Ravendale House

After the success of Stage 1 of our new project, (doing up the old settle) we decided to make Stage 2 more interesting by making it into a sort of game. All the work and improvements we’d done so far had been done from bits and pieces we had in ‘stock’ and hadn’t cost us a penny. The challenge now was to complete the entire project in the same vein.

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Regular readers of this blog, if indeed such things exist (I could have been talking to myself for the last 3 years) will know that I like to write about ‘firsts’. That is to say, things that I have seen or done for the very first time. Take today for example.

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March is such a frustrating month, offering us tantalizing glimpses of Spring one day, then plunging us back into winter the next. As I write this, mid-morning, the temperature is only 3c, yet a few days ago it was a warm and sunny 16c. It really does my head in.

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A few days ago I wrote about the newly delivered oak settle that is to be our latest project, and how I was initially disappointed at the shabby state it was in. I needn’t have worried.

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What kind of gardener are you? I’m a bit experimental in a sort of ‘make-it-up-as-you-go-along’ kind of way. Take this morning for example.

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I grew a few plants some years ago from a packet of assorted hardy perennial seeds.  One particular specimen was about 12″ tall and had the most vivid red flowers. I’d always wondered if it might be a verbena, but having just ‘googled’ it, I don’t think it is.

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Well, 3 weeks ago it was so cold the pipes froze. 3 days ago it was so warm it felt like Spring was really here. Today it’s cold, wet and miserable with snow forecast for later, on high ground. Is it any wonder we Brits are obsessed by our weather?

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Watching the news these days can be a very depressing business. Sometimes you just want something to make you smile, and to that end I share with you this cute little picture that I came upon the other day.

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