One of our neighbours came by to see “what was going on”. We showed him our little garden and the changes to the deck – his response “well, it’s been a long time since anyone did anything with this property”.

So we could tell.

Philip had come forward with an idea later in winter about cutting one end of the deck off to uncover the window that is in the basement bedroom, and to create space for a garden. Well, we’ve done that and now the garden, with a fence, is in full production. With the other pots now also ready for flowers or veggies I thought it would be good to record, even for just us, the state of things at the beginning of the season!

Many of our neighbours buy flower pots that are already flowing over with flowers – and yes we have one – but in most of our pots we like to plant small plants and let them grow up and out over the summer.

After winter it is soul-restoring to see the earth come back to life after “its long-winter-nap”. And all the more, says we, who for the first time in our lives have our very own home. We’re still gob-smacked that this was possible.