If you’re reading this then it’s all gone to plan (or as to plan as it could have gone) and I’ve refreshed my blog to reflect our recent house move.

I’d been Life at 139a for ten years, which is a long time and although I’d never felt the need to change before now, now feels right.

When we first started to look to move house people were quick to ask if I’d change my blog name - back then I was ‘no, why would I, 139a can be a virtual space for wherever we go’. And in some ways that’s true, it has been a big part of our life for the twenty one years we lived there, but we were also so, so ready to move. It wasn’t until we got to Nottinghamshire, that I realised I was also ready to move my blog on too.

So why Bosworth Life?

I was always going to keep the life element of my blog name, as the things I cover are more wide reaching than just house and garden, and I didn’t want to feel constrained by a name. Bosworth is part of our address here, and so it was a fairly obvious choice.

Our new house is a new build barn, which is quite an unusual concept, and I toyed with variations about life at the barn, life at the new build barn and many more. But none felt right, and some felt quite similar to names that were already in use. That was a disappointing find, as when I wrote the post sharing that I was mulling over a blog name change, that was where I thought I’d go.

But it didn’t turn out that way.

I checked various names with Bosworth, and I was sold when I realised the .life suffix worked with it. It may not be as normal as a .co.uk or a .com suffix, but it is a lot cleaner and it makes me smile.

A cleaner look and feel

Now I like stuff, and I like my stuff - but something strange has happened as part of our house move. Like many people moving we’ve gone through years and years of ‘essential’ items pruning as we go, recalling memories and finding plenty of things we’d long forgotten about.

I thought we’d been pretty ruthless, but as we unpacked in our new house with its bright, white spaces we had a rethink, and have got rid of a load more stuff. We’ve been here two months and are only just getting some pictures on the walls. And we know that all we had before won’t all make it onto the walls here, which is another surprise to us both.

And so it makes sense for me to refresh the look and feel here too. The old logo was pretty minimalist, but this one feels cleaner and brighter - though I realise some may say dull (and that’s ok just please keep it to yourself!).

So what’s next?

Now I’ve got this new space set up I’ll also be changing my social channels (wish me luck!), but I’m also hoping that the refresh will inspire me to share more about our move, and our new house. For some reason I’ve held back as it didn’t feel a good fit under the Life at 139a banner, which given what I said before about it being a virtual 139a is odd, and that cemented the idea of a new blog name.

We’ve also got a whole new area to explore, so that’s exciting too. The countryside is right on our doorstep, as is the local history - the last battle of the War of the Roses, the Battle of Stoke Field took place close by in 1487. Newark is less than four miles away, Nottingham about seventeen miles - and there’s plenty more to explore in between and beyond.

I’ve also - finally - got a dedicated craft room here, so no more having craft supplies scattered between rooms, and it seems I’ve been collecting a fair amount of stuff, so I’ll be aiming to use some of that too as well as finish the projects I have on the go, and start some of those that I’ve planned. Though be warned, that list has grown!

So exciting times, and I can’t wait to get started - thanks for being here to see how it goes!

August was also a good month for visiting gardens as part of the National Garden Scheme, and I was excited to discover there’s actually gardens we can visit close to our new house. We got to one, didn’t get to another - but I’m continuing to look at what’s on offer now every time the newsletter drops into my inbox. If you want to know more, there’s details on how to find garens near you on the post I’ve linked this month.

Advice, inspiration and places to visit

• RHS advice: jobs to do this month

• Gardeners World advice and inspiration

• National Trust gardens and parks to visit

• English Heritage historic gardens to visit

<div align="center"><a <a href="https://www.lifeat139a.com/the-garden-year" rel="nofollow" title="“TheGardenYear" "><img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5416b95ee4b0800b167a736e/1677537995314-YRESPBOVYYA636BJVP0C/TGY+200.jpeg?format=1000w” alt=“The Garden Year” style="border: none; height: auto; width: 200px; /></a></div>

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Happy 1 September!

I know it comes every year, but so soon? I hope you’ve had a good summer and whatever September brings for you is good. We are definitely noticing a change is starting to take place in the seasons, the sun is still here at times, but the mornings and evenings have more of a chill to them. Our windows are open less, and more are closed than ever before in our almost two months in our new house.

We’re noticing the differences in the hedgerows too. The image below was one from an impromptu nine mile walk on bank holiday Monday, which saw us searching out an old disused railway which is now used as a cycle path and pedestrian route into Newark.

We found it and when we got there we realised we’d been there before. Not in a supernatural kind of way, literally we’d been there before back in 2016 on our first visit to the area, when moving wasn’t even a twinkle in our eye. Now we live just a few miles from there - isn’t it funny how life turns out?

Thank you for your comments on my post last week about a new blog name - it’s all really helped, and I have secured a new domain and hope to be making the changes in the next few days, all going well. Exciting times!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

And when I say a bit of a hiccup I mean our local delivery office didn’t put the redirection in place, so that wasn’t great! It’s all working now though, and we’ve an additional three weeks tacked onto the end of our paid time period, but we’ll never know exactly what we missed - we know we probably missed some bills, and a car tax reminder - but as we knew to expect these we were able to make arrangements.

