Yearly Roundup

It has been my tradition for the past nine years to do an end of year retrospective and I find it interesting to look back and remember a few highlights. In all of life's busy-ness it's easy to forget some of the blessings that makes life great.

There were many FAMILY highlights this year,

especially the eagerly awaited arrival of two new grandchildren born two weeks apart.

Julien is thrilled with his new sister and cousin.

I had a very exciting visit from a cousin whom I hadn't seen in decades and also from a nephew who has grown so quickly into a young man.

We had lots of house guests when we started our dry stone walling courses and we made so many nice new acquaintances.

Looking back we really did lots of hard work around the house with the garden taking on a more solid structure.

I completed the front garden and it is full of white flowers and has been blooming through every season, even the poor battered Teddy Bear Magnolias - they really are tough to survive there.

We constructed a crazy sandstone paved path, and I still can't stop looking at it!

In fact there were lots of gardening posts as I revelled in the new tulip plantings and structures and next year we hope to get some more gravel paths in...

We even had a large dump of snow in the middle of year and you can see the video of the garden in snow here.

We also had a a couple of garden groups visit the garden

and an artist came to paint en plein air too...

There were quite a few posts about the origins of the property and the fascinating finds that we dig up. You can read about these stories in...

Original Owners

Findings

and

When Time Stood Still

Amid all the usual preserving, cooking, sewing, knitting and gardening we had a couple of firsts;

We made Parmesan cheese for the first time and we grew chickpeas.

Sadly I haven't finished a couple of projects that I had hoped to have finished by now but another year beckons and I hope we will travel along together as we have into the tenth year of recipes, gardening, discoveries and shenanigans. 

Thank you for taking time out of your days to join me and comment and discuss your thoughts. Wishing you all a blessed and prosperous new year full to the brim of good things as I have this year.

xxx