Bringing the pleasure of gardens into your home

Hi there

I've been looking for a cottage garden painting for ages to put up in my house - but they are a little too idyllic for my taste.  I've just found the one above and love it - I'm ordering a print of it for my wall at home and the colours give me such a lift!

Yesterday we had an amazing morning looking at the paintings of a local artist Rachel Vollerthun. She uses colour very much as we use colour when we choose plants, mixing and blending and trying things out.

I particularly loved the paintings she had involving flowers and the wonderful colours she uses. The one above seems captures the beauty of a garden but with out some of the potential tweeness of some old cottage garden paintings. I just love it. She has some prints for sale of the above painting and many other originals and prints for you to enjoy and perhaps even buy on her website.

http://www.vollerthun.com/


I came home, got out some inktense pens and tried to recreate some of her ideas. I have a long way to go but so enjoyed it.

Here are some more of her paintings I loved. If you like them too please do share them with your friends via facebook, etc.

When there is not a lot of colour in the garden what a lot of pleasure I get from such pictures. I hope you do too.

Love
Caroline

Key words Colour Garden "Colour schemes", paint, beautiful, "cottage garden" Design "garden design" "working with colour" art Cambridgeshire Gardener "oil painting"

free plants found in first gardening session of the year!

Free plants - Ivy Leaved Toadflax and Golden Marjoram

Good morning

Yesterday morning the weather was brilliant so I headed out for my first gardening session of 2018.

In the sunny border in my front garden which is surrounded by a brick wall and slightly raised I spent time clearing away dead leaves, twigs and cut back the dead growth from plants like Aquilegia and Feverfew. I cut back my Nepeta (cat mint) which is now looking a bit straggly and was cheered to find new growth waiting for spring, I'd only planted it last summer so it was reassuring to see its doing fine.

As I tidied up I found a few seedlings of an Cymbalaria Muralis (Ivy Leaved Toadflax)  an old cottage garden flower.  Last year I had put a mass of them on a tub and they looked lovely. So I put the seedlings by the edge of the wall at the front of the border, grouped together. They should look nice spilling over the low wall in the summer.

I also cut back  a golden marjoram which I have had for many years and is a large clump which had become straggly, again underneath was a mass of young leaves. I love it as it gives a lovely splash of colour to the border all year round. Once it was cut back  around the edge I found a couple of little baby golden marjoram plants that have grown out from the main plant. I dug them up and put them either side of the path to the front door so they spill over the path a little. They should look nice with the welsh poppies, daffodils and yellow aquilegia I have in that area.

Happy freebie hunting

Caroline
x

Happiness!

Hello

How is your day going

Most people can feel down from time to time. I learned this tip years ago from a book on depression and have recommended it to lots of people who say it really works for them too.

Every night take a minute to write down three positive things, for example:

3 things you did well today (no matter how small)

3 things good about you

3 things good about someone you know

3 things positive in your life

3 things you appreciate in your life

3 things that interest you

and so on ....

If you feel motivated choose more than set of three things to do each night.

Writing them down is important for it to work

If you feel very low you will find this hard to start with but choose very small things.

For example:  I brushed my hair this morning - I did the washing up today. I have enough food to eat. The sun shone today for a bit. I heard a bird sing.

Its hard sometimes to be positive, particularly about ourselves - but you will find over time it gets easy and you will have lots of ideas.

you may see an improvement in your mood as soon as after one week - or it may take a longer - don't give up - its worth it.

Let me know how you get on

Lots of love

Caroline

xx

.

In praise of catmint - stunning combined with herbs and roses.

Good morning

Hope you slept well.

I've always resisted buying catmint - I imagined it smelled bad and had visions of it encouraging cats to roll all over my garden.

How wrong I was. I bought some last year for the first time and this year I'm going to take lots and lots of cuttings and dot it around my cottage garden. It flowered right up to mid December and now in early January it still has good foliage to add winter interest to my cottage garden border. The multitude of cats I imagined were no where to be seen and the smell whilst not the best if you squash the leaves and stick your nose into it, from any other perspective is non existent.

The leaves are a delicate grey green which go so well with herbs like rosemary, thyme, purple sage and lavender. Catmint looks wonderful with most  delicately coloured roses such as those from David Austin but particularly with delicate blush roses like Penelope. I have the above combination of flowers in my cottage garden border at the front of my house.

Key to the picture above:

Top Left is rose Penelope (from David Austin Roses). Top right is Catmint – Nepeta Racemosa Walkers Low (from Perry Hill Nurseries). Bottom left is Purple Sage  and Thyme and bottom right is Lavender Munstead (widely available)

Please note I'm not connected with any plant sellers mentioned.

Key words: Cottage Garden Gardening Plant combinations Rose Catmint Sage Thyme Lavender Beautiful pastel Herbs Scent easy to grow

Cleaner House, Less Stress!

Hi there.

I have a sister who is 16 years younger than me and juggling work and young children and supporting a partner with a demanding career. She is encouraging me to share my method which has helped her so much. It seems obvious - but it makes such a difference. I promise!

I don't like cleaning!
I tend to put it off until the house is looking horrendous and its become a huge job
I don't have time for "spring cleaning" - windows, Cupboards - you know the sort of thing.
My sister was the same.


Cleaning an be a job that seems never ending - your home appears to always be filthy to you - this is about setting a limit to how much you do and being happier with what you have done. Its also about knowing that your house is cleaned to an acceptable standard and that you can rest!

So I adapted my cleaning list for her that I've used for years. She has found it invaluable and is quite evangelical about it to friends and family.

How to .....

For each room you list all the jobs that need doing including those that you think are spring cleaning jobs - hoover, mop, windows in and out, dust, clean out cupboards, mirrors, sink, bath, shower, doors, skirting boards, dado rails, cobwebs, change sheets, bath the dog, gardening, ironing, etc.

Then you think how often in a month you really need to do each task. The aim is to do each task as seldom as possible (to reduce work and stress) whilst keeping the house at a standard of cleaning you want. For example I feel that most rooms only want hovering once a week but some areas of the house - hall, kitchen, lounge, stairs, which get a lot of traffic might need a second hovering.

The more detailed the list - tasks broken down into small units - the more you will want to do them as in just a few spare minutes you can choose a few very short jobs to do and then. enjoy crossing them off  your list.  By the end of the week you will be amazed at how much you have achieved by just a few minutes at a time.

Some jobs you may want to set a manageable time limit to to encourage you to do it little and often -for example half an hour in the garden.

Sometimes you may also want to set yourself a time target per day for cleaning - for example half an hour. Setting a small amount of time often means you get more done. Not setting an amount of time often means that it takes ages and more and more appears to need doing as you look critically around your house.

Keep the list on your computer so you can print a new one off each month and adapt as you need.

Below is an excerpt from my own list you might like to use as a template.

Do give it a try - it makes such a difference!

Let me know if you found it helpful

JOBS TO DO

Wc monday	Wc monday	Wc monday	Wc monday	Wc monday
Kitchen Surfaces and sink Dust Wipe chairs vacuum mop Clean out a cupboard	Kitchen Surfaces and sink vacuum mop Low cupboard fronts cobwebs	Kitchen Surfaces sink vacuum Mop Windows	Kitchen Surfaces and sink High cupboard fronts Vacuum mop	Kitchen Surfaces and sink Vacuum  mop Skirting Doors
Landing Handrails vacuum	Landing Door vacuum	Landing Dado rail and light switches, vacuum	Landing Skirting, vacuum cobwebs	Landing Pictures, book case, vacuum
Stairs Vacuum skirting	Stairs vacuum Handrail Wipe over carpet	Stairs vacuum Skirting Marks on walls	Stairs vacuum handrail	Stairs vacuum skirting
Vacuum round	Vacuum round	Vacuum round	Vacuum round	Vacuum round
ironing	ironing	ironing	ironing	ironing

Remember yourself!