What we don’t know, is as always, what we don’t know. And it’s likely we never will. Our former neighbour did pop in to see if there was any abandoned post in our old house and forwarded a letter or two manually, which was good of him, but I’m guessing there can’t have been anything hugely important, or else we’d know by now.

We’ve actually been pretty good at changing our addresses in the many, many places that you discover you need to when you move. I’d written a list (no surprise there!) ahead of our move, and it’s been quite satisfying ticking things off it. Though it wasn’t helped in that some organisations didn’t have the up to date postcode file, so didn’t have our address listed. Even the Royal Mail redirection to start with - that was a bit of a face-plant moment I can tell you!

I’m sharing these summer cards on a drizzly end of August day, a day which feels far from summer - but hopefully it isn’t the end of summer yet, and September will come good with its warm sunny days.

As usual there’s eight cards in the box, and the cards celebrate talented artists. The first for this month definitely has a ‘back to school’ feel doesn’t it? Though it’d also be good for friends who like a spot of mindful colouring.

The second impressionist-like image is growing on me. The more I look at the floral border and tree branches, the clearer it becomes and the more I see - it’s definitely one to lose yourself in, and would carry a thoughtful message well.

The cheery elephants on this next card can’t fail to make me smile. I can feel the warmth radiating from the image, and the coolness of the water as it’s splashed around - how a picture can conjure up those feelings always amazes me.

The next two are both colourful - a flower covered ditsy image and a cheery musical note wishing a happy birthday. I know I’ll use these, but in the meantime they’ll join my card stash waiting their turn.

I like both of the flower in vases designs - and it’s quite a mainstay of these boxes, which is good for me. I find the cards can be used for many occasions, and are really quite flexible - as well as beautiful. It’s hard to let them go at times.

This month this birthday cake card is my favourite. I’m imagining it’s pink blancmange, wibble-wobbling on the plate! Again it’s another one that’s evoking feelings and making me smile. I’m not even sure blancmange is still a thing, it’s probably now called posset or mousse or something, who knows?

So another box of great cards. I saw on The Card Boys Instagram page that they’re hosting a giveaway for a box of cards, which is open until 4 September, so if you want to be in with a chance pop over there and enter - good luck!

When I said the other week a new routine was emerging, I may have been optimistic! As you’ll see from my post this week I’ve been mulling, and when that happens most routine things go out the window as I become preoccupied with what’s on my mind. I don’t know why I didn’t think to write a blog post earlier, as that’s really helped me - I guess that’s why we all write, and have our own space on the internet. Over the past year, while being on the moving house carousel, I think I’ve forgotten that.

Anyway, enjoy this week’s photo taken by MOH while we enjoyed a free flying display which took place over our garden this week. The weather was glorious too, as you can see from the blue sky. For about four hours on and off we were treated to various aircraft flying above the garden, as were the surrounding villages, by the local RAF base. It was very loud, very close and very impressive and finished with a stunning thirty minute display by the Red Arrows.

MOH was just as impressed that I knew where our binoculars were! I’m impressed he found them without needing detailed directions - the logical unpacking system is working!

Have a lovely week. Oh, and it’s a bank holiday here in the UK this weekend so the linky will stay open until 11pm on Monday to allow more time for you to link up.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Back when I first shared on here that we were looking to move, one of the first questions people naturally asked was “will you change your blog name?”

Back then my answer was a definitive no, and while the whole business of moving house was taking place that was firmly my intention. Since we’ve moved people have asked again if I’ll change the name here, and I’m much less sure of my answer.

I’d thought that our house - 139a - was very much part of us and our lives together - it was our first house together, we celebrated our engagement there one snowy February day, and even held our wedding reception in the garden. It has hosted many friends and family gatherings, most recently for our combined 110th celebration (two fiftieth birthdays and ten years of marriage!) and it obviously has lots of memories, as houses do. And while we were ready to move, and had emotionally detached from the house I’ve been surprised by how little I think of our old house (even if at times I do still refer to it as back home!) and MOH feels the same too.

We’ve been in Nottinghamshire not quite two months, and we already feel very settled. We’re so glad we carried on with the faff to buy this house - that’s a story for another day - as it immediately felt right, and even more so the day we moved in. Buying it took a while to make it happen as we first viewed it in August 2022, with the most recent and final viewing in May 2023 - the short version is we lost it twice, but got there in the end.

But anyway I digress.

Because our new house feels so much like home, and has done from when we moved in, renaming my blog and moving away from 139a feels like a logical step. Which is a sentence I never thought I’d type, but I am and it feels right. Last February I celebrated ten years in this space, and things change, and that’s ok.

The tricky bit is to what, and that’s what I’ve been mulling.

Even writing this post has made me realise that a name change will happen - even though it brings a fair amount of work, and needs to be looked into in more detail, but it’ll happen because it feels the right thing to do. I’m pretty sure there’ll still be ‘life’ in there somewhere as my blog has always been about more than the house and garden, but what exactly, who knows?

