Finally!

 I'm pleased to say that I've at last dug out the new bed Sue wants to create.  Since I started (some long time ago!) we've had Christmas, Winter and lately about a fortnight of morning temperatures -6 to -8 which hasn't inspired me to work outside.  Finally, this last week we had a couple of afternoons when the sun shone and the temperatures rose to about 10 to 12 and so I was able to recommence with the digging.  But today, even though the temperatures only rose to about 3 to 5, I was determined to finish!  (But it was cold.)

The 'hole' is now dug (what you can see in it is earth for the creation of 'soil') ...

... and this was the last of the rocks which I was digging out.

Now we've just got to find/create more soil!

The Results of January's Work

 

As you can see we are still getting severe frosts (-8C again this morning). Never mind it is scheduled to warm up next week a balmy +1C. We have had some grey days but lots of bright blue skies and the last few days it has been very pleasant working in the garden in the afternoons.

 However we have not been idle and have now finished redecorating our bedroom. Initially I bought the bedding in a sale and based the design around that. Of course this led to buying a new chair, stool,lights etc. I had decided that I wanted a black "textured" wall behind the bed and we had discussed the sort of picture John was going to paint to hang on it. We found what we thought was a suitable wallpaper and all was proceeding well.........until John lost his nerve about hanging it. I had an element of sympathy as dark wallpapers are notoriously difficult to but up perfectly to avoid showing the join. John hurriedly contacted a professional decorator that we are acquainted with ( I'm thinking this room is not going to be finished until June!) but miraculously he was finishing a job early and could come in two days. Phew! After hanging a couple of drops he said "this looks like sixties paper" and he was right. Does it matter after all the sixties were 60 years ago and fashions always come round again.

Being cosseted indoors means we spend more time on the computer and consequently are subjected to more adverts. One of these prompted John to buy (with my approval of course!) a new rug for the salon, which then prompted me to buy 8 new cushions. 

With all this internal activity I have not neglected the garden. There are bulb orders to arrange, plants to find for the new rose bed and trees to select for that area. Fortunately I found just the right 4 conifers in a sale and they arrived yesterday. No beds dug yet due to frozen ground, but I can't miss a bargain.

The bank card has now melted so I must show a bit of restraint for a couple of weeks.

 

Outside/Inside

 Because it's like this Outside......

We're doing this Inside....

Actually we're finding it very difficult to motivate ourselves to do anything. We are experiencing real winter this year. The last 4 mornings have been minus 10 degrees C and it is forecast to carry on until the end of the month. I have already warned the Under Gardener to warm up his bank card as I fear we will have lost a lot of plants. The warmer temperatures in recent winters have lulled me into a false sense of security, so I left dahlias etc. in the ground. Silly!.

Food Bank

 Cold ... and going to get colder.

New Year's Resolutions

 So, the festivities are behind us and we can now re-start on all of those jobs which have been hanging over us!  I recommenced digging the Head Gardener's new bed in front of the barn, but the weather has come to hold us up ... snow!

We woke up to -5 deg C this morning and then it snowed.  It didn't stay for long but it wasn't conducive to working outside.

Let's hope spring isn't too long arriving.

Happy New Year

 We wish all of our readers a Happy and Healthy New Year. 

However we note that you may be fewer this year as we have received a number of complaints that we have not blogged for more than 6 weeks. As you know it is not our policy to comment unless we have encountered something of cultural note or we are undertaking a new project (which I concede is normally in the garden). Well none of these things have happened because we have been socialising, ie. drinking and eating flat out over the extended seasonal period. Oh dear, it has been so difficult!!

Yesterday was supposed to be the finalé, but it wasn't. As you can see from the photo we had aperos with our friends in their garden as the weather was glorious, in the high teens, followed by a lovely lunch and exchange of presents. Today we called on a couple of French friends to wish them "Bonne Année" and managed to collect a special bottle of wine from one couple and were "forced" to consume 2 glasses of Ratafia and a plate of bread covered in truffle butter. We're going to hibernate for a while so that our stomachs and livers can recover!!

Although no more has been done on the new rose bed in front of the barn (due to weather and sleeping off excesses) we have continued with the design process for this area. I suggested that we might delineate the area by putting in some stepover apples. The Under Gardener is not known for letting the grass grow under his feet (or in this case the apples) so the next day we returned from the nursery bearing a number of juvenile apple trees which we have to prune to start creating low growing espaliered apples. However not having thought through this idea fully we didn't realise that we would have to create a frame work for the trees before we could plant them. Hence, due to the socialising, we have only just bought the wood for the supports and marked their positions.  Digging the holes and planting the will be done in due course. Yes I know they take a long time to mature......don't go there.

The next project to be undertaken in the dark days of January is to redecorate our bedroom. We have gathered everything together, wallpaper, paint, bed linen, new chair and lights. All we now have to do is gather the effort to start.

As you can see we have acquired some new friends in the adjacent field, the only trouble is they look at us so accusingly everytime we go out and don't give them a treat.

Not much is stirring in the garden at present but a few hardy souls are taking advantage of the sunshine.