After the fire... A new garden:)

On the 10th of May, B and I went to visit family, some 30 miles away,  my mum was staying at our house to look after the little one.

We got a  phone call at midnight from my mum:  distraught, to say  that we had a fire raging in our back garden, and that there were fireman  trying to put it out, all very scary, no harm came to my mum or daughter, luckily, PHEW! My mum had woken and come down to get a drink from the kitchen and noticed it, if she hadn't it would have spread to the house I'm sure.
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The fireman suspect that someone who lived at the back of our property had flicked a cigarette butt over into the back alley, and it had caught some grass clippings, everything was so dry after the long dry spell we have had.

We arrived home the following morning to this:

My poor newly planted apple tree

It was just  AWFUL, In a way I'm glad we weren't here to witness it. It burned the entire contents of our shed{all replaceable though} We had spent weeks preparing the garden for summer, so all hard work down the drain...

 So on with the insurance claim, and swiftly on with clearing all the debris~was not fun cleaning up after it all being brought through the house~the joys of being in a mid terrace.

 New fencing was put up, and B had the job of rebuilding a new shed,{ done very well I may add ,he's not bad you know} had some help from my eldest son, to move things along quickly, and  some thoughtful planning at the garden centres{we were covered for plants too, which was real bonus} and I now have a better garden than before!

Progress-Men at work

So 6 weeks to the day after lots of back breaking work, and we are done! We have planted some massive Bamboos, Miscanthus, Acaia tree, and a mature evergreen Jasmine which smells heavenly. All for high screening, and effect of course. A stunning red Acer-Japenese maple, various grasses, roses, perennials, and another apple tree for opposite side of garden which is a grafted one with 3 varieties of eating apples. My other recently planted tree 'Miss Derby which looked dead after the fire has sprouted lots of new leaves so looks like she will be ok after all, minus the fruit, but there is always next year.

Click on pics to enlarge!

Done!

Red Maple

The garden has been finished off with walls being painted in a calm shade of green, plum slate layed over concrete and a few white pepples, it looks really good now,  all that remains is to re turf, as lawn is all muddy.

We have some gorgeous lighting, solar fairy lights in the gazebo, and some spots which light everything up at night.

Sunny deck

suncatching mosiac mirror heart

I am looking foward to next weekend, sitting on my deck and relaxing for the first time in ages.... A well earned rest ;)

Fun in the sun ☼ Apple tree's and Roses

I have been really busy the last few weeks, not even caught up on reading my fave blogs.

My children have have a busy time too, my little girl  attends ballet classes, and performed in a show for 3 nights on the trot and did amazingly well, considering she's still 3, never got stage fright at all, she was in her element, she dressed up as bumble bee, and sung and danced to the ugly bug ball {Disney} and Chu Chi Face, I was SO SO proud if her!!

Elder son went away to Dorset for his rugby tour, all lads and dads together, :O They had good weather and a great time,  and they won the tournament, so he was a happy bunny! Then both  of my sons went on to Oxford for more camping with there dad, no pool on site though, don't think they were too impressed with swimming in the lake....and youngest son cannot get by without Laptop, PS3, Ipod etc, don't think they are keen on charades for entertainment!

We have had the most amazing weather here in the south East, it has been like mid July,  we already have our gazebo up on our decking{can't sit in full sun!} looks very pretty at night with all the fairy lights.

We made many trips to the garden centre over the weekend, and bought tomatoes, strawberries, chillies and a variety of herbs. I'm not growing them outside this year, as fed up with the slugs eaten them, so am keeping them in my conservatory, wish we had room for more in here though.

Homegrown tiers

We also bought some roses, I love them, and can't be bothered with planting annuals as the slugs munch through them too,  waste of money. I  bought 3 different colours which are stunning can't wait to see them bloom, one is a a silvery lilac colour, another a peachy pink, and a burgundy, all will look gorgeous together. A good investment as they will come up every year. I also have climbing pink rose which has gone mad this year, will post some pics when in bloom.



