, taking him to the Forbidden Planet megastore and having a good feed-up somewhere.  

My MIL came over for lunch with us today.  The weather was gorgeous and we all lounged around in the garden, it was lush.  She was especially welcome today because she brought dessert too:

I am feeling really sunny and cheerful at the moment.  I'm loving the last dregs of summer and excited to see the first signs of autumn, it's my favourite time of the year.  I feel in control of my workloads at work, I've got a few things to look forward to in the next few weeks, but most of all I am loving being married.  LOVING it.  This is a big thing for me - I always thought I was commitment-phobic. Turns out I just hadn't met the right man.

Nicki 

x 

Restoring the spirits

The husband and I have had the weekend to ourselves for the first time in weeks.  We have barely spoken to each other, it has been bliss!  We've spent the whole weekend pottering around the house and sitting in the garden.  It has been very grown-up and civilised (apart from the fact that we may have had slightly more wine than is sensible in the midday sun...).

Our swing seat.: love.

All of our meals have been eaten out on the patio and we brought the radio out to listen to the tennis this afternoon whilst eating garlicky/lemony roast chicken with roast potatoes and salad, all washed down with cold white wine.  Then we had a little nap (yes, a nap!) before walking the dog.  The temperature has dropped a little now and it has been very dark outside for a while - I hope it rains.  In the summer I love to sit in our conservatory with the door open so that I can watch, listen to and smell the rain.  It's so refreshing and calming.  We went to the Maldives for our honeymoon last year and it was the start of the rainy season.  The weather, of course, was beautiful every day but there was a 30 minute shower [downpour] at around 5pm each day.  We had a water bungalow (a hut on stilts in the sea) with doors that opened right up onto our decking.  Every evening before supper, after a boiling hot day in the sun, we would sit coolly and quietly in our little air-conditioned hut with a G&T and watch the rain pelt into that turquoise sea.  It was breathtaking, romantic too, and the memory will stay with me forever. 

♥♥♥

I've been doing a bit of tidying and bit of primping.  The living room especially is looking neat and clean:

It hardly ever looks this straight.  There is usually a smelly boy (husband, J or both) lolling on the sofa.  Cushions are thrown on the floor, feet are propped up on the footstool and drinks, crisp packets and magazines are dumped on every available surface.  I love that it's such a welcoming room and that we live in it properly but I do like to see it looking tidy so that I can waft around feeling like a domestic goddess.  

I am in no way a domestic goddess and this has been proven this week by the husband finally agreeing that we can have a cleaner.  I am beyond thrilled but there is a small part of me that feels a bit of a failure too.  We don't have children (apart from J staying once a fortnight) so I feel that I should have plenty of time to clean the house.  Loads of people manage it, after all.  The thing is, we both work full time, often finishing late, and after having walked the dog, eaten supper and cleared up in the evening there's not much time for anything else.  I want to spend my evenings at yoga classes, swimming, having saunas, painting my nails and crocheting, not cleaning!  I'd even, very occasionally, like to get to bed before 10pm.  Now that A has agreed for us to have a cleaner, I'm going to try very hard to use my spare time more effectively.  I've already booked two yoga classes this week and I might even go swimming on Tuesday.  Get me.  

♥♥♥

I saw my sister, Sarah, on Friday night - we went to an old friend's wedding reception.  She wasn't going to come but I text-bullied her into it and was so glad I did, we had a fab time!  She hasn't been herself for a while now (she has, amongst other things, suffered from post-natal depression) but she is on the mend and on Friday night she was dazzling!  She had a sparkle again that she hasn't had for a long time - she was chatty, sociable and fun.  I think the world of my sis and I was getting quite worried about her.  We have always been great friends (apart from when we were very small and fought over toys) and spent loads of time together in our drinking/clubbing days.  Friday night was just like old times. I'm so happy that she's back to her old self.  

I found this card the other day when I was sorting through some old papers.  Sis made it for me when she was about 8 or 9 (I would have been 12/13).

Those are little pop-up pigs in the middle there, I used to collect pig paraphernalia.  Isn't it sweet!  Minimalist, yes, but lovely and one of my treasures. 

