An Asperger's New Year's Eve and my gardening New Year's resolution!

Hi again

Isn't the above photo just beautiful!

Being an antisocial and tired Asperger's person new year will be spent going to bed at my normal time of 9 pm, lights off at 10 and putting in ear plugs so we don't get woken up by fireworks!

I particularly don't like what I refer to as "the bongs" - the chimes of bells bringing in the new year.  I feel they say "Bong - that's another year of your life gone", Bong - you're another year older, Bong - doom, Bong... Bong"....   Bah Humbug eh! 

I rarely make a new year,s resolution either but this year I have and intend to stick to it. Here's how it came about:

For most of my gardening life I've prided myself on not spending more than £50 or so every year on my garden. My borders tended to look really good as I had big groups of each type of plant. I did this either by dividing, taking cuttings or spreading seeds from plants I already had.

But since I've started my gardening business, under the excuse that I'm learning about new plants I've been indulging myself with many' many new plants for my own garden. I've spent a lot! I'm not going to reveal how much. The effect in some of my borders is consequentially,  a bit "dotty". Just individual plants on their own all mixed together. Rather like the photo below which I confess is nothing like my garden but is just to make a point.



For the best visual effect multiple identical plants need to be planted together in clusters. So the colour of the flowers or the effects of the foliage is seen to its best advantage. Like the photo below (again not one of my borders - though I wish it was!)

As I've been doing lots of studying this winter I've also realised that I only use one or two propagation techniques on a narrow range of plants. So my resolution is to try different techniques of propagation on a wider range of plants in my garden (armed with my copy of "Geoff Hamilton's Practical Gardening Course") and cluster the plants I grow  for a better effect.

"Propagate not buy". Hopefully I will save a bit of money too!

I'll let you know how I get on.

Take care and happy new year.

Lots of love
Caroline
xxx



Keywords: Cottage Garden Design Asperger's ASD Autism Colour Propagate Save Money Frugal

Molly (our springer spaniel) and her relationship with our sofa!

Molly settled on the sofa

Molly at the end of a good graunge on the sofa.

Hello again. I couldn't resist sharing with you some more Christmas photos of Molly my springer spaniel.

In my first blog about Molly ("introducing Molly") I told readers how Molly was very nervous as a pup due to a deprived puppy hood. The two springers I had before molly used to love to sleep one either side of me on the sofa. This for me was very comforting and relaxing. So.. When I got Molly I tried to encourage her to join me on the sofa - but she would stare in a threatening way, warning bit my had- then try to climb on the back of the sofa behind our heads - she was plainly terrified by it all.

She is now 9 years old - and has come to understand me a little better. We have come to a happy compromise regarding the sofa!

So when I first sit down on the sofa she will jump up beside me and have a little lean on me and accept some fuss and sloppy conversation . Then she always has a a happy graunge - on her back - rolling and kicking her legs out and up and making sure the sofa is well and truly covered in her scent.

We then move on to phase three of her relationship with the sofa - she may settle for a little ( the top and perhaps even have a short dose if my attention is fully on the TV rather than on her.

Then she obviously feels she has fulfilled her duty as my pet and takes herself off the sofa and into her bed. where she sleeps well 

I have come to understand that too much interaction stresses her but that the little that she chooses to have does make her happy (and me !).

All the best

Caroline

x

Keywords: Dog Springer Chair Sofa Cuddle Anxious Pet

Molly, our springer spaniel and the Christmas wrapping paper

Hi - Hope you enjoyed Christmas!

As a family we unwrap our presents straight after breakfast - big kids that we are. Molly gets very excited by this - we have to screw up the wrapping paper in balls - then play fetch with her - she catches them mid air - then proceeds to tear the ball to shreds very quickly - then up she sits watching intently for the next ball of paper to come her way, as you can see in the photo below!

  The top photo  is after all the unwrapping has been done and she is surrounded by paper she has shredded.

I realised (midway) that I might be being a bit mean - occasionally I play a game where I wrap up her dried dog food in layers of paper and she has to rip them up and find each little piece to eat it. So just in case this is what she was hoping for I made sure that  the last ball of paper we threw to her had some dog biscuits wrapped up in it!

She is a gorgeous looking dog don't you think.