Beautiful roses


Our most special purchase was our very own apple tree, its 'Lord Derby' variety, it is a cooking apple, and is four years old and has loads of blossoms which means lots of fruit this year!! It is said to be very hardy and disease resistant, and will  produce crops up to November -December, I can't tell you how excited we are about watching her grow, B has always wanted an apple tree since he was a child, and it was him that went on and on, we saw this one and thought that is the one!! Here she is.. I'm going to have to paint that ugly wall being it though, very grotty looking, and next doors fence has seen better days, hoping he will replace this year.

Miss Derby

She doesn't look like much at the moment, but will flourish in 2-3 years:) We don't have a very large garden but we had a perfect space to plant it, and will control the size.

 I have been most jealous of Mrs Quince Tree {one of my fave bloggers} she has masses of fruits from her Quince tree and gets to make all kinds of delicious things, so I think I will post on progress once in a while too :)

We had a lovely Easter weekend spent with family and friends, had 2 BBQ's, drinks, all in all very enjoyable. The very early egg hunt {6. 30 am!!}took  daughter nearly 3 hours! Little one then  preceded to spend most of the weekend in her cossie in the paddling pool, and  running through the sprinkler!!

Fun in the sun!



Happy with her stash :)

Here are lots of pics of my beautiful tulips : most impressive this year, I especially like the black ones, lovely colour combos,and other parts of my garden, the Tamarix looks like candyfloss!

A blaze of gold at the local park







Candyfloss pink

Easter flowers

I love my garden and feel very lucky to have one :)

Here's to another sunny weekend!

Spring has sprung!

Hurrah, spring has sprung! we have had some lovely days, I know its arrived when I no longer need my coat! I've been spring cleaning house, clearing debris from the garden, jetwashing decking as was so slimy and slippery, was quite dangerous for my little one.It's great to see all the buds on the plants, sure everything is a bit late this year though...

Well I have had a very busy few weeks, been working on a commission for an old school friend ,who lives out in Oz, and thank goodness it's finished, it was one of those  paintings that kept going wrong, it was really stressing me out, so glad its done, and perfect,  the verdict was good! I'm always on a learning curve when i'm painting, it is enjoyable, as long as you have long stretches of time with total silence and no interruptions, but life isn't like that, I have a noisy two year old, and two older children to see to, so its always a bit manic to say the least.

I visited my lovely nan, a couple of weeks ago, I love going to see her, she still lives in the same house in Hampshire, that I was born in 37 years ago, it still has a sense of magic for me, I can remember the garden seeming huge when I was a little girl, and at the end there was a secluded area that backed onto a river, its all fenced off, so safe, I used to peak over the top! My cousins and I used to build den's out of all the garden chairs and have picnics and make mud pies, golden days, we didn't need toys, just imagination...

It was strange taking these pics of my daughter standing in all the places in the garden where I was photographed as a child, she loved playing out there as much as I did, she  especially loved the little wishing well, where my nan has deposited some of my grandads ashes as he used to have a cigarette at the bottom of the garden and flick his ash in there, so very fitting nan! Whilst on my visit, I had my usual stroll up to the precinct, 1 min from her house, and bought my delicious pea fritters, oh I just love them, its just mushy peas in batter, but you can't get them in Essex, its a West country thing... and they are just divine, I scoffed it before I could even take a pic!

Before I leave to come back home, my dear old nan always tries to give me bits and bobs , ornaments and the like,  she says you may as well take what you want now, as when i'm gone  it will all end up in a charity shop! So this time I took her old china hen basket, I have loved this since I was a small child, so am happy to be storing my eggs in it now, and nan is happy its being used, as it was just collecting dust on her top shelf in the kitchen.

I'm not a happy bunny at the moment ,as on a really strict diet, what with my wedding being 8 weeks away now, so have cut out anything worth eating, no alcohol, which I really miss, I enjoy a few glasses of wine on a Friday and Sat night,so its very boring at the moment, Couldn't go out for my usual lunch and be spoilt on Mother's day this year, but had some lovely cards from the kids and lovely flowers, the boys bought me some Daffs, and little girl chose some stunning tulips with daddy!  Still cooking, and baking for everyone else, though, oh well, the smell is nice! Daugher and I enjoyed making these gingerbread men, I always put in about three times the specified ginger though, recipes are far too weak.

Anyway busy weekend ahead, hope weather stays nice! xx