After almost a year of not adding anything to this blog I have at last returned. There are many reasons for this lack of input. My mother died and then my father got ill but fortunately is a lot better right no. My daughter was also unwell and has a condition called fibromyalgia. Philip had one infection after another before, half way through the year, it was worked out what was wrong. Basically his immune system was down due to the chemo the year before so he now has infusions of IMG every six weeks which seems to have done the trick. As if this wasn’t enough to have to cope with it then turned out that my step daughter got breast cancer which she is still being treated for.

Underlying all this was the dispiriting fact that the nursery wasn’t doing very well for the third year running which caused me to feel completely despondent. Also to question what I was doing…..there was no sense of urgency about any of the jobs I was doing.

But its a new year and there’s always a feeling that things will be good, except they haven’t so far because the weather has been wrong. Endlessly wet and grey, it seems as if the nursery has never been so wet. Two days in a row it hasn’t rained, well not much anyway, so today I unlocked the trolley and went gardening. Armed with secateurs and loppers I cut back some of the ornamental grasses and pruned some of the roses. I found that some of the clumps of epimedium were showing flowers (possibly 2 months early) so the leaves needed to be cut back. I’ve cut back some of the clematis too. The stipa tennuissima look past their best at this time of year so they have had a chop too. I got two trolleys full and aching hands and back but if it stays dry tomorrow I shall be at it again. It was warm though and was a positive pleasure being able to get some of this work done.