lately

• mimosa in Embankment gardens, London
• reading Life in the Treetops, by Margaret Lowman
• wrapped up in my warm coat as I wait for the train
• made a little mountain at pottery
• contrasting foliage, Embankment gardens
• palms outside the office where I work

garden improvements

I took a few minutes to nip round the garden the other morning and take a few photographs. I wanted to document some improvements we've been making. We are lucky to have a beautiful flint wall running the length of our garden, lucky until a section came tumbling down last year! Fortunately we were able to employ a really skilled guy to repair it (not the section shown here by the way) and when he'd finished the big repair he made good any other little bits while we set to work removing a tonne of ivy that had crept and crawled it's way over most of the wall. So now it's revealed in all it's beautiful flint glory.  We're currently busy putting in a wooden edge to hold all those bark chippings up that bank under the apple trees and keep them from spilling down onto the lawn. I'm also sharing a shady little corner, that's getting quite pretty as the hellebores flourish. 

our ducks and their garden

If you've been reading this blog a while you'll remember Tit and Pie, our adorable ducks. If not that's Pie in the foreground and Tit at the back, she's extra special to us as we hatched her ourselves in a homemade incubator. Tit's had a tough start to the year, she lost the sight in one eye. We're not sure how it happened but she sustained an injury to the eye which caused an infection. Fortunately she's a strong duck and with the help of some wonderful vets, antibiotics and painkillers she's on the mend.