welsh hills again

9th April, 9th day of the project.  I think I got it a bit wrong today.  I went to yoga this morning, which was an excellent idea and helped to make me feel I was well on the way to recovery.  Then this afternoon I headed out to the garden for a small session on the project.  The first mistake I made was that I hadn't decided in advance what to do.  This meant I was assailed from all sides by things I could do and as a result ended up doing too much.  The second mistake was to be too aware of the beauty and order of the garden belonging to the friends we saw this weekend!    I know their garden is much smaller than ours but it still a fair size and very intensively gardened.  Walking around yesterday with my friend I was so impressed by the weedfree beds, the tidy raised beds waiting for their vegetables and most of all by the clean and orderly greenhouse already full of the new season's growing things.  I know our friends are very good ...

Ok, now it is time to actually do something myself instead of getting other people to do things!  I am still coughing and bunged up but I persuade myself that doing something outside, however small, will make me feel better.  I like being outside and I wonder if this long, cold, dark and miserable winter has left me short of vitamin D.  First of all I cut back the other artemisia, meaning that this job can come off my list.  If I stick to my resolution only to have five things on a list that means something else can go on.  Time taken, about ten minutes.  This leaves a few minutes for admiring this hellebore being blown about in the wind and the weak sun. Then I decide that the big task of the day (and by big I mean little) will be to dig out some dandelions from the side garden.  And this is the beauty of the 100dayproject for me.  I have decided that doing one thing counts, so, despite the fact that digging six dandelions and four creeping ...

Here we are, got to day 3!  Today the snow has all gone and the sun is shining.  It is bright but it is also cold.  Still coughing and spluttering I decided that I must be able to do something today.  Ian has been working on repairing the raised beds so I had to go out to look at that and admire it.  The beds have been falling apart for a while and it is amazing to see at least one of them looking like it is meant again!  It is not so noticeable in the summer when the beds are full but in the winter the collapsed corners and the gaps in the sides have been very visible.  I might post some pictures when he is finished although it seems a little like cheating to pinch his achievements instead of accomplishing something of my own! There is a ring of tiny daffodils in the kitchen garden.  When they were planted years ago there was a pear tree in the centre but pears don't really like it up here.  Apples are very happy and we have huge apple ...

It is grey and blowing today.  Eight o' clock in the morning.  The wind lashes the yew tree.  I look through my bedroom window at the rain blowing in rippling curtains across the valley.   Ian has gone to work.  The house is quiet, apart from the noise of the wind, and dark, too dark to see without the lights on.  I pad downstairs in my slippers and go round turning some lights on in the kitchen and the sitting room.  The dog greets me with a wagging tail.   Sadness snatches at me but I turn away from it.  Today is mine to make.  I hear my mother's voice "I think to myself, what can I do to make this a good day for Graham and for me, and then I do it".  So simple.  So complicated. So how to claim the day, how to make it feel like home?  Breakfast first.  A cup of tea in my favourite mug and scrambled eggs.  The rhythm of making scrambled eggs is soothing.  I could do this in my sleep: the little pan on the...