It seems like no time since we were in the depths of winter, with no kitchen, a gaping hole in the wall where the new window was being fitted and heavy falling snow. It’s now mid-summer and although, as I type it’s hammering down with rain, thunder is rumbling all around and lightning is cracking across the sky, largely the weather is baking hot. So, this all makes DIY and renovation a bit more difficult, as we’d definitely rather be lying on a sun-lounger in the garden, than up a ladder with a paintbrush. Our builders are still here, working on what they need to do – the downstairs bathroom still being the big priority at the moment – but, we’re also doing what we can, and we’re currently focusing on the outside of the house, to the front.

There is a piece of land, tucked under our living room window, which actually belongs to the tumble down house we’re attached to. It’s been left as a bit of a dumping ground, but we decided that, although it doesn’t belong to us, we would give it a bit of a tidy up – especially given that it does look & feel like part of our garden. Days were spent moving stones & rocks, refilling with rubble to level it, covering with plastic and then finally laying bags and bags of beautiful rusty coloured bark. From what it was, it’s come up a treat – next job is to have uplighting installed, to light up the gorgeous ivy-clad ruin to which we are adjoined…

A lot of paint spraying has been going on in the garden – we bought a white wrought iron vintage table and chairs set, which needed a bit of TLC. This was achieved with a deep charcoal grey paint, which has given this set a whole new lease of life. And now the same thing is happening with the wooden sun loungers – from a walnut colour to the lovely deep grey. A colour which really complements the duck egg blue of the outdoor lights and the external paintwork. A work in progress, because as ever, the amount of spray paint needed, was under-estimated, necessitating yet another trip to the DIY store…