I’ve a couple of ideas which I’ve started to check out on social media and google searches, and one looks more promising than the other. But it’s a tricky one, as I don’t want to leave it to long that inertia sets in, or even worse that in the interim someone nabs the name, or something similar (I think that’s probably unlikely, but…)

The other thing writing this post has done is to help me think things through and free up some space for new stuff to take - and hopefully that will be on the creative side, and help with what this space will become. It’s something I want to get right the first time, I don’t want to be changing it every week or so, but I’m happy that I have the startings of a plan. I do like a plan!

In the meantime though I’ll be carrying on in my current guise, but just know that a change is on the cards, but it’ll still be me with the variety of posts you’re used to.

Until then, enjoy a picture of the Red Arrows flying over our house, as they did on Wednesday afternoon!

Random? Yes, but a pleasant discovery! There’s an an RAF base a bit further down the road and the Red Arrows were just part of an event taking place that us, and other people close by could benefit from. Who knew we’d have such entertainment annually right above our heads!

With the nicer weather there has been time to get out on my bike, for the first time in a good few years. I didn’t go far, but that wasn’t the point, I went. And as important walking the next day wasn’t an issue! It’s been a while since I last cycled, and to be fair cycling in London wasn’t fun, with much less traffic here - and quieter, country lanes - I think this could be a more regular occurrence. And we may even venture further than the pub in the next village next time!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

It’s been lovely to see the blue skies again this week, and we’ve definitely made the most of being able to be out and about. Even if one of those out and about trips was to Ikea to pick up another storage unit - I’ve conceded that I don’t have enough storage in my craft room, and I suspect it will only get worse as time goes on!

Of course though the unit is slightly different to the ones we already have in there. We have a gloss finish, and this one is a matt finish so I’ll be moving the furniture about a bit to retain the glossy finish on the side which will be seen most. The easy job would be to slot in the new unit on the end, but I know I’ll prefer to make it a much bigger, and harder job!

We were in Newark, at the Castle grounds, last night to see a theatrical performance of The Sign of Four, a one-man Sherlock Holmes story. It was well performed and a good night out, but I was so thankful the weather had changed, I’m not sure it would have been quite so much fun in the rain!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

But I digress. Another newsletter arrived recently and this time I checked to see if there would be more gardens opening near our new home in Nottinghamshire.

And there was.

A garden less than 10 miles, 15 minutes by car was holding their annual open day imminently, no booking required. So that’s how we found ourselves at Floral Media, along with 501 other people for charity. Being a complete newbie to the area, I’d struck lucky. Floral Media is a 15 acre site which has been developed over twenty years. It’s not open to the public on a daily basis but provides workshops in horticulture and floristry, as well supplying sustainably grown flowers to florists and flower arrangers.

And it is a beautiful space. It combines a home and business and showcases an abundance of talent.

Despite the look of those dark clouds in the pictures, there was very little rain - just a few spots. But there was plenty of inspiration, and colour throughout the space. The upright wooden beams brought height to where we entered the gardens, and that’s something I’m already considering for our new garden, possibly not wood, but definitely something to add some structure. The paths also did that and led you through this densely planted space.

The paths led you round the garden as you’d expect, and sometimes even as you wouldn’t expect. There was plenty to see in every space,

The paths meandered past succulents in troughs and onto the vegetable garden, and then onto the meadow with a fun garden structure complete with seating inside the tower.

We weren’t done with the succulents yet, or the colour. I loved this chair housing the coleus, it worked here but I’m not sure there’s enough persuasion to replicate this in our own garden.

The front garden was full of hollyhocks and insects inspecting them closely.

Isn’t that table great? It was in the Jungle Room, which was the only room of the house that was also open - and that was a real treat. Next up for us was to go into the field and see where they grow their cut flowers, but as we passed this area of flowering plants that were most past their best, I was struck that even these looked great and in keeping with the whole space.

The field was something else. Rows of flowers, and a couple of poly tunnels with more flowers in. What a space.

Wasn’t I lucky to spot this? And even better I’ve already spotted another garden close by which is opening on Sundays in August, so I’m hoping that we’ll get along to one of those openings too.

I don’t know about you but for me July has just flown by. It was a busy month with lots of change so I’m sure that’s contributed to the speed. We’re getting much more settled here now, the deliveries continue to arrive with regularity that both impresses and scares me. It’s the little things, such as hooks for tea towels - as well as the big things, like a new washer-dryer that have been on our hit list most recently.

Having finally decided on the type, brand and model of our new washer-dryer it arrived in less than a week, and then was installed in less than thirty minutes. The downside is I’ve a fair bit of washing to catch up on, and no more excuses!

We’ve been out exploring again with a short there-and-back trip to one of the nearby villages. We later discovered that there was a footpath we could have taken to bring us back in a circular route, though we also learnt it’s pretty overgrown, but ok if you crawl! So maybe not knowing about it in advance was a good thing - we’re hopeful that it will be cut back, and we’ll be able to explore it unscathed.

The village was extremely picturesque, and quieter than our own - mainly because it has a country lane rather than a busier road through it. I snapped a few photos as we walked and my photo this week is one of those.

