Old timey me and chickens in a hole

so i've been a right old lady recently and have been doing all sorts of pottering around the house and garden, stuff that i never thought i would have enjoyed in my youth but really have. oh well, people change. anyway, what i did always know was that miserable settings make me miserable. and returning to my house and having to look at the front garden would often make me so as it was a drab, grey, broken, dirty hinterland of nothingness and frogs (so many frogs. evil splatty things. wallworms too- those ones that emerge from walls in straight lines when it rains). it was mainly occupied by a triffid, frogs, crisp packets (not mine) 2 wheelie bins and loads of recycling bags. i'm ashamed at the quantity of recycling produced by this household.

after slaying the triffid (and hurting my arm in the process), it looked like this:

yuk yuk yuk.

so i spent way too long researching pebbles on the internet (went for a mix of plum & green slate in the end, if anyone's wondering) and way too much money in a well known home and garden store, and me and my housemate then made it look like this:

it has a hidey place for the recycling and pretty pots and plants! i did unearth one frog during the works. noticing that i had jumped onto the garden wall and had started barking "frog frog frog frog frog frog frog frog frog!!", housemate valiantly picked the little blighter up and deposited him at the foot of a tree down the road.

these three plants are cuttings from my grandad's garden. my lovely grandad died in january and his house has been sold, so last time i went home i got these. they are forget-me-nots (my favourites), and purple and white heathers. wish them luck!

in other news, i want these things:

a duckling. well, several.

a water pump. there was one of these at my great aunt's house in kent. she died when i was very little and we only visited a couple of times a year, but i do have a memory of grandad showing me how to use the water pump in the garden- it was a huge novelty as the house and garden seemed to be from another time. it was a lovely place.

the chickens have kept themselves busy lately by digging an enormous hole in their run, and in turn i have been busy trying to capture a photo of one of them in it.  so here it is- and a treat too i hope you agree!

 tata!