Paperwork	Paperwork	Paperwork	Paperwork	Paperwork
Interests	Interests	Interests	Interests	Interests
Relaxation	Relaxation	Relaxation	Relaxation	Relaxation
Social	Social	Social	Social	Social
Exercise	Exercise	Exercise	Exercise	Exercise
Crafts	Crafts	Crafts	Crafts	Crafts

Key words: clean, stress, family, children, cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, save time, efficiency, juggling, self help, spring clean. happy. chores, time saving, reduce stress, cleaner home, home. lifestyle, "work life balance" "reduce stress" housework

Celebrity inspires and gives confidence to those with Aspergers - including me!

Hello, how are things.

Did you have a chance to watch the BBC2 documentary/film with Chris Packham "Asperger's and me". My son, who is on the spectrum recommended it and I was so glad I watched it. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Reviews I found on line said it was "stunning, brave and ballsy, utterly fascinating and incredibly moving".   Absolutely!

I am in awe of all he has achieved in his life in spite of (or perhaps because of )his Asperger's. Being a celebrity and being on camera most of his working life and in the public eye given that he is likely to find social interactions difficult and painful and needs a lot of solitude is astounding to me. I have found that if I am really passionate about something - an environmental campaign I ran, selling Mental Health First Aid to the bosses in my work place - then I can push myself to speak in front of other people but this is a once a year type of thing, not every day.

I am outwardly sociable and am told I can be good company and very funny but I find it exhausting and it makes me anxious to socialise for very long particularly if it involves groups of people. Going to a concert or (in the past) to church, parties, big family gatherings, weddings, funerals, training events, work meetings. I really struggle with them all and find I can be exhausted afterwards often with a migraine and need to head to bed at 6 or 7 in the evening and will sleep for 12 hours or more. I find I just want to shut down my brain completely - no books, no TV, no people. I struggle to say no to invitations and hate appearing rude or unfriendly either by not going or by my behaviour at the event. I don't like upsetting people at all.

But I do admire Chris in the programme. At one point his stepdaughter wants him to come to her graduation and he stands up for the fact he won't enjoy it and doesn't want to go. He also doesn't live with his long standing partner and lives alone in a beautiful, isolated rural location with his dog. He stands up for himself in terms of what he needs and what he finds difficult or painful to do.

He has given me more confidence in protecting myself.  I firmly turned down too many big social gatherings this Christmas. For example I have recently struggled with two new potential friendships going horribly wrong and it made me quite down until I realised that I have enough close relationships in my life - and realised I don't have to push myself continually to make more if it is at such a cost.

Chris had a huge response to his programme. Below is the link to his reply to everyone.

http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/news/aspergers-and-me-thank-you

I love where he talks about people who worked on the programme. "These people deserve more praise than I do . . . all I did was go on, and on, and on about birds, battles, art, cars . . . more birds . . . aeroplanes . . . books . . ."

I agree wholeheartedly with everything he says. In particular that each person with Autism, Asperger's or ASD is different and that we owe it to each other to talk about it. This is certainly a key motivation behind my blog. Even if I help just one person along their journey of discovery it will have been worth while.

I hope you enjoy watching as much as I did.

All the best
Caroline

Keywords: Autism, ASD, Spectrum, Asperger's, Social Anxiety, Wildlife, Friends, Exhaustion, Confidence, Help. celebrity inspire ballsy

fascinating moving BBC inspirational story relationships friendships

My New Year's Wish For You

Wishing you contentment and love in your life in whatever form it takes for 2018

Caroline
x


The photo above is one I took last summer of the Herb Garden at Barnsdale Gardens nr Rutland where I volunteer. The climber in the background is Humulus Lupulus Aureus - Golden Hop. Also in the garden at this time are Artemesia, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Mint, Lavender, Bay, Oregano. Its only a small garden but its lovely.




Keywords: Love, New Year's, Barnsdale Gardens,Herbs