Have a great week, and thank you all for being so patient with me these past few months - I think, finally, a new routine is emerging.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

If you follow me on social media, or have read posts here recently then you’ll know that at the start of July we moved house. It’s been a long time coming, but that’s for another post, and it’s also meant a brand new garden. And brand new is a pretty good description of it too. Our new house is a new build, and so the garden is very different from that of our old house:

• Here we have some very young trees, rather than the well established trees we had before.

• Similarly where our garden was long and narrow, here it’s much wider but not as deep though it is still a good size. MOH says that every time he looked at the garden when we were viewing the house, it got bigger! And there is much more lawn for him to cut here.

• We do have a rather nice wall at the rear boundary of our garden, we have one wooden fence (rather than the many panels we had before) and there’s another brick wall to the front.

I’m sure there’s more differences too - I mean, I don’t even know what soil type we have yet - but no doubt it won’t be too long before I discover more. But let’s start at the beginning with move day.

I was quite clear which plants and pots I wanted to bring with me, and I don’t think it was as many as perhaps MOH thought. I was also clear which I was bringing for the plants, and which for the pots and in some cases both. I’d planned ahead (and in some cases well ahead) by putting plants into pots. The peonies were potted up into pots at the end of last summer, and the dogwoods went straight into pots never actually making it into the soil at our previous garden. The rhubarb had remained in a pot since we brought it back from the allotment, and with no space for it it was doing its best to survive.

At one point when the move got tricky and more complicated than either of us ever contemplated, I emptied some pots which had bedding plants from the year before in. Solely because empty pots would cope better with a period in storage if it came to it, and if I needed to make temporary arrangements for the pots with live plants then it would be easier to do. In the end it didn’t come to that, but it was really close, and with my right hand out of action I was glad I’d made some advance provision just in case.

The plants (and empty pots) which came with us were lined up along the main planted area of our new garden. And most haven’t moved very far from there since. We’re starting to get out into the garden now, but as with any move, there’s always a lot to do and most of that is naturally in the house.

When I said our garden couldn’t be more different, this is what I meant:

Yes, quite different isn’t it? It’s not quite as stark as that though!

MOH thought I’d reject this house based solely on the garden, but he hadn’t realised how big the planted bed by the vehicle entrance was, or the appeal and challenge of starting a garden from scratch. So it was far from being rejected, it will take a little time to decide what to do, and to make it all work. But already we both think the move was worth it.

The planted bed, which is both inside and outside of the brick wall is quite large and it’s here that will keep me busy for a little while as the plants have enjoyed growing freeform for a year or so. Some have failed completely, and some have thrived. I recognise some, can name others and will need to observe some more to see what they do, as that will help identify them - and of course there’s always the plant identifier apps should I need them.

In June’s garden update I said how the hares appeared to be edging ever closer to the house curious and anxious about the move, well they are still enjoying pride of place on the edge of the new patio. I’m used to seeing them there now, but for the first week or so we both kept doing double takes thinking there was an animal out there looking for food.

This is the view from the kitchen/living area of the hares and the garden beyond. It really is quite calming, though I’m not totally sure the hares are enjoying their more exposed position given the wind, rain and sun they’ve experienced since arriving.

The removal team moved a few of the larger pots straight into position for me which was really helpful. The acer was definitely in the plant and pot category, and is now enjoying pride of place outside our back (front) door. I say back (front) door, the door is at the back, but it’s used like a front door. See, it didn’t take me that long to go ‘all country’ did it? Our actual front door, which is as tradition dictates on the front of the house, is used primarily for post and deliveries.

The olive tree, which was previously up against a fence and in front of the mock orange, now has access to 360 degrees of sunlight and it’s thriving. In fact even more so since I took this photo. I’d given it a small trim ahead of the move to remove any branches which look potentially vulnerable and to give it a (slightly) more uniform shape - well as uniform as it could be with the back so bald. This one was definitely in the plant not pot category, the shape is good but the paintwork has been peeling for a good few years, but now it’s here it’s growing on me.

A visit to mum and dad’s meant we left with the plant that dad had been growing for me. We think it’s a nectarine, which dad planted the stone from. This is it after eighteen months, so it’s given a good return on the care vested in it. Now it was here, all I needed to do was the same, the only thing was we hadn’t even started opening greenhouse or shed boxes, so my first job was to find my gardening tools.

I found them eventually, they were in one of the last few boxes we opened. Typically. But thankfully everything was all together - we made use of the packing service available and some things have ‘jumped rooms’ as we’ve unpacked boxes, so it’s been quite a discovery at times. (Though generally it was worth it, and nowhere near as expensive as I imagined it to be - especially when looked at as a percentage of the removal costs in general, and with there being a relatively short period to pack everything, and to do that without a right hand made the whole decision a no brainer for us).

With my tools and a bonus trug found instead of getting this into a pot I left it in a trug of water overnight for a long soak. It was - and still is - temporarily lodged within the trellis area to give it some protection from the winds, which have been quite un-July-like (as has the weather generally).

