After a week of sunshine and warm temperatures a while back, we’ve had noting but rain and wind ever since, and Sunday morning we awoke to a light dusting of snow for goodness’ sake. It’s windy, bitterly cold, and I’m so over winter now. It’s a mere 10 days until the official first day of spring in the UK and I can’t see the weather improving any time soon though I always live in hope. Despite the weather I’ve managed to pot on raspberry and blackberry bushes bought for a mere £2 each from Morrison’s (supermarket chain) and have split some herbs, the latter being done in a light shower. Man, I miss my old shed! It was leaky, and cold, and the electrics had blown long time back due to the leak, however it was out of the wind and rain, and perfect for potting on plants.

In a previous house, we had not one, but two greenhouses which was such a treat. They’d been left by the previous owner and needed new glass panes, however after some inexpensive repairs, they were a real boon. We grew peppers and tomatoes in them, and even had some mushrooms from spent mushroom compost from a local farm. My then partner would be working in one, and myself and our son in a pushchair would be in the other one. We also had a sunroom in which we grew a bougainvillea. That was a lovely house, in a lovely area, and sometimes I wish we’d stayed there though work in the area was almost non-existent and large ponds in the garden were of great concern with a young child.

Here, we have a very small garden though I’m doing my best to green up the concrete slabs and decking with potted plants. So far, I’m up to 19 pots which is a fraction of the 50-odd in the previous house, however the garden is at least half the size too. I have a couple of small shrubs, a really large shrub, and the rest are ‘useful’ in that they’re fruit and herbs. Once the weather improves, I’ll get a few tomato plants which will add to the total and will also be useful. The garden is a real sun trap in the summer, and I’m hopeful that tomatoes will do well.

I also have no less than 17 sempervivum/houseleek plants in the house. Initially they were 6 plants, bought cheaply from Lidl, however they’d started to ‘crawl’ out of their pots and set ‘baby’ plants, so I’ve split those too and now have windowsills of lovely green plants. There’s also basil and parsley on the kitchen window sill. I like a bit of green in my life :)

Saturday, I had my neurology appointment in a very nice, large hospital that unlike the ones in south Wales, is less than ten years old. I must have a full range of bloods done in the week, and I’ll be called for tests for trapped nerves. I’ve had all these tests done in Wales, already, so I doubt they’ll find anything useful though over time, I guess things may have changed. The specialist will write to my GP and recommend a prescription to help with my physical nerves (rather than nerves that people get on LOL) that will hopefully allow me to sleep. He dismissed quite a few of my symptoms as not being relevant which I felt was a tad arrogant, however he’s a specialist from London, on loan, so maybe he knows what he’s talking about. He doesn’t think I need another MRI, thank goodness, and is sure I don’t have Parkinson’s. I don’t either, so at least we agree. I should have the results in a couple of weeks and any follow-up or meds will be dictated by what they find, if anything though he does suspect I’m low in iron and essential vitamins. I don’t why that would be as I eat a very varied diet with plenty of fruit, veg, fish and so on. We’ll see…

Hope the rest of you are having better weather than me, though I doubt it. Enjoy what’s left of the weekend and have a good week.