Thanks for dropping by
Love
Caroline
xx












Keywords: Dog Springer Game Christmas Pet Spaniel

Christmas on the spectrum

Hi

I do love Christmas - my favourite time is Christmas Eve. We have tea in front of a real fire accompanied by Carol's from Kings.

To keep my anxiety levels down tea is quite simple as follows:

Nice bread - I like Hovis seed sensations wholemeal
Real butter
Hummus
Cherry tomatos
Free range ham or chicken slices
Good crisps
Peppers ready cooked from a jar in olive oil or similar
Chutney
Tapenade.

People can make any sandwiches they want to out of the above at the table.

Ready made Christmas cake and chocolate log
Clementines
Grapes

Pot of tea ( or in my case redbush as I can't do caffeine)

With the tree lit, everyone round the table, the fire and the carols there is always a little Christmas magic about it all.

To keep my anxiety and even depression at bay - I can't have more than a sip of alchohol, have to watch my blood sugar, no late nights, and also make sure that am assertive about only doing so much socialising with the wider family.

There are 15 of us and mum likes us to be all together every day - but as I find this very stressful I have to be firm that I'll be sociable on Christmas Eve and Christmas day but Boxing day is quite and at home.

I substitute lovely spiced apple fruit teas, or earl grey redbush for the alchohol or make a hot spicy drink with apple juice and I don't miss the alchohol. To keep the blood sugar low I have to make sure I eat equal amounts of mince pie and extra thick cream!! Honestly it works. 

Happy Christmas to you all.

x

Keywords: Autism, ASD, Spectrum, Aspergers, Social Anxiety, Depression Alcohol, Caffeine, Blood sugar, Christmas, Stress,

How to make a cottage garden patchwork gift card

Hi

I spent my Sunday Afternoon making a patchwork from cottage garden paintings I found in a book. It was like making my own mini cottage garden but without the backache.

First I cut out a piece of thin card the same size as the front of one of my blank cards. I drew a series of lines on it to make random sized rectangles and squares and numbered each of them.

 

I cut out the shapes and used them as templates to cut out sections of the pictures I like.

I kept the cut outs with their numbered template.

I then glued them on to my blank gift card.

However .... the ideas was that the sections did not overlap but went back together like a jigsaw  - but I went a little bit wrong and around the middle it didn't work. I think perhaps I should have laid it out first - then transferred to the blank card. The ideas was that there were no gaps which I did achieve.

I think I might try this patchwork decoupage as I've fabric patchwork books which will give me lots of ideas of patterns.

Certainly doing a gift card like this is very achievable in a short space of time so good if you have a busy life.

Hope you have a lovely relaxing evening. I'm going a light a real fire, and curl up under a rug with my husband to watch a film.

Take care

Caroline

x

Love is .....

When I'm with you I'm in the right place, the right time, I'm the right age. Its a taste of paradise, deep contentment and happiness and safety.

Enjoying sharing even the most mundane of days and making plans together.

Knowing I'm loved for who I am and also knowing that not only do I love and care for you but I really like who you are, admire you and am so proud of you.

Feeling so lucky to know you and to be with you.

You are the one I want to snuggle up with every night yet never sleep so I can be aware of you all night yet never wanting to leave your side the next morning.

I am lucky - I have Aspergers and life can be hard, but I have my lovely husband who I feel all this for.  💛

The illustration is a zentangle card I made for my husband.

How to make this Beatrix Potter gift card

Hello - thank you so much for taking a look at my blog. My anxiety was really high yesterday so I decided today would be a day full of things I love doing. First on the list was taking Molly for a walk, next was doing a little craft. My crafts are about enjoying the process and the colour rather than aiming for something from a "how to live the perfect life" type of magazine or book. My rag rugs were primitive but I loved making them, my patchwork cushions were lovely colours but don't look too closely at the stitching!

I often buy second hand books from Oxfam with pictures in I can cut out for making gift cards. Pleasure for me - money for them! Double bonus. I particularly like books with watercolour art work. Beatrix Potter's "The Tailor of Gloucester" was the one that I used to make the card above today.

Making my gift card

First I cut out windows in a  A4 piece of thin card using the tools shown in the picture.

