Well, a lot has happened. Moved (after 40 years!) from a medieval house in a Hampshire village to my late parents’ C17th town house in Stamford. Builders, walls knocked down, dust, chaos, consolidating two entire households into one – charity shops very happy!

And of course that all meant leaving behind my beloved garden and allotment.

Now I have a much bigger space, a “secret” south-facing walled and overgrown wilderness, including a row of ancient still-productive pear trees. Daunting but exciting and wonderfully full of potential.

My dear mother had created a beautiful and delightful garden here over many years. This is one of her paintings of it as it was:

Poor Orpheus fell over in a torrential rainstorm. He was found burrowing towards the Underworld and had to be rescued.

Now, three months later, we are settled in and making a start on the garden… yesterday the landscapers arrived with their digger….

It’s amazing what a man and a machine can do in a day!! Over the past weeks, I have been labouring in the upper garden to remove the tree stumps; tiring and dirty work but gloriously satisfying. An excellent way to get familiar with the ground. More broken forks…

to be continued/ :- )