But finally it was in the largest pot I had, with new (newly bought) compost, a new stake and its branches untied. I’ve also taken off some of the intermediary branches, as I have an idea that training it espalier-like will be a good idea, and if I’m lucking planting it in front of the wall. I didn’t bring any of the tall 6ft canes with me, so I’ll need to get some of those, but my plan is to make it a frame similar to those you can see on the left in the photo below (those trees aren’t mine, sadly).

I’ve no idea what the soil is like in the garden, and especially in front of the wall - and at some point I will discover whether it’s a typical new build or if it’s farm heritage will stand me in at least some stead, or not. But that’s definitely for another day, and it’s likely this may need potting on into a larger pot in the interim too.

I’ve long known buddleias to be attractive to bees and butterflies, but boy, it’s not something I’d experienced first hand. Until now. they love this bush, which while on the other side of our wall is still our garden. I think it’s a self-seeded bush though which gives me a dilemma - it’s great for wildlife, but is growing so close to one of the young trees and is already close to swamping it. There’s no other buddleias in the planted areas, and many of the other plants are duplicated, which leads me to believe it’s self-seeded, but as I said, it’s been full of butterflies and bees. So much so that we often see ‘drunk’ butterflies having a snooze in the gravel, so losing it would be a big loss.

My plan is to wait until the flowers die off, then to cut it back with the intention of repotting it - aiming to save it and bring it onto this side of the wall so that it can continue to service the wildlife. And if it doesn’t survive, then I’ve the offer of other self-seeded plants to try, and failing that I’m sure I could source one in a local garden centre.

Now that my gardening tools had been unearthed (pun intended) I was keen to get among the planted area to see what was there exactly and to restore some kind of order. Not much, admittedly but I’ve started on the inner bed to bring some exuberant plants back under control and to stop them dominating those close by.

We have plants that have enjoyed the freedom to grow wherever, and some which haven’t enjoyed being grown over quite so much. Some have failed completely, which is no surprise given the extremes of temperatures we’ve had over the past year, and some like these elephant ears are just about hanging on.

There are another couple of clumps in this area, so they’re clearly fine with the garden generally, but for whatever reason this clump wasn’t so successful. But wouldn’t you know it, the elephant ears are the only plant I brought with me which were already planted here - what were the chances of that? So this clump will soon be making friends with those from London.

MOH has started to think about cutting the grass now, it’s very much his domain and I’m more than happy for it to be. One morning though we spotted some white/beige things on the grass, thinking initially they were leaves but realising we don’t have the trees we had before, and nor are there any that close by where these could have come from. And even if they could, they wouldn’t be brown just yet. Closer inspection identified them as mushrooms, we’re not knowledgeable enough to know if they’re edible or not, and without expert knowledge it’s not something I’d try either.

The one small tree that we have in the lawned area of the garden is this small crab apple. I think dad’s disappointed it’s not a proper apple tree, but crab apples can be useful too. We had one before on the allotment, that one was large, old and quite out of control but it produced a good crop. I’m hoping as this one is so young - and currently laden with fruits - that we’ll be able to make use of them, and control how it grows. Crab apple jelly goes with most things right?!

The largest pot I brought was the rhubarb. It had been in this pot since we brought it back from the allotment, and it didn’t have a great position in our last garden and so it didn’t thrive. Here though, it’s another of our plants which is doing really well, the stems are the thickest they’ve been for years, and so many more of them too. We may even get to eat a few this year, they’re that good.

I plan to plant this into the border into one of the spots which had a failed plant, but I’m just working out which one and if it’s large enough. It’s not the right time to move this now, so I’ve some time yet though once it’s moved it may mean a year of not pulling the stems, but one more year won’t make that much of a difference.

We also don’t have a greenhouse here. I have plans for a very small greenhouse at some point, but not yet as we want to see what the garden brings, and work out the best place for what I have in mind and even if we can incorporate a space for growing vegetables - I’ve a space in mind, which is small but could work though I need to work out if the practice matches up with the theory!

However just the small amount of gardening I’ve done this month has made me realise just how much I enjoy, and how good it is to potter, so I’ve set up my greenhouse staging in the garage for some impromptu ‘greenhousing’ - and while there’s clearly not the light there, the warmth of the sun through the garage doors will be ideal for helping seeds to germinate ahead of something more permanent.

But that’s what gardens give you right? The incentive to plan, grow and change - and to enjoy both the fruits (and vegetables and flowers) of your labour, and the headspace being in nature brings. So far from being a garden that disincentivised me, it’s one that’s opened so many possibilities, and many more plans!

But neither are something to be rushed, and that’s ok.

But I found them, and was able to pot on a plant which dad had been growing for me - we think it’s a nectarine that he’s grown from the pip, so that will be interesting to watch develop. And it’s already quite big given that it’s only eighteen months in. I’ve also started to reshape the plants in one part of the garden, to stop them growing into each other and bring back some of the definition. I’ll be sharing a post on my new garden soon, so look out for that and it’s quite likely not what you might expect, but in the meantime I’ve linked up a post on my rather nice new garden wall.

Have a great month!

