DH, Eldest and I socially distanced ourselves around our home yesterday!!!!!  The weather was dreadful, cold wind, intermittent generally yuck!!! DH was in the den sorting software out on his computer and tidy things up in general, a job which does not get done in a normal week!  Eldest was in his room; his work is closed so all his friends at also at home and the majority of them have XBox consoles and were playing a group game!  I am thinking they might not want to go back to work when this is all over!!!  I was self distancing in the sitting room watching a series on Netflix!!!!  Youngest was with Girlfriend as she owns a horse and he needs feeding and looking after no matter what else is happening outside!!!

So that meant that we did not complete the work we started on Saturday with the garden.  I have some pictures.

Where Treacle is standing, the conifers there were planted by us.  They are slow growing ones and up to three years ago we took the tops out of them and trimmed them to keep them low and in shape.  However because of various things, time, other activities, my Op etc for three years we have not done it and they have grown too big!  Saturday it was a sunny Spring day again and not too cold so we got on with trimming these and our other trees in the garden which can be trimmed at this time of year.

Here they are now.  If you know conifers they mostly only grow on the ends and the middle bits die off so we thinned out a lot of those, took one away that was dead and brought the height down by at least five feet!!!  Treacle loves the new look!  I am going to get some shade loving, under tree plants to cover the ground we have uncovered. 

Treacle has always managed to get in amongst the conifers but now we can see what she is actually up to!

I am being good, honest!

Of course we are now left with the trimmings!

A very good friend of ours has a farm across the valley in the village and he collects this sort of thing and twice a year has a huge bonfire so he is very kind to let us take it up there for his bonfire!

We also have two pillar conifers at the top of the garden and they had not got too big but again we took the tops out of them.

By trimming the one nearest the garden on the left of our patio we have gained back quite a bit of the garden which had been overshaddowed by the conifer!

We still have quite a bit of trimming to do but cannot until after the plants have finished flowering.  There is also a holly tree which has overgrown as well.  I think they have all done really well this year because of all the rain over the winter. 

Some more Spring flowers are slowly appearing and I have some more seeds to set for plants later in the year.

A tiny purple flower just appearing behind one of the Rhododendrons.

The big star flower of Major Vinca or Perriwinkle, which we have between the bushes to control the weeds where it is hard to get to.

I will continue to take pictures as we progress.  With all this time on our hands at the moment our gardens will be pristine this summer!!!!

I hope everyone is doing okay and coping with being inside!!!  Gardening is definitely a good thing to do to get outside and in the fresh air, weather permitting of course but if you do not have a garden you can always source some houseplants to bring the green inside.  A lot of the grocery stores do sell plants for the home now and of course you can always get herbs to grow on your kitchen windowsill which has a dual purpose!

Stay safe everyone.

Hugs & Love Susie xx