beaching ~ guess where I am?

Sun, sea, sand….it can only be one place. Yes, we have arrived and it is glorious…so good it reminds me of why we bought the cottage and why many moons ago we planned to retire here.

The two guys who now cut our grass, and are doing a good job of it, had been yesterday and so the place looked quite tidy though on further inspection every border needs a good sort out. We woke early with the sun this morning and after a leisurely breakfast and a few household jobs we were straight out into the garden. It feels so good to be outside.

The only border I managed to weed on our last visit is not too bad and the hydrangea has not suffered from the cold.

DH has been collecting up the endless goosegrass that has sprung up everywhere and removing the dead leaves of the ostrich, royal and harts tongue ferns.

Not the evergreen Japanese tassel fern (Polystichum polyblepharum) in the fernery though, which has gone a bit rampant and taken over my little bench seat by the cherry tree.

This is a job for another day…in fact it can take a couple of days as I usually cut this down to ground level each year or two so that fresh new growth springs up.

The hosta I planted at the back of the pond has formed a nice clump which can now be divided.

The large overgrown pink rhododendron that I cut back almost to ground level two years ago is growing well (you can just see it emerging at the back right of the picture) – I am not expecting any flowers this year but at least I didn’t kill it and it is looking healthy.

I concentrated on pruning down the rosa rugosa hedge running beside the lane (the one that our new neighbour decided to cut hack the front half to the ground last year).

There was a lot of dead wood that had to be cut away and I reduced the height considerably from 6′ down to about half. Once I throw a bucketful of manure around the roots it should sprout new growth and thicken up quite nicely and I bet by the end of the summer it will be looking much healthier.

Thankfully it is difficult to kill and where it had been hacked to the ground there are new shoots appearing and if I can prevent them from being damaged by his strimmer then we might have a chance of resurecting the hedge and regaining our privacy.

After a morning of working, many cups of tea and a few idle moments sitting in the sunshine we down tools and made lunch. Afterwards we had a stroll to the village and called in at one of the local pubs down by the harbour for a hot chocolate.

So overall a very pleasant day and now we are retiring to eat a mushroom lasagne and then perhaps watch a DVD or read (no TV here).