Advice, inspiration and places to visit

• RHS advice: jobs to do this month

• Gardeners World advice and inspiration

• National Trust gardens and parks to visit

• English Heritage historic gardens to visit

<div align="center"><a <a href="https://www.lifeat139a.com/the-garden-year" rel="nofollow" title="“TheGardenYear" "><img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5416b95ee4b0800b167a736e/1677537995314-YRESPBOVYYA636BJVP0C/TGY+200.jpeg?format=1000w” alt=“The Garden Year” style="border: none; height: auto; width: 200px; /></a></div>

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

This week we’ve spent some time unboxing things in the garage, which has meant that for the first time in a while I’ve been able to do some gardening. I hadn’t realised quite how much I’d missed just pottering about. I spent some time weeding and trimming some of the plants which had started to grow into each other, and somehow managed to half fill a wheelie bin. But it was good to get acquainted with my new garden, and I was amazed at how many butterflies the buddleia bush attracted. That was great to see.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

It’s an original feature on the small development where our house is, and acts as a boundary for a number of the properties. The section in our garden is full of character, and a few remnants of its previous life remain.

Aren’t they fantastic? I’m sure the wall has seen plenty of history, and if only it could talk…

One section appears to have had a cross section removed:

And my favourite addition is the Nottinghamshire Police sign, which says ‘For a safer rural community’ and warns that it’s a ‘protected area’ - I think that might have expired!

There’s a heavily laden crab apple tree in one corner of the garden, which looks great with our cream garden furniture and the wall for company.

See, it really is a rather nice wall!

I had some good news during the week when I learnt I’d won a competition on Instagram. The competition was a collaboration between Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe and Round Corner Brewery, both of which are based in Melton Mowbray - which is now just down the road. The prize - some pork pies and beer (yay!) - arrived earlier this week, and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the pork pie parcel tape.

We’re looking forward to eating the pork pies, and trying the beer - I know it’s complete coincidence as I entered the competition before we moved, but what a welcome to the area!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

But it wasn’t until yesterday that I finally got around to leaving our new house on foot to explore some of the footpaths right on our doorstep. And it was so good to do that. When looking at the area we’d walked a direct route and a more scenic route to and from the pub in the next village - priorities right?! - but we hadn’t explored things closer to home.

We knew that just around the corner was a lane which led towards the River Trent, so we headed down there following the old brick wall as it wound its way round and under the brick bridge - it looks like a railway bridge, but if it is (and we don’t think it is) it isn’t a line that’s active, and onto an ornate entrance ‘for deliveries'.

From there on the wall ended and the views really opened up, and we followed the lane as it weaved its way around fields until we spotted the yellow topped wooden marker for the public bridleway, when we turned onto a narrow, verdant path.

Dodging the nettles, me more successfully than MOH it wasn’t long before the path opened out and the red haze of the (most likely) weeds caught my eye, as did the pink flowering clover along the pathway.

We could soon hear the River Trent and it wasn’t too long before we were on its banks, along with a few anglers from the local piscatorial society. To our left was a recently harvested field of barley rising up to where we’d started from.

Along the way there were plenty of thistles, resplendent in purple and complete with fluff and I also noted the potential for some blackberrying later in the summer!

Reaching a junction we turned back on ourselves, so walking parallel to the river but back on ourselves alongside fields of barley, this time with a poppy or two for a pop of colour. A view that’s really quite different to those we’re used to in South London, even Greenwich Park can’t quite offer this solitude and peacefulness.

As we ended our walk I spotted this thistle which seemed a bit behind the rest we’d seen on our walk, which also handily seemed to be better positioned for a snap - I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, and the detail that my iPhone was able to pick out.

An hour outside, three miles walked and so much more headspace regained. For us the move was a lot about space, and maximising that - already it feels like home here, and there’s so much more to explore. I’m hoping that our next venture out on foot is that one we’ve tried before, to the pub in the next village - we really should double check it, shouldn’t we?!

Thanks for your congratulations last week on our house move - the good news is we are winning the battle of the boxes, but we do have lots of boxes either labelled misc or stuff. It’s probably an accurate description, but it would be much more helpful to have narrowed down a little more to give us an idea of what type of stuff we’re about to discover.

We’ve also discovered that phone signal in our new house isn’t the best, but we do have the forerunner to our internet connection so that at least is good. It’s been a real challenge not to have the internet and not just for the things we think of that we so obviously need the internet for - but also for closing down and setting up new utility accounts, and ordering bins from our new council.

We’re getting there, and already feel like this is where we’re meant to be - though it’ll be much better without the boxes!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

It’s now just over a month since my operation, and so I thought I’d share an update (spoiler: it’s all going well).

Ahead of my op

One of my biggest concerns ahead of the op was actually getting to the hospital for 7am, but it wasn’t anywhere near as problematic as I thought it would be. In fact we were the first people to arrive, and I soon learnt that my op was the first one of the day too, which was good news - much less time to worry, or even look worried.

I met my surgeon he confirmed my details, including which hand was to be operated on and then marked the area. I asked how long the operation would take, and was relieved to find that it would only take 5, maybe 6 minutes. We were led to the day room and looked after by the nurses doing the pre-op checks, none were that surprised that my blood pressure was a little higher than normal.