Next I chose some pages in the book with colours that went well together - Dusky Pink.

I moved the windows of the template across the pages of the book until I found views I liked. I then cut them using the same tools as above.

I then set about gluing them to the card. A big picture first representing what the story was about. Then pieces around the edge of the card - then the rest.

On the bottom right of the inside of the card I put the little picture shown above to show where the pictures came from. This was inside the front cover of the book.

And that is it - one more gift card to put into my box to share at a later date.

Hope you too have a lovely relaxing weekend of making and hopefully also baking. I will be making rye bread and carrot and tomato and lentil soup later on.

Caroline

xx

An Autism story with a happy ending

Dear Reader

My son has given me permission to share his story so far.

He was a blond haired cuddly baby. All seemed well apart from we noticed that he missed out crawling completely. Around 3 we started to get some strange behaviours which frightened us. He was refusing to cooperate at nursery school - all he would do was black scribbles in drawing whereas at home he drew us pictures of cars, spiders, etc. He was very tired all the time, and at 4 years old, having found infant school very distressing, he told me, after I'd finished reading his bedtime story that he "didn't want to be on this earth any more".

I felt I was a worrying mum so didn't bother the school - but they came and bothered me after his first week there. They said that one to one they could teach him anything they wanted but in the class he was all over the place. They recommended we took him to the local family centre.

We were devastated - He was my first child and I lacked confidence - now I thought our parenting skills were going to be put under scrutiny and found wanting.

After a short time of assessment of us and him separately, they came straight out with it - he is on the Autistic Spectrum.

For us it was a revelation - we read up on it - now we and the professionals and school could understand why he found things difficult and could work out what to do to help him.

My family were split down the middle by the "label" they felt we had given him. For us the label was  the key to helping him, to others it was the end of the world.

He was given 25 hours a week of support at School - one to one working with him either alone or with another child on things like turntaking  in conversation, eye contact, playing board games. They kept him on task.

There was school move when he was becoming distressed at school again and we found out they were using his supporters for other children. At the next school they used his supporters for his most stressful times - play times.

He would come out of playtime in a terrible state - so and so had done x,y,z to him. The supporters observed all the interactions he made. They would explain that it was not so black and white - he had done A so  the other child had done B, which caused C and D and so on. It was a light bulb moment for him. After this and a week of specialist therapy all of a sudden instead of going into school first thing in the morning head down, not interacting with anyone - his head was up and he was smiling. He was on his way and the smile started to make him friends.

It was  gradual process from then on - but it was always up.

I remember one time he was in the 1st year at senior school. I got called in to see his teacher. Apparently in maths he was walking around behaving like a chicken  - yes exactly that - I don't know what prompted me but I immediately asked "what set is he in" - they said he is in the bottom of 7 sets for maths as his written work is so bad.  No wonder he is behaving like that I said, he is bored out of his mind - his(written work may be like that but in some abilities he is the top one percent of the population. His dad and his mum have 4 science degrees between them - his Dad two from Cambridge University which stacks the odds in his favour).  - put him up in a higher set, I said, and the chicken imitations will stop.  They did - and they stopped!

He never liked studying at secondary school, knowing him as I do now, nothing interested him and if he isn't interested, he can't make himself focus. He didn't read for pleasure either - even Harry Potter and the philospher's stone he loved when read to him at class , he didn't read the book.

I remember a light bulb moment for me - like it was yesterday. We were walking along past a well known book shop. He used to love watching astronomy series on TV with me and suddenly I said, they will have books on astronomy in that shop. He said to me " If I see something I like will you buy it for me" "Certainly". Half an hour later he came out with a pile of books including Stephen Hawking - he was about 13 at the time I think. He had just realised that there was books on the subjects he really wanted to learn about. From that day on he has always been on his own programme of learning on things that he loves. Whether in books or on the internet. These have included philosophy, economics, astronomy, history, languages (including Chinese and Korean). I couldn't have imagined this when he was at infants school and his entire year's work would only fill 2 pages.