I am going to have a long shower now and settle down to an episode of Desperate Housewives before bed.  Oh and there's a bowl of strawberries and cream with my name on.

Nicki 

x

Baking

Baking is my antidote to a rainy day.

Rich Almond Cake

I have made two of these old-fashioned little cakes this weekend.  The first I made on Friday lunchtime.  I knew that when J arrived after school he'd be starving.  He loves anything almond flavoured, I had some ground almonds to use up and it was such a miserable day I felt like baking something.  It also had to be quick and easy because I was on a tight timescale.  It's a really plain cake, nothing to look at (as you can see!) but it is rich and moist with a good texture and delicate flavour.  It smelled like heaven when it was baking and with Friday being so chilly and rainy I knew it would be a welcoming smell (and sight) when my best boys arrived home.  They made a beeline for the cake plate as they came through the door and cut huge chunks.  I was still working and when I joined them in the kitchen an hour later the whole cake had gone!  Slightly miffed because I fancied a bit myself but also thrilled that this easy little ordinary cake was so massively appreciated.

So I made another this evening.  The house smells gorgeous again, I have used up my leftover ingredients and there is still some cake left for tomorrow's elevensies.  It is perfect on its own with a cup of tea but with a generous blob of whipped cream and some morello cherry conserve it would make a delicious pudding.

I've enjoyed the rain today.  We didn't get to the car boot sale because of the weather but had brunch out and spent the rest of the day in conservatory, chatting, watching the rain and playing Wii Sports.  We've got a little portable gas fire in our conservatory (which we had to use, it was so cold!) so it was really cosy.

I nipped into town to fetch a couple of magazines.  The English Home is one of my favourite home magazines.  The homes featured in it are always gorgeous and the articles are interesting too (really liked the article this month on choosing and displaying wall art).  I picked up Country Living at the same time - there are some great cake recipes in this month's issue and I am already craving the broad bean and pea soup that it also gives the recipe for. Yum.

These pretty Dahlias I brought home from the garden centre yesterday have been providing a bit of sunshine in the kitchen:

 I plan to plant them in the garden but for now they're cheering me whilst I do the washing up.

Film night with the husband tonight and I'm finally getting him to watch Withnail & I.  I have spent the last three years quoting this film to my husband but he hasn't seen it and never has any idea what I am on about ('Oh god, I don't feel good... Look, my thumbs have gone weird! etc).  I hope he likes it, I find it really disappointing when I share something I love and the other person hates it (or worse, is indifferent to it!).

Nicki 

x

Spring in my step

We're back from Norfolk a little bit sunburned - wasn't the weather gorgeous!  Saturday started with an early downpour but by the time we'd eaten a leisurely breakfast the clouds had cleared and it was just beautiful.

Our weekends in Norfolk seem to be dominated by traditions and rituals from start to finish, I love it. We always arrive early evening on a Friday and the first thing we do is dump our bags and walk over to the fish and chip shop to pick up our supper.  This weekend we did plenty of walking, ate lots of ice cream and enjoyed a bottle or two of wine.  I also managed to fit in some crochet and a bit of reading. 

We left the house in a bit of a rush on Friday evening and I forgot my camera - was so annoyed with myself.   I always forget my camera when we go on little holidays.  So I'm sorry for the lack of seaside pics - I'll take a few next time.

We got home and had a cup of tea in the garden and I noticed there is a little more colour than there was on Friday.  

The clematis along the side of the house is starting to flower up:

I love it; it looks so wild and pretty to me.

You don't notice it this clearly 'in real life' but in the photo above you can see that the area near the window used to be a door.  There are a few doorways in our house that have been bricked over - it was two very small cottages once that have been knocked into one.  I think it's kind of quirky.

We've got another clematis which grows over this pergola into the back garden but that seems to flower much later - late August/early September.  Here's a photo of it right now; not at all pretty but starting to green up.  It looks beautiful in full bloom; the flowers are white.

And this little tree.  Is it a lilac? I have no idea but it wasn't in flower on Friday:

Starting to get very excited about the summer now!

What did you get up to at the weekend?  Is your garden plumping up nicely?  If you can tell me what type of tree it is above, I'd love to hear from you.

Nicki xx