Now wearing my hospital gown I was off to theatre, that’s when it started to get real. Once there I had to hop up onto a trolley and ‘make myself comfortable’ - well, as much as you can. Whilst in the theatre area I wasn’t left on my own at all, even if the nurse who accompanied me was called elsewhere, another was called to replace her. This was both reassuring and slightly disconcerting, the latter because having got this far, I had no plans to escape or even to fall off the trolley.

During the operation

Once the local anaesthetic was doing its thing, and it was checked that it really was working, we were off. I felt nothing except for a slight twang at one point, not a painful twang at all, but similar to an elastic band pinging.

What struck me though was how the team in theatre worked like a well oiled machine, like a well practised dance with each playing their part. I couldn’t see what they were doing as the protective sheet I’d put my arm through was stiff enough to be arranged so that I couldn’t, and while I was curious, I was also grateful.

The bandage was on and I was in the recovery room, and once it had been established I was ok, quite soon back in my day room, where MOH had been very well looked after by the ward staff. He said he was just about to set off in search of coffee, when a head popped round the door and offered him a coffee. When I got back tea and biscuits arrived for me, and another coffee for him.

I wasn’t expecting the bandage to be quite so huge. In the pre-op phone call I’d been advised not to wear anything too tight fitting, but nothing more. It was like a comedy bandage, the sort you see in cartoons.

Nor was I expecting my hand to resemble an Oompah Loompah!

That was the iodine of course, which had been liberally applied in theatre. It comes off relatively easily with wet wipes, which was a blessing as I’d been instructed not to get this wet for two weeks.

Before I could leave I needed to see the physio who advised on some simple exercises to do every hour. So simple that I wouldn’t have usually classed them as exercises, but as the fortnight went on I realised these were showing quite clearly the movement and dexterity were returning, despite the huge comedy bandage.

Two weeks post-op

After two weeks I was back at the hospital to have my stitches out. The white bandage I’d left with was distinctly not so white when I returned. I’d not had stitches before, so I’d not had them out either. That was a whole new experience, and thankfully one that wasn’t painful either.

The nurse was very excited to see how well my wound was healing - she told me it was a nurse thing! There was some ‘canoeing’ but not much - this is, I think, when the wound is more open than is ideal, but it’s not a bad thing as such.

I left with steri strips on the wound, a dressing and wearing a tubigrip and with another for good measure. Which was just as well, as these were even harder to keep clean - especially as using my hand became so much easier (and because by this stage we knew our house move would likely take place quite soon).

Next I saw the consultant who was also pleased with my progress, and who wanted to talk about scheduling in some time for the operation for my left hand. Though after some discussion about the reduction of symptoms I’d had in my other hand since the operation, this was put on hold. While an operation may be needed at some point, I’m very much of the opinion that it should only happen then, and not just because it can. Thankfully my surgeon also agreed.

I’d been surprised that I’d experienced far fewer symptoms in my left hand since the operation. Whether that’s because it was being used more (I’m very right-handed) and so was getting stretched and more active naturally, or if because deep down it saw what happened and decided to behave. Who knows?!

Four weeks post-op

After another couple of weeks I was able to remove the steri strips. The nurses had told me how - get them wet in the shower, and gently rub them off - and what to expect. After being covered for a month my hand was dry, as was only to be expected. The nurses advised using vaseline or a plain hand cream to nourish it - and vaseline has been my choice, it works really well on rehydrating my hand.

I hadn’t realised that the skin on your hand is dead skin, and the top layers won’t heal as a cut on your arm would. It heals from the inside when the newer dead skin is at the surface, the things you learn.

On being out of action for two weeks

With the large comedy bandage driving wasn’t allowed, and in fact in the UK is illegal. Not that I wanted to drive, but not driving meant planning ahead, but it wasn’t impossible. The exercises to tap each fingertip to my thumb provided an immediate progress report, and by the end of the first week I was able to tap even my little finger to my thumb.

While the bandage did make normal, every day things tricky most of these were surmountable.

• Washing my hair was impossible to start with, so a trip to the hairdressers for a wash and blow dry was just the job.

• Eating was harder than I expected, and MOH needed to cut food up for me at times - though he cut things into pieces larger than I’d like. Food that was easiest to eat was anything I could pick up with my left hand, or stab with a fork. Fine dining it wasn’t, but nor was I hungry.

• Dressing was ok, well everything except my bra. For the first week MOH was called on to help me dress, but gradually I was able to do this myself. One morning he went out for a cycle returning amazed to find me still not dressed, until I pointed the obvious out.

• A sling helped with going out and about - not only acting as a visual clue for people to give me a wider berth than normal, but also because holding your hand above your heart while moving about, for an extended period is harder than you think. Really, it is.

• Juggling everything one-handed - I use a cross body bag in any case, and this was helpful as it kept my hands free. As we were off to Gardeners’ World Live where I knew I’d be taking pictures, I also bought myself a cross-body phone holder - this was unbelievably brilliant, and I’m still using it now. In fact I’m tempted to get another one so that I can coordinate it with outfits, and my mum has also admired it. A simple thing, that I wasn’t sure would work, but it really did.

