[We did indeed get the washing line up. This is my favourite photo of the year so far. I love it!]

It has come once again. The time of year when, at Chez VintagePretty, I relinquish the use of our back bedroom for the sole purpose of growing beautiful plants. It’s actually surprisingly easy to grow-your-own and so much cheaper than buying seedlings from garden-centres. For instance, a packet of tomato seeds is usually £1.39 and from that (much to my surprise) almost every seed came up, leaving us with almost a hundred little tomato seedlings - about a third (20-odd) of which we kept and grew on (if you’re an allotment-holder you can barter readily with neighbours for other seedlings), producing a bumper crop despite last summer’s poor weather. Before that we used to buy the tomato plants themselves, costing £2.99 for 6 plants, with at least a couple not surviving. It makes huge financial sense to grow from seed, and as there is very little equipment needed to grow them, it is a sure-fire way of growing your favourite varieties.

Last Christmas my MIL bought us, as a joint present, a paper potter. A wonderful invention it allows you to make the tiny cell-like pots from old newspapers. I’d completely forgotten we had it until the other day when I wanted to start planting some seedlings - it flicked into my head and, raiding the recycling bin for old newspapers I got cutting. You make the strips and wind them around the handle-bit, once done you fold the ends over the bottom and press hard into the stand. It makes lots of beautifully-formed cell pots which biodegrade naturally.

I made a start with the leeks. I tried growing leeks from seed a few years ago and it failed horribly - nothing seemed to come up. Since doing some research on the subject in my many gardening manuals, I’ve come up with a better way of doing it - almost everyone recommends filling pots with compost and sowing the seeds on top, allowing them to grow a little bit before planting them out. The packets tell you otherwise, but I’m going with what others say works. We’re trying “Castor” this year.

I also planted half of the butternut squash seeds. These are my first butternut squashes I’ve grown and according to the packet they are the only truly “born and bread”UK butternut. Apparently suited for all weathers and will produce a prolific crop whatever our British summer throws at us. They are called “Butternut Hunter” and as I love anything from the curcubita family, I hope I won’t be disappointed by this crop!

Yesterday saw me listening to the Afternoon Play “Ghandi’s Goat” by Matthew Coombes, drinking a cup of Rooibos tea (as well as sugar-free and calorie-restricting, I’ve now dropped caffeine too!) and scribbling lists on pieces of paper.  This is the best way to organise onesself - write a list of what’s got to be planted when, in chronological order.  You can tick off what’s been done and what hasn’t and how it’s got to be planted (indoors or out).

Vegetables still to be planted are: parsnips, perennial (!) broccoli, broad beans “Express”, French beans “Lazy Housewife”, pumpkins, tomatoes “Moneymaker”, mixed salad leaves, spinach “Mediana”, kale “Scarlet”, swiss chard and potatoes. We’re also hoping for a small but plentiful crop of raspberries whose canes are now starting to bud.

And as for annuals this year we’re growing an array of new ones. Of course I’m still going for things like godetia and some sunflowers dotted around, but we’re also trying asters, lupins, aquilegias (had problems with these before), mixed butterfly-friendly seeds, poppies, phytostegia “alba”, antirrhinum “Monarch mixed”, stocks “Ten-week mixed”, malope and some more whose names escape me.

But now a little break in the proceedings to show you chicken-related cuteness for today:

It’s also been the weather for tulips and narcissus to show their faces. Only a day later than its neighbour, the crocus, this little tulipa bakerii “Lilac Wonder” showed its beautiful pink face.

On the swimming front I’ve just come back from a 70-minute swim managing a very lush 50 lengths. That’s 1.25km or 0.77 miles! Unfortunately the weight doesn’t seem to be “falling off” as I had hoped, but nonetheless I’m feeling better for it!

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Now playing: Chris Bathgate - Serpentine

When the gales were at their worst, the day before yesterday, I took my camera out into the woods at the back of the house. It may seem a silly thing to do - standing under trees when 80mph gusts are blowing through. I was pelted by falling pine-cones and random debris, but watching the pines sway and rock, and hearing the roar (which coincidentally, sounds exactly like th roar of the sea) of the mighty trees around me was beautiful. It reminded me of the plastic bag in American Beauty. For a few moments in time I was transfixed by the beauty of it all, caught up in my own little world - nothing existed outside of those pines.

Trees and Wind from Vintage Pretty on Vimeo.

The day afterwards I walked through the same spot again and noticed the carnage left by those intense winds. Branches ripped from their sockets and flung around - swathes of needles and leaflitter in drifts, like snow. Rubbish tangled in the branches from the wheelie bins, upended in the gales. But the trees? They were still there, looking refreshed if a little sore from their battering.

Was it really almost a week ago that I last posted? It seems that however good my intentions may be, I’m not being a very good blogger. The intentions are there, they just aren’t getting done.

I sat today looking out of the window, watching the intensity of the wind, blowing the trees at the end of the garden with such force. I wondered what it was like being a tree in such gales. Was it scary, fearing being blown down, or was it refreshing to shed your old leaves/ needles and clear away the cobwebs?

Today I worked out that I’m on a long journey. It seems a rather obvious statement, but it seemed that for the first time I saw the road I’m walking down - not the exit points, or what’s going to happen next, just that I’m heading in a direction (and thankfully it’s not the M25!). I’m discovering lots of things about myself, my body, my attitudes and where I want to go with life. It’s also been a good point to sit back and look over all of my achievements and to set goals for the future. I realised today that, without sounding like a cliché, I really am budding into a person that I’m ok with. Not perfect, definitely not perfect - but seeing that I manage to overcome things that just a couple of years ago would’ve floored me, has given me the impetus and the joy to know that there is more out there for me to enjoy and to strive for.

It must be the wind, blowing good thoughts my way, or blowing my own cobwebs away. But as I walked the dog in the worst of the winds (struggling to stay upright) I thought about the future and what it has in store and I realised that life is infinitely adaptable, constantly changing, like the clouds above, being whisked one way then another before changing shape forever.

I’m still working on my fitness, and as hard as it is (and believe me it is hard!) I feel I’m getting somewhere. Yesterday I decided we’d do something that we had been planning to do for a long time but had never managed - we went swimming. And to say it was an utter disaster would’ve been putting it lightly. We were first-timers to this particular pool, and having not swum for a good few years neither of us were in particularly good shape. I had to jump out of the pool after only 10 minutes because something had triggered my asthma and I was rapidly losing the ability to take meaningful breaths (something that is truly scary), but after a swift dose of medication I was fine and continued on, managing 10 lengths when I got to the point that I couldn’t do another. It really put me off going again, as did us not noticing we were in the “fast lane” until we were getting unpleasant looks from the hardcore swimmers and saw the sign, feeling very stupid indeed.

We considered not going back because of the shame, but I knew that persistance is key, and I wasn’t going to give up. So today we knew that we needed lots of 20p’s for the locker (non-refundable), and that they won’t admit anyone until the right time and we got swimming. I felt a little more confident, I wasn’t put off by other people or the unisex changing rooms (!) - and I swum. 30 lengths in total (0.46 miles or 750 metres), three times more than I managed yesterday. I felt amazing and, best of all, proud.

However it’s late and the endorphins only last so long - I’m ready for a shower and bed. Night night!
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Now playing: Chris Bathgate - Yes I’m Cold

You can tell where my head is these days. I’m daydreaming of light evenings, warm enough to spend in the garden, chatting to Mr. VP about all manner of things. Light enough for us to go on long walks in the evenings, to watch the squirrel scurry and the chickens cluