Shropshire in Pictures.....

View from house

View from Orchard

I'm cold. More precisely, I have a cold. Again. I'm just a teensy-weensy bit fed up with the winter now and dearly wish it would just shove off.

The electricity board came to fell trees last week. This was during our half term, not wildly safe, as my sproglets were loose, but thanks to the chill in the air, the babies chose to play indoors and consequently there were no injuries. Mind you, the chief cutter-downer looked a bit nervous when he asked where the nearest hospital was, for his H&S form. I suggested it was 45 minutes in a siren-flashing ambulance, driven by a F1 driver, unless the air ambulance was available.

Several months ago we had agreed to murder some of our trees as they were obstructing the power lines. Because of this the electricity board carried out the work free gratis but to be honest, we were pleased as these huge trees sat in the middle of the garden, facing south east, obscuring the sun from around the pond for most of the day.

Incidentally the newts are back. When it's not too cold I venture out with a torch at night and watch them in the shallows of the pond..... saucy devils think it's spring already!

So, two dark and foreboding conifers are gone from the garden and one other tree, that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of: Sadly that was quite a pretty specimum, with a sweet smelling blossom, luckily we do have a similar sized one elsewhere in the garden.

The next project is to dig out the old hedge that seperates the garden from a pretty orchard. We want to retain the old rhododendron bushes and a pretty hazelnut tree that may be used as a restaurant by a dormouse. Then we need to plant a new hedge all around the new footprint of the garden, enclosing the orchard and making the pond a focal point (oh, get me!) .... All this must be done on a shoestring..... so come on lottery!! If anyone knows one of those gardening programmes that wants to tinker with my garden, let them know that I'll bake all the cakes they can eat and I'll make the tea.

We've been making our own hedge plants from cuttings from existing hedging but now that I look at the amount of plants required, we are woefully short. Ho hum.

Still, onwards and upwards, Spring is only 10 days away and I'm mega keeping my fingers crossed for no more bluddy snow!

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Archie is turning out to be a right little bobby-dazzler! Might show him at the county fair this year.....

When the fog descends to the valley, school run is an awesome experience high above sea level. We trundle along, avoiding the sheep that like to lick the road, (!) until we too plunge into the mist and fog. I'll never tire of that view.