Gosh, well, hasn’t it been a long time? Since the last post way back in September 2013, which talked about our relocation and leaving the garden I’ve been blogging about for the last few years, I’ve been desperate to write but have waited until now. We haven’t moved yet, but we have only seven days left in our current and house and garden before we do move. As I write this I’m surrounded by boxes and bubble-wrapped things, the patio is full of plants that have been lifted or divided and the sun is shining in a very blue late winter sky. It’s going to be another mild, beautifully sunny day.

So many things have happened in the intervening months, I want to talk about them all here, but will split them out into separate posts to deter boredom. At the time of my last post, we had made the decision to move house. Rather, I had decided that instead of talking about moving house, we were actually going to do it. The process of selling our house was very short, it took but a few days. Finding a new house took one Saturday, though there were months of planning and research for that single day. It was the rest of the property chain and it’s slow progression that dragged the whole process out, delaying the move by weeks, which turned into months. Several times it came close to collapse and had to be pulled back from the brink. I was hoping to be making myself familiar with the new garden around Christmas, but that wasn’t going to happen, then it was shortly into the New Year – nope, not then either. Finally, it was going to be early Spring, a date was set, signed and sealed. So while I am still with the current garden, I have just seven days left to enjoy it and commit it to memory.

Last Autumn I signed off with putting the garden to sleep for one last time. Since the process of moving has taken so long, I am now seeing it gradually waken after winter for one last time. I am happy to report that we are still having continuous flower. The fuchsias were the last plants before winter to hold on, as they succumbed to cold, the primroses I planted a year ago took over the show, colourful, bright, gaudy and completely out of place with the surrounding winter brown and grey. They were joined by the winter honeysuckle that clambers over the fence and the Christmas Box (Sarcococca Confusa) in the front garden. Its heady fragrance was so powerful it could be sniffed from the pavement. I brought a small sprig of it into the house and it was almost overpowering. The primroses carried on while the Christmas Box faded but they were soon joined by the snowdrops while the daffodils emerged from the lawn. Now in late February, the crocuses and daffodils are beginning to flower and the threadbare scrappy grass is dotted with vibrant yellow.

I’m happy to be writing again. The last few months have been a roller coaster but now I’m on the final stretch. I feel I need to fit so much in to the time remaining and I’m glad that so many of my favourite plants will be coming with me to the new garden and devastated at some that have to be left behind.

This relocation is a new start for me in many ways, a new address, a new job (eventually), a new lifestyle, a new part of the country, a new local climate, a new garden, a new blank canvas to begin again. A new process of creating a beautiful garden to learn and write about here.

PS: One of the changes was the camera I use to take photos. It’s going to take a bit of getting used to so you’ll have to suffer blurry pictures in the meantime until I get the hang of it.