Now he is taking a degree to qualify him in speech and language therapy. He has never really been interested in the fact that he is on the autistic spectrum and has not wanted his lecturers, etc to know about it. But learning about Autism as part of his course he has started to want to find out more about his condition - he has put himself through tests at Uni for Dyspraxia, Autism, ADD, ADHD and Dyslexia - he's waiting on the results but it looks like Autism and ADD are his main difficulties. Last week he went on a placement and worked with an Autistic adult. That night he couldn't sleep, he was reading everything he could on Autism and was so excited about finding out about how he fits in all of this. At the moment he feels this could be his calling in his professional life.

I love my son very much - he is a good looking, moral, deep thinking and also charming person. He needs a lot of "social down time" but has a good number of genuine friends. He has a wonderful smile. I am very proud of him.

Its has been such a journey all these years. I wish I could go back and tell myself in the past how it will all turn out - I used to be so worried! I am no longer.

Thanks for reading

Caroline
xxx














Keywords: Autism, ASD, Asperger's, Spectrum, Children, Parent, Mother, ADD, parenting, school, statement, University, Test

How to make a gift card from pictures of flowers and berries in catalogues and gardening magazines

Hello again! I'm so pleased you dropped by.

One of the biggest pleasures of gardening for me is working with the wonderful colours of nature. Today I blended some of those wonderful colours to make a card for someone special.

Here are the pictures I found in gardening catalogues and magazines.

I cut out a 2cm x 2cm square out of some junk mail card and used it as a template. I then cut out squares from the pictures above by holding the template onto the photo and cutting around it with firm strokes. Here are the tools I used and the template. A craft knife and a self healing cutting board.

I then checked that I had enough squares for the blank greetings card (from Hobbycraft as were the tools) by placing them all roughly and slightly overlapping each other.  I then glued them to the card, randomly mixing the colour squares but starting on the edges. I also overlapped all the squares slightly and placed them quite randomly so they didn't line up in a grid.

The advantage of working with the squares like this is that the size of the flowers or berries in each of the photos don't have to match - by the time you cut such small squares its really all about the colour.

This has really perked me up and also relaxed me! Just the job! I can't wait to make more.

Very best wishes to you, hope to see you again soon.

xx

Caroline

Molly my springer spaniel at the top of the stairs looking out for her master coming home

Hi.

This is Molly in position at the top of the stairs intently looking and listening for the sound of my husbands car coming in the drive. Notice the raw hide bone ready for her to grab so that once she hears him open the door, she can rush down to present her bone to him!

She has been in position pretty much since it got dark around an hour ago. That is devotion.
Shame my husband doesn't like dogs though! She is unaware of this as far as we can tell, in fact, we think the challenge he presents makes her love him more.

I must reassure dog loving readers that my husband doesn't hate dogs though and is kind to her but just rather indifferent. I have noticed however that his indifference may be more for my benefit as when he thinks I'm not listening and he is in another part of the house with her, I will hear him chatting away to her.

Caroline
x
















Springer, Dog, Spaniel, marriage, husband, partner,

How I remember and learn about new plants with a terrible memory!

Hello again

As I write I'm looking out at the sunshine - a rare sight- and Molly my spring spaniel is snoozing on the sofa behind me. I can hear her gentle breathing, its so peaceful.

As you may already know I have my own cottage gardening business and every winter I try to build up my knowledge of plants. In particular because I'd like some gorgeous new plants to recommend to my clients next year.

The photo above is todays best find - its Snapdragon - La Bella Rose. Good enough to eat!

Its fairly easy to find new plants to love - I read cottage gardening books, look at photos, browse nursery catalogues and the Royal Horticultural Society Plant Finder database.  As I browse, one lovely plant leads me to other ideas to follow up on.

As we live in an area with clay or loam soil and winters can be freezing I look for plants that are very hardy - at least H6 I prefer on the RHS scale and that are OK in clay or loam soil. I look for beautiful colours and also interesting leaves. I also am looking for the plant to be beautiful to look at for as much of the year as possible.


Its quite easy to find the plants - but its learning about them and remembering what I learn that is a problem. So I find I have to read and write down the information as many times as possible and put the information about the plants in a "database" I've set up.

My "database" is really just a set of Word documents with a table  - each row is a different plant, there are columns for the plants needs and what it has to offer me.  See the picture below. My database has grown so large I have split it into separate word documents - so one for Roses, one for small front of border plants, etc.

