Nesting

Hi folks.

It's funny isn't it that, even though I know that the next few months are going to be filled with dust mess and chaos, I found myself trying to create one little space where I felt a bit more that I was in control. Somewhere to find a little calm in the midst of the whirlwind.
Seeing as every room in the house needs to be worked on I turned my attention to the courtyard garden.
It was a bit of a dumping ground. Full of old wood, metal, rubble and stone.

I spent a bit of time contemplating where to start but in the end I began to cut and bag the timber pile in the corner filling a ton of bags. Followed by a good few runs to the tip.

Once I had a corner free I set to work. Starting out by using some of the old bricks from the house I built a platform and set up my water feature. I then just started to play around with the plants and stones. This is the end result....

 Still a long way to go  but I am please to have somewhere to sit and relax for a while. I love how our chairs look so small against the height of the walls. Over time though I am sure we'll be able to bring some green height to soften the walls.

I moved all the spare stones to the bottom of the yard for now. Ultimately we'll use them  to create raised beds to plant in and to hide some of the pots. I kept the original chimney pot from when we repaired the chimneys and now it holds a fern.

 I used the cracked lintels from when we opened the fireplaces to create some shelves and giving the cats a few hiding places too.

 Just a little whimsy. I love this little guy, a gift from my daughter.

 It's nice to see the splashes of colour from the pots and flowers that we brought up from our previous home.

 All our special roses have survived the move and are treating us to a bloom or two. The fragrence is gorgeous.

So there you have it, my oasis of calm in the midst of everything. All ready to be enjoyed when my daughter and her partner come to visit over the weekend, followed by my beautiful wife next week. I can't wait!
 Hopefully the next stage of construction should begin over the next couple of weeks which will be very exciting. I'll keep you posted.....
Take care till next time.