Cheap Bulbs Triumph With Colour & Vibrancy

As I sit contemplating the day ahead – my eye is caught by the waving gladioli that are popping out in great stalks of colour in the border.  I have gradually brought together a colour palette to my immense satisfaction – it’s taken a few years of experimenting.  We start with the bright pink hydrangeas […]

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Market Forces Raising Prices For Home Hobbyists

With most families still being encouraged to stay put at home and not venture out unnecessarily if they can work at home for example.  The shops are gradually opening, this week the non essentials are being allowed to start up again.  However, many families will not want to raise their exposure to any virus dangers.  […]

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Using Garden Resources To Keep Minds Occupied

Sometimes events arrive with speed that takes us all by total surprise.  Take current circumstances – we are mostly quarantined at home.  No one is supposed to work unless they are key workers.  However that leaves millions of people having to fill time and be useful.  The best way to do this is to take […]

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Bringing Serenity Indoors With Florals & Pastel Themes

We’ve been experiencing so many more extrme weather than I ever remember from my younger days.  If we had one really bad or unusual event in a five year period it would go down in history as record breaking.  The bad winters of 1947, 1953, 1963, the heat wave of 1976 are still retold to […]

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Summer House Offers Mid Winter Joy & Wellbeing

I was enjoying bright winter sunshine the other week – festive luncheon party at a family country retreat. Bearing in mind we were in the middle of winter and it had been seriously frosty for a couple of days, we were all happily toasty warm, revelling in the spectacle of bird watching. Not twitching . […]

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Bringing The Garden In For Weather-Free Tranquility

I have regular dealings with a young couple who live out in a tiny wee village in the middle of the country.  They’re blissfully happy as it’s a quiet restful place.  There are a couple of kiddies dotted around but no teenagers or young adults making noise, driving past at all hours or any other […]

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Local Garden Centre Morphs Into Homewares Store

I’ve just found out that our favourite little garden centre has now been bought out by a group who own discount home stores.  I’ve not been around here for a coupe of months, having been on my travels again.  It was quite a surprise to be told that the new stock involves home furnishings, decorating […]

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Contrasting Comparing Gardens North & South

There are some wonderful gardening programmes on tv these days.   We’re not just confined to gardener’s world on a Friday night.  I particularly like one from Scotland which is romantically titled Beechgrove – sounds like a large estate;  well it probably would have been once but it is set over many separate acres in a […]

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Bridal Favours & Floral Bouquets In Constant Demand

How I would love to be able to go out into my garden and cut flowers for display indoors – it’s something I was trying to get organised a few years ago but annoyingly, took my eye off the ball.  I now have garden full of shrubs and very little scope for growing swathes of […]

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Home Made Curtains Give Immense Pleasure & Good Wear

We can live with pieces of furniture day in and day out for decades before it suddenly hits us that it’s time to move on, sell that old suite and get moving with the times  Not every wants the large bulky furiture our grandparents happiy plumped for.   They were indeed very fashionable at the […]

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