First I scribble down some pencil notes as I read about the plant. Then I look it up on the RHS website or elsewhere online and note as many details as I can find including where I can buy it. To get a picture of the plant I screen shot the page on the internet. (hold down the control key on your keyboard then press the prtsc button. Paste into Microsoft Paint programme. Then I cut out a section of the picture from Paint into my database.  Then I type my handwritten notes into the table.

I might then transfer some of the plants I find into lists I keep of possible new plants for my clients or my own plant wish list (which is very long).

By this some what drawn out method - I have read and written about the details of each plant many times which is what helps it stick in my memory.

As I do my research I am also thinking and learning - for example I might like  a particular plant - for example Hemerocallis, the day lily but realise that the plant only flowers for a short part of the year and the rest of the year the leaves don't have particular interest to my mind. You are of course free to disagree!

The above may begin to explain the title of my blog - "Quirky" refers to my Aspergers!

Sorry if I've bored you today - but hope you like today's plant find.

Caroline
xx

Snow and ice outside – but I’m inside eating homemade soup and bread watching Gardener’s World.

Coming back home into the warm I decided to make some soup and bread – just the thing for such a cold day. I love making soups – and being a skinflint this is a lovely cheap one.

Here is the recipe

1 white onion – chopped roughly and cooked quite gently in a generous knob of butter until golden and soft.

Add approx. 900g frozen peas – the cheapest ones and a few florets of frozen broccoli, 4 Lincoln Q)uorn sausages sliced, a desert spoon of garden mint – mine was in the freezer from last summer. Its nice to find a use for it. The add 1.2 litres boiling water, 2 vegetable stock cubes, some black pepper. Bring to the boil, simmer for around 20 minutes. Liquidise about 700ml of the soup well (try not to put quorn sausage slices into the liquidiser pot though. Mix back into the un-liquidised soup.

Now for the recipe for the bread –

1 kg white flour – I used spelt flour as it was on offer at Aldi (I promise you I don’t have shares in Aldi, just good food cheap)

2 sachets fast action yeast Aldi don't sell these at the moment - I had to go to the COOP next door.

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoon salt

Mix all the above ingredients well

Knob butter melted in 300 ml whole or semi skimmed milk then made up to 1.3 litres  with boiling and cold water to make lukewarm temperature.  Stir into the dry ingredients mix well. Leave to stand for a few minutes to let the flour soak up the liquid. This makes it easier to knead.

Knead for around 5 minutes – you might need to squeeze and pull it more than you would ordinary flour if you are using Spelt flour as I did as the dough doesn’t feel the same.

Cut in half roll in flour, and place each half in a 2 pound pre-greased bread tin. Place in airing cupboard or other warm, draught free place for about 45 minutes.

Place in a preheated oven – mine is a fan oven and I put it on 180 degrees. Cook for 45 minutes. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes or so then tap the tin around the sides and turn out onto a rack to cool. Cover with a clean tea towel.

Finally do what I have just done – indulge in big bowl of the soup with rather to much of the warm bread covered in real butter while watching Gardener’s World. Very cosy!

Keep in touch , I’d love to hear your news

Caroline

xx

Molly and Lemon Zest Marigolds

Dear Reader

How are you today.

Here near Cambridge Molly, my Springer Spaniel and I went out for a walk as soon as it got light. There’s been a very hard frost on partially melted snow. On the recreation ground huge snowmen stood to remind me of heavy the snow waswe had two days ago. My lovely warm but definitely not glamourous too big for me muckboots kept my feet warm and gripped the rough frozen snow. Molly and I went out down a track past fields and around an old orchard. The sun rose as we walked – a large red ball. Very cheering.

Back home I wrote my Christmas cards for my clients enclosing a packet of lemon zest marigold seeds for their gardens for next year. I may just have sneaked an extra packet in the order for me. I found these on the Sutton’s Seeds website  - I love pale yellows and they will look lovely next to my purple sage, Silvery cat mint and blush pink Penelope rose.

Take care

Caroline

xx

 

Feeding the birds on a budget

Dear Reader

How are things with you? Hope you are OK.

