They say that smell is the most evocative sense, but I think there is a lot to be said for sound.

One of the strongest memories I have from my childhood is staying at my Gran and Grandad’s house and waking up in the small back bedroom to the coo-cooing of wood pigeons in the trees at the end of the garden. Waking up there and hearing those morning bird noises I always felt happy.

Where we live now, even though we are only a little way off the main road, birds are a familiar sound in the morning. Sometimes it is a little on the noisy side, but bird song is one of those sounds that I think we take for granted. Can you imagine waking up to silence? Taking a walk in the woods and not hearing a single bird? It would be pretty sad wouldn’t it? View Post

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It’s a title I never thought I’d write, but lately I’ve started enjoying gardening more and more.

It could just be age, or perhaps it’s that I live in a house at the moment with a garden that actually feels worth looking after, but whatever the case I wanted to embrace it, and think about what it is I love about gardening.

It’s just outdoor tidying up. I may loathe the type of housework that involves getting your hands wet, but tidying up I can do. Clean a sink? No thank you. Arrange books and magazine neatly in piles? Why yes, I’ll take that on.

Gardening is really just like this. You don’t have to wash the plants, or get anti-bacterial spray anywhere, you just need to tidy up the weeds and make sure the garden is arranged neatly. Last weekend I took it one step further and had a go at creating a straight edge along part of the lawn. It really is very satisfying to look at from the landing window.

lawn edging

I admire my nicely trimmed lawn

You can make things grow. Actual Things. As if by magic. It’s very inspiring. Indoors, I am slowly filling the house with spider plants, transplanting dozens of spider babies, and marvelling daily at the fact that they don’t die. Outdoors in the garden I’ve even attempted a bit of grow your own. This year I am growing some salad leaves, (pause for gasps of admiration), and we have a small apple tree from where Belle planted a pip when she was about two years old. I was so surprised when that grew. I thought it was a myth.

grow you own salad

Grow your own salad

The colours. Need I say more?

gardening

Something purple we have in our garden

The smells. When I first came to look at our house, I knew it was too big and too expensive, but whenever I rounded the corner of the patio, underneath the honeysuckle clad pergola, I positively swooned. It’s such a naturally pure and beautiful thing. When I stand and smell a plant I love I am transported for just a split second out of myself, the smell fills my head.

pergola Bristol house

My favourite spot under the pergola

Watching my boyfriend cut the grass. Yes I know this isn’t technically gardening, in the sense that I am normally just sat on the step drinking a cup of tea, but hearing and smelling the grass being cut is really the essence of gardening isn’t it?

Besides, it’s not just about that. Watching him with the lawnmower makes me come over all funny. Contented I think is the word. It conjures up a lovely feeling of security, like I’m being taken care of, and almost makes me want to have a baby bump to stroke, except without having the baby at the end.

So there you go, that’s the five things I love most about gardening. Are you a gardener? What do you love about being in the garden?

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