Bluebells

 Such a lovely time of the year. Very uplifting. I love bluebells and the world around me is full of them. My back garden is absolutely riddled with them and as you walk through the woods there are a few there as well.

Though oddly this year there are not many in the woods where they usually grow - they all seem to be out in the open in people's gardens and the verges. Maybe because of the extreme amount of rain we've had recently. Perhaps the flowers in the woods have decided to stay curled up until next year.

I remember one year when it snowed really heavily in October and then again when the leaves were coming out. The following year the leaves on the trees didn't come out until about July - then autumn came at the same time.

I read somewhere that this was because the trees were stressed. STRESSED!!!!! Honestly they want to try a short amount of time in my life if they want to know what stressed is.

I'm so proud of myself after the weekend - I did soooo much. First of all I gave up trying to grow an elder tree from a cutting so purchased one. That's now been planted and fed. I moved around some trees on the patio (saplings) that were leaning from the wind. Basically move them around so the wind could push them straight. I know that all sounds really odd, but basically the trees should remain in the pots, they will grow to the size they are able. Plus the patio is stepped up about 5 foot because my garden goes up horizontally. The top of my garden is level with the top of my house.

As well as doing that I costed up a skip for us to clear out the attic, it was going to be over £400 - which is nuts. So I pulled up my sleeves and started the activity. Yesterday I got rid of 12 bin bags of stuff and also started a pile of bits to eventually have a car boot sale (or drop at a charity shop).

On top of that I also checked our Wills because we've had those re-done - a bit depressing, but now all they need is to be signed. Though there is other activity to pull together the detail of all of our bank accounts and insurances etc. so these can be shared with the friend who is our executor.

And that's not all, I also had to clean the house because once again the cleaner hasn't come. That's 8 weeks this year that she's not turned up. Bearing in mind there have only been about 16 weeks that's not great. Anyway, it's just been 3 weeks in a row and the house was looking tired after my cursory cleans. So on Saturday I really did a deep clean, including wiping down walls and dusting and completely cleaning windowsills etc.

So I've been very domestic and, as I say, I feel super proud.

Although I got rid of 12 bags from the attic I barely scratched the surface. So it's going to be something of an ongoing task. But at least once done I'll know I saved us £400!!!!