Here (near Cambridge in the UK) its been snowing, its really cold and wet too - I do feel sorry for the birds. Seeds are usually so expensive so for the last few years I've been feeding the birds Aldi's porridge oats - scattered on the ground or on a tray with drainage - seems really popular.

Also popular - and for me - free - is any apples I've been storing that are too small for me to use or have started rotting a little. I've put them under shrubs or at the base of fences where they are a little sheltered and they've been attracting many blackbirds. A bonus is that the apples add a little colour to the scene with splashes of red.

If you have any tips of feeding the birds cheaply - please do let me know - I'd love to hear from you.

Lots of love

Caroline
xxx

p.s - I'm so glad I scattered the apples all around the flower borders as it has stopped too many fights between the birds over the apples.





















Keywords: Blackbird, bird, winter, feed, oats, frugal, cheap, apple, left over, free, wildlife, garden

Introducing Molly - my springer spaniel

Dear Readers

I hope you are well and enjoying the many inches of snow that have fallen today near Cambridge, England - the first this year. My little dog Molly  a black and white springer was so excited she raced around with tail wagging furiously this morning wrapped up well in her little fleece lined coat which she hates me putting her on . When we got back she was zipped up in her towelling bag which she hates even more but at least got her dry. Her heat lamp on maximum and a hot bowl of milky sweet barleycup went down well with her though.

I wouldn't be without her, but there was as time when she was not yet one year old when we nearly had her put down, she was behaving threateningly, staring and warning biting our hands - without breaking the skin though. We called out a dog psychologist - who took a look at her and said - "basically you have a fox there" she hasn't been socialised at all either with houses, people or dogs.

From what the breeder told us she was an only pup in the litter - taken off the mum at a few weeks old and isolated in a kennel on her own until we came and found her at 5 months old. She appeared hyper sociable but once back home with us this turned into fear.

We'd had a pair of springers before and thought we knew how to handle them. But after talking to the psychologist we had to relearn everything. She appeared to crave fuss but actually was just appeasing us - the more we fussed - the more she appeased us - the more we interpreted this as wanting more fuss. We had to just let her be - stop looking at her - which also frightened her - and if we did have to at her we had to break eye contact regularly - blinking for example. We had to label actions so she could predict what we were about to do. So for example if I was going to put her lead on - I had to say "lead" as I leaned down towards her. So no longer did she feel I was randomly lunging down to her. We also said "fuss " whenever she was stroked  and various other things. This worked very well. We also minimised contact with her - giving her lots of down time. Almost like she had social anxiety. Down to one walk a day too.

Today she is lovely, she introduces herself to all we meet on walks, dogs and people alike. She keeps me company during the day - she'll sit on the sofa next to me and lean briefly, then have a happy graunge on her back asking me to tickle her tummy. But I have to keep the latter brief. She will then usually go straight to her bed on the floor nearby to sleep Unlike me last springers who loved nothing better than snoozing one either side of me while I watched tv. Having a dog either side of you is so physically comforting I found. I miss that.

I think the main thing the psychologist (Kendal Sheppard) did for us is to explain how anxious she is  - so I used gentleness, positivity with rewards and labelling. It took a few years to really get there, but now I love her very much - I'm glad I never had her put down.

Brainwave

Dear Reader

Its winter and I do get frustrated with our relatively modern house - almost every window has a heater underneath it which does not make keeping house plants or outdoor plants needing protecting from the frost very easy.

One south facing window does have cacti on it - including a few grown from seed - they are happy enough.

Some of the other window's I keep old fashioned geraniums (pelargoniums) on - reds, whites, and some variegated ones. All in terracota pots on old blue and white saucers. This year I've discovered that seaweed extract for tomatos is a very cheap way to feed my indoor plants. My geraniums are looking the best they ever had in spite of the blast of heat from below! On my wish list are scented geraniums for next year.

However, to get round to my brainwave! I was in Emmaus, Cambridge - a homeless charity  - and I spotted a second hand glass display cabinet - glass doors, glass sides and shelves and a mirror back - I've put it in our  front porch which gets some sun and a little heat from the hall. I've put in it lots of plants that won't survive the frost. There is an "umbrella plant" ( a gift from a client) , some succulents, two cyclamen, some crocus bulbs in pots that are just emerging. But a recent purchase is perhaps my favourite. Its from South Africa and really does look grass edged with frost.

