Sunday, September 24, 2023

We have moved to a new house!


Hi everyone, after such a long break in posting, I am back. The year 2022 to early 2023 was chaotic to say the very least. The biggest thing that has happened is that we sold our house and 10 acres that we lived in for over 40 years. 

We bought a house on a 1/3 of an acre of land in the next village. Dad was finding it difficult to manage the upkeep of the old house and land. He is now 93 and things got a bit too much for him. The new garden has established trees, bushes and fruit trees around the perimeter, a large deck to sit on and a lawn which dad can manage with his ride-on-mower.

Mum had an accident in the kitchen at the old house last year. She fell and broke her sacrum, at the bottom of her spine, and ended up in hospital for 11 weeks. While she was in hospital she caught Covid and other bugs which prolonged her stay. Mum had rehabilitation to get her to walk again, with the help of a walker, and she is now able to get around again. She was discharged from hospital on the day the furniture was moved into the new house and didn't manage to get to say goodbye to the old house. But she loves our new home.

Shortly after moving, dad caught double pneumonia. He started off feeling unwell and went to bed, then the next morning he stayed in bed, which is very unusual for him. I took his temperature, which was high, and he complained of pain in his side. He didn't think anything of it, but I insisted on taking him to A&E and he was admitted to hospital for 11 days. Dad's recovery was slow, but he is much better now, though he gets tired after pottering around in the garden and keeps needing to have breaks.

And as for myself, I thought I was just worn out, getting very tired and in pain for no particular reason, until I was diagnosed with Chronic Pain Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The diagnosis upset me very much, but I have now come to terms with it and am learning to pace myself so that I can do things that I enjoy again.


Today the clocks were set an hour forward, for daylight savings, and it is the third week of Spring which is my favourite season of the year. 

I am enjoying seeing our trees coming back to life with blossom and bright green leaves after a very rainy and stormy Winter. This is the first Spring in the new garden, so it is exciting to see what plants will come up. 

The flowerbeds are all in shade or semi-shade in this garden, so we need to plant shade-loving flowers in the gaps. We brought cineraria seedlings from our old house and they are doing very well as you can see in the photo above.

We also moved white irises, golden arctotis, yellow phlomis, white hellebores, purple tibuchina and freesias here. 


I spent some time this afternoon in the garden, with dad, planting some nicotiana seedlings which we had bought. It was pleasantly warm outside (16 C) and had just stopped raining, so I decided to take some garden photos to show you. I don't know the names of a lot of the plants here. The pink flowering bush above is just starting to flower.


 The light lavender flowering bush above is very pretty, It looks like it is a small tree that has fallen over because there is a tangle of horizontal branches behind it. The pink flowering bush to the right is a camellia.


More unknown plants. I think the green clumps of leaves may be arum lilies? I won't know until they flower! We planted a small bay tree in the plant pot and I am still deciding where to put it. It is in a sheltered spot at the moment while it recovers from being transplanted.


 This is a lavender coloured hebe and to each side of it you can just see pink hebes starting to flower.


There is a flower border full of lavender, at the side of the house, under-planted with dichondra silver falls. I need to weed this section as there is oxalis spreading along the front, smothering the dichondra. 


Above are more arum lilies in front of a yellow flowering shrub. And at the front, left of the photo is a rhubarb plant just coming up.

I hope that you are keeping well and enjoying the season that you are in, like I am. I would love to hear from you. See you again soon.

Hugs Rose xxx






 
















 

8 comments:

  1. Hi! Welcome back. It was so nice to hear from you today. I've often checked in you blog to see if there was an update here and there. I'm happy to see and update from you. I'm so sorry to hear your parents have had some health issues, but I'm glad to hear they are doing much better now. And it's exciting to hear about your move and a new house. I'm very sorry to learn about your health diagnosis, but it sounds like you have come to terms with it and still able to do the things that you enjoy - which is so important. Take care. Looking forward to hearing more about your new house and garden.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Julia, Thank you for your welcome and thanks so much for your kind thoughts. It is lovely to see you here again :) It has cheered me up no end. I thought I would have forgotten how to post on my blog after over a year. But I had no problems apart from there being a large gap between the end of my post and the comments section which I don't know how to fix lol. Looking forward to your next post. Hugs Rose x

      Delete
  2. May health and happiness settle in with you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Monique, Thank you for your kind wishes, they mean so much to me! Hugs, Rose x

      Delete
  3. So good to see you back! It sounds like you've had so many changes - moving to a new home would be such a huge project to tackle. I hope you're feeling settled...and to know your dad is mowing at age 93 - that's wonderful! It will be so nice to see all the blooming flowers as you move to Spring. Health issues can be so stressful...take care of yourself, if things don't get done, there is always another day. Again, so good to see your post! Mary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mary, thank you, it is great to be blogging again and it's lovely to see you visiting my blog :) I am settling in well to our new home, especially now that it is Spring and the garden is becoming green with leaves. I am not used to having mostly deciduous trees in the garden, losing their leaves over Winter, but I love the change in Spring. I must plant some more Winter-flowering plants such as hellebores for next year. Catch up with you soon. Hugs, Rose x

      Delete
  4. Bonjour Rose,

    How nice to hear from you. Sorry to learn about your and parents health issues. It seems they have recovered and can enjoy your new house and garden as soon as their physical state permit. You must appreciate a smaller house and garden. Aging, we appreciate less hard gardening work.
    It is spring in your area and it is autumn here in the parisian region where I live. I love this season.
    I hope you will continue to enjoy your garden and that the health of you all will stay.
    Thank you for visiting and commenting my blog.
    See you soon
    Hélène

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello dear Helene, it is lovely to see you visiting my blog again and thank you for your kind thoughts. The smaller house and garden are such a relief for us. There is still work to be done, but it is now manageable. We have a little help with the housework now, which helps a lot. I am still learning about not overdoing things. On my good days I want to be productive and do everything I can. But I have now learnt that I need to pace myself and take rests often. Then in the long-run I can achieve more. Looking forward to seeing you again soon. Hugs, Rose x

      Delete