Our last Melanie’s Journal update was back at New Year, and I can’t believe how fast the time has flown since then. Now we have Melanie’s huge journal update..! So much has happened here, especially over the past year, that my time has been short and I simply haven’t had the spare hours to keep the monthly posts going.
As I mentioned in the New Year update, we are now full time carers for someone close to us who had a stroke last year. Things are gradually improving, mostly in our routines. We now have regular help from a wonderful carer too, so we are slowly finding our flow. Keeping things well structured really matters.
You would think one extra person to look after wouldn’t be a problem, but it means being far more organised than before. We can’t just do things at the drop of a hat anymore. A day out or a holiday now takes planning to make sure someone is always around. Also running two households and remembering everything can be a challenge too! It’s a real adjustment, but we are getting there.
Lily
Then, of course Lily was really poorly for the whole of July, and looking after her took me away from work completely. We were so worried about her and if you missed the blog post in her memory have a look here. Lily 2013 – 2026. August was about Nicholas and myself healing from the ordeal of her illness and grieving the loss of such a cherished member of our family.
So here we are at the start of September, three quarters of the year gone, and barely a blog post in sight. I have added a photo of our beautiful Water Lily below from our pond as they will always remind us of Lily.
When someone in your family is unwell, in our case Lily, and you are still having to keep up with all the daily responsibilities on top of it, I just couldn’t find the concentration for writing. Or for anything more involved on the business side like our Pet portraits website updates.
However September is here, we are just about to go on a few days break to visit family and that will hopefully be a well deserved break and set us up for the next few months of work to Christmas. I will probably do a separate pet portraits blog update with lots of portraits and happy client photos soon too. Plus of course updating the website is very much in desperate need!
Getting The Garden Organised!
Garden maintenance is what takes a lot of our time so we felt we needed to streamline things this year. Nicholas was on the case! He has changed all of our equipment over to battery, so hedge cutter, leaf blower etc. I can even use them now! You can see things were getting ahead of us early in the season in the photo below. The grass was long and the hedges were getting overgrown. This is a photo of me testing out the new hedge cutter. We ended up getting two sizes as the longer one was a little too heavy for me to use. They are so much easier overall I wouldn’t go back to petrol now.
New Paths
We then decided to have two paths created by our lovely friend Mark. One goes from the middle garden down to the chickens and shed and one across from the studio to meet it. The bottom shed has become our overflow for an extra freezer, extra food storage and the garden tools. It does have some kindling in… I’ll be glad when that’s used up this winter so we can get more space back.
So this is the top path and I use it alllllll the time! So much better to be able to nip down to get things from the freezer without getting muddy. It disappears down three steps made of old railway sleepers and joins up with another path.
You can see below how they all join, although the steps are hidden behind the tree! Plus… can you see the grass looks lovely in these photos? ….read on to find out why!
Harvey the Robot Lawnmower
We have a new addition to our family! Meet Harvey the robot lawnmower! Nicholas named him after my friend Harvey as he was so excited to see it! Although having said that everyone who has visited us has been enthralled.
Someone suggested to Nicholas he should get one.. immediately we both said.. noooo! But the more we thought about it, the more we thought it was a great idea. Nicholas has had a whale of a time setting it up and using the app. Harvey is so obedient too! The grass has improved no end since using it and no more grass clippings. No more struggling to pull the cord on the lawnmower and breathing in the fumes. Best thing we ever did and if you have a large lawn, I’d thoroughly recommend it! You will find yourself standing watching it though…!
Melanie’s Huge Journal Update – The Garden
The garden has looked lovely this year despite everything that has happened. We were without water on and off at the start of the summer, it be came quite tedious. We live at the top of a hill so any time there is an issue the water cant get up to us. Especially when there is high demand or bursts in our area. Then we had a hosepipe ban. So we haven’t been able to water things as well as we would have liked. Having said that the plants have mainly managed to survive. We started early in the season with a potful of violas from my local garden center which really brightened up outside my back door and they lasted well into August.
I also bought a range of Tulips which really cheered the rainy days in spring too. I just hope I can keep them over the winter and plant them in the pots so they are as good next year.
The yellow ones are so pretty with their variegated leaves.
And finally a green and yellow tulip which is really unusual.
Violas
My bargain lilac and lemon violas were in the sale stand at a garden center in our main town, all half price. I started to pick up a load and Nicholas…. who was following me around said… shall I get a trolley?? umm… yes!!! You have got to love a garden center bargain!
Hydrangeas
I was so pleased to see my cerise hydrangea flowering this year as it has struggled over the last few years and hasn’t flowered. It had been in the front garden and there wasn’t enough sunlight I don’t think. Let’s hope it likes its new home!
The hydrangea by the studio struggled this year due to the drought and the flowers didn’t last long, but I did get some photos mid way. The mauve colour is so pretty.
Poppies
My mother in law gave me a number of poppies this year and they were all varying in colours. This one was a lovely blush pink, they give such a splash of colour in the boarders.
Another beautiful red poppy with its dark heart.
Welsh poppies are right at home here in my garden in Wales!! They grow wild in a variety of places in the garden which is really lovely. Handy to have something I don’t have to tend!
Melanie’s Huge Journal Update — Cottage Plants
I bought some lovely cottage plants this year, and this one did really well mid summer, it was a bit of a gamble, hopefully it will come back next year. I’m not entirely sure what it is….but it looks beautiful!
Another of my garden center cottage plants that does really well each year and flowers all through the summer. Its a bright red geums and I have an orange variety too. Would highly recommend them.
Purple aquilegia, or Granny’s bonnets as we call them. Early in the season and every time they flower they catch me off guard as they flower quite early before I have started to think about sorting the flowers in the garden.
The Agapanthus did well this year, pleased they went through the winter ok as some years I have lost a lot of them. I used to have white ones and mini ones. I might need to replace them next year as they are so lovely.
This plant was actually saved from the person I care for and it hadn’t been watered and was nearly dead. So I planted it in the garden and bought it back to life. Lets hope it survives the winter!
A purple iris in the pond. The pond is actually a bit overgrown as I have been too busy to tend to it this year. I will sort it before the winter as there are too many plants in there.
The Weigela did well this year too although the drought didn’t help, you can see full mid bloom and some of the flowers are going. It rallied well though!
Honeysuckle with a bumblebee, couldn’t resist taking a close up photo.
Rhododendrons
This is a very spindly rhododendron right up by the cottage in a massive tub, moved from somewhere else a few years ago when some tree came down in a storm. It did well this year considering, although the plants in pots and tubs did not really like the drought.
A new white rhododendron down in the woodland in a big planter, such a delicate flower on this one.
Melanie’s Huge Journal Update!
So that’s about all of our news up to this point. I hope that you have enjoyed reading Melanie’s Huge Journal Update! I also hope that all of our readers are keeping well and haven’t forgotten about us here in Wales! We are still here thank goodness…just about! I will post another blog soon about our little Cornwall / Devon break with family.
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