The surgeon advised that as my hand was healing I would naturally use it more. He was right, but I’m not sure he knew that our house move was so imminent, and to be fair when I had the op on 10 June, nor did we! I have gradually used my hand more, but packing our house in a short time span was a no from me, and a no you’re not doing that from MOH - which was totally the right decision.

As for typing, up until now I’ve kept my posts here short or posted those which I’d prepared in advance, but now that the bandages and steri strips are off, I’m much more comfortable and confident to use my hand pretty much as I did before the operation. What with this and our house move though, there hasn’t been much room for typing though now I’m both are getting more settled I’m hoping to work out a new blogging routine and show you more of our house and the area we’ve moved to!

There’s a couple of things which remain challenging, like putting my hands at right angles to my wrists as in a press-up position, but that’s something to work on. Lifting - or rather shifting - heavy boxes still requires MOH’s help, and not just because they are heavy, but because you move your hand naturally to adjust to picking a box up and down again and that dexterity isn’t there just yet. The other thing that’s challenging is the locks on our new house - they’re new to me and generally just new, so are a bit stiffer than in our previous house, but really that’s not so much of an issue.

What’s next

I’m moisturising the wound with vaseline regularly, at least a couple of times a day, and have started massaging Bio Oil into the scar to help reduce that. Though it really is quite small, the whole incision area is about 2.5cm and about 1.5cm of that is more pronounced, though I expect once it’s healed it could easily pass for one of the lines on my hand.

I’m really pleased with how everything has gone so far, but I do want to check out some videos for exercises and massage tips to further speed up my healing. I also pleased that my left hand is continuing to behave, and even more so that I haven’t worn the splints since my operation.

The operation is more common than I knew, since I’ve had mine I’ve become more aware of other people who’ve gone through the same.

And really, my surgeon was right, it’s nothing to worry about at all. Phew.

The month started with the froth and flowers of the pyracantha, and ended with the agapanthus starting to pop out. Though the plants are very different, they both start with little white dots of flowers, and there were many on the pyracantha which has spread to cover almost two entire fence panels over the past year or so.

Then came the march of the roses. The pink Gertrude Jekyll’s are always a favourite and this year even more so, they threw up so many more flowers than ever before. The distinct winter that we had is supposed to have made this year a good year for roses, I’d go further and say it’s rebooted a lot of plants.

The white roses against the very blue sky was a view we often had looking up from the patio, and the swathes of deeper pink roses popped over the fence from next door bringing colour to a part of our garden that was later to be filled with jasmine.

The hydrangeas started to bloom, but as you’ll see by the end of the month they’ve lost their greeny-white and become a more creamy-white.

I also set MOH a challenge to upgrade our secateurs, and neither of us realised quite how blunt they’d become. The ones we had came with a spare blade and spring, which we’d shoved in a drawer never to be thought of again, or at least for many years.

After resorting to watching the YouTube video the blades and springs (for the ratchet) are changed, and they are like new. This has been especially good news to a getting increasingly bored me following my Carpal Tunnel op, and I’ve been able to prune and garden (mostly) left-handed.

On the patio the roses were joined by the rich velvety flowers of the clematis, and our best in a long time showing of honeysuckle. It’s like the plants were showing us their best just when we needed it.

And then the sweet peas started. Their delicate pink slippers quite quickly becoming the bright fuchsia flowers - I’m so glad we had another time to see these, they have been such a mainstay of our patio and come back unaided every year. A few years ago I planted some of the seed into a pot with some pink jasmine, and while they’ve grown they’ve never really flowered - most likely due to where they were in the garden. I was so glad I’d done this though, as that pot has come with us to our new house, time will tell if they’ll like their new surroundings.

I mentioned the jasmine, but wow. It starts like this, which does nothing to prepare you for its scent. We have jasmine in several places around the garden, and as the sun warms up the spot it’s easy to see which section will flower next. It has also been amazing this year, and our neighbour said that she always enjoys our jasmine when it flowers, as some has popped through the fence into their garden, which she’s very grateful for!

Just look at how the hydrangeas have come on over the month. Nature really is amazing.

This photo of the agapanthus is about three weeks into the month, and by the end of the month another flower stem had appeared and the buds were breaking out of the tightly packed pointed packages. We had two pots of agapanthus, which we haven’t brought with us as the pots were big and likely to be too unstable, but sadly only one of them survived the winter. By the time I’d given up hope on it springing into life it was too late to even the pots up, even though there’s plenty of capacity to do this.

And these two have been making me smile as the month progressed. As it became clearer that our move date would actually happen I started to gather the pots and ornaments we’d be taking, and had unintentionally placed these as if they were peering out from behind one of the pots like they were curious and anxious about the changes ahead.

I know now, that they needn’t have been!

A lot has happened in the past few weeks, and it’s all good news - we have finally moved house!

In the end the actual moving actually happened quite quickly, which was at times quite stressful. They say moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, and they're right! But we are in, and are surrounded by boxes - though thankfully they are quickly becoming empty boxes.

We don’t have internet connected yet so until I can find a reliable and decent internet source, I’m afraid my posts will be brief, but there is so much more to tell. In the meantime though, I hope you all have a good week.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!