I do enjoy seeing the cabinet full of colour and life whilst everything outside is fading away for the winter.  I have seen a photo on pinterest of someone using a similar cabinet outdoors - blending it in with plant pots over and in front - a very cheap greenhouse and moveable for other seasons. Its also an excuse to keep buying plants to make the best display.

Lots of love, take care
Caroline
x

Winter reading and Winter Colour.

Hi there

Thank you for dropping by! I love winter! Not the grey sky or the freezing cold or even being outside some days. No, I love the chance to think, read and plan. By the end of each autumn I'm physically tired and a bit jaded to be honest. This is my second year working as a gardener. Both winters I have treated myself to some inspirational books on gardening. This year I bought, for bargain prices:

Geoff Hamilton's Practical Gardening course


"Life in a Cottage Garden" by Carol Klein. 

 and  "The Cottage Gardener's Companion" 

 The Geoff Hamilton Book is excellent, I'm so glad I bought it - from the basic to the complex but all explained well and in such a way that it really sinks in as he makes sure you really understand the principles behind everythings. Lots of big photos!

The Carol Klein book just has such lovely photos and descriptions which make you want to buy every plant she talks about! I'm also guilty of putting the odd bit of highlighter on the text as there are some really good tips in there too.

The Cottage Gardener's book I haven't started yet but I've had a quick peek and can't wait to start it - it looks like  a book for life for me!

3 more months of winter to finish them all! A bargain at under £20 for all three including postage, so much cheaper and so much more relaxing than a course! I can't wait to use what I've learned next year and my plant wish list is growing rapidly!

In the garden a few plants are still looking lovely, in spite of quite a few frosts. Cheering me up a little when I pull in the driveway. There are some orange marigolds which grew from seed sown late in summer, the leaves and flowers are still perfect.

 A nepeta with its silvery leaves still looking lovely and still has the odd flower on it. 

There is also a little yellow rose I bought for my husband's birthday in June and put in a pot I decorated with Zentangle for him. It wasn't happy in the pot so its now in my front garden, its leaves are untouched by winter and its still producing beautiful yellow roses. Its called Flower Power Gold.

Take care
Caroline
xx

Welcome

Welcome to my first ever blog. 2 years ago I spent my days in front of a computer juggling e-mails, phones and multiple tasks that all had to be fast and accurate. On top of that came re-organisation - a new computer system that didn't work, and many people who were trying to cram three or more full time jobs into one working day. Breakdowns were more common than tea breaks. My brain refused to go on - it dug its heels in and ceased to function. I couldn't make myself carry on or even stay in my office so I quit.

 It was terrifying - i had no job to go to and couldn't make myself go back to office work ever again. Desperate for money I brainstormed....

My first success was having a midweek lodger - free from tax under the UK government's rent a room scheme - we filled the room quickly, the lodger was lovely and unobtrusive and a small income came in regularly.

My second success was to activate a few small pensions a little early - every little helps - I'm nearly 60 by the way.

My second was a little gardening business "Caroline's Cottage Gardens". It followed my passion for cottage gardens and for my own garden and I now have several longstanding clients. I'm outside, the birds are singing, I can think clearly and have a much happier brain! I've been going for two years now. I particularly love doing garden makeovers and helping clients choose new plants. That is my logo at the top of this post. I'm always learning. I also now volunteer at Barnsdale Gardens which i love. I have a website too if you'd like to take a peek.

But why "quirky" in the title. Well its been a long journey but I finally found out I am on the Autistic Spectrum and quirky I definitely am. The upsides are I get very enthusiastic about things, like a big kid; I love learning, can go into huge details and feel at home with nature. The downsides are that being sociable is exhausting - I worry a lot and can be much too honest.

Apart from gardening I think I might blog about other things I love. Penny pinching, crafty things (e.g rag rugs, patchwork, zentangle), cheap wholesome vegetarian recipes, car packing in Scotland, or my lovely little springer Molly.

Why am I blogging - partly from enthusiasm and a desire to share things I love but if I can also help anyone along the way even just a little that would be great.

I'd love to hear from you if any of this strikes a chord with you.

Lots of love
Caroline
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