The weather is too warm to be stuck inside – it’s only April, however, temperatures have reached 25 degrees during the day. Despite needing to sort out the essentials inside the house (i.e. plumbing in the washing machine and finding curtains long enough for the enormous windows), it’s the garden that has received the most attention this week.

The first thing I did was rearrange the open part of the barn so that the logs are stored at the back next to kindling collected from around the garden. The previous owners left an old table at the back of the house so I’ve repurposed that and placed it in the front of the barn as a potting table. It has been a very busy week yet I’ve somehow managed to sow some tomatoes, French beans, lettuce and a selection of herbs. The rest will have to wait!

An army of family arrived on Thursday too and have wasted no time tackling the big garden jobs; over the last three days the beds have been weeded, the trees pruned and hedges shaped and the grass has been given a very good haircut by the village farmer’s 18 year old son. What was starting to look like a meadow is now a nicely manicured lawn… however, I am going to have to invest in a sit-on mower – that first cut took the poor chap four and a half hours with a small petrol mower! SCH