Well, I
arrived back home last night having spent all of yesterday travelling. I forgot
when I booked that it was a bank holiday in Italy and so several trains were
cancelled. Having landed at 2.30pm it then took me six hours to travel from Pisa
Although I had a fantastic time in England, it was
lovely to see Alan and the animals again and I got a great welcome. I took the
dogs on a long walk this morning and together we explored the woods to see what
has changed in the two weeks since I’ve been away.
One thing –
it’s pouring, in fact the weather has been very wet while I’ve been enjoying
sunshine in Bournemouth! The garden is very lush and green,
there are loads of flowers out and lots of my vegetables are now making an
appearance, including my first crop of potatoes. The orto needs weeding and the grass needs cutting but that will have
to wait until I feel less knackered and the rain has stopped!
While in
the woods I noticed that there were quite a few wild orchids in flower, not
sure what type but they are quite tall and speckled purple. I knew they were
orchids as they looked like little men. I did think they would look pretty good
in my own garden, but then on returning from the walk I realised I have got one
of my very own growing in the middle of the drive! In fact, all kinds of plants
have been springing up in very unusual places. There are tons of strawberry
plants under trees as well as peonies in bud where there weren’t any last year.
appearance of all this gorgeous stuff is a combination of birds feeding and
then depositing seeds, the wet weather we have had all winter and, last but not
least, my absolute avoidance of any pesticides or chemicals. The previous owner
used quite a lot I think as we found large containers of all kinds of noxious
stuff at the back of the garage when we moved in. It was all safely disposed of
and now, three years on, I like to feel the garden has recovered and things are
a bit more natural and organic. Which is good for the plants and of course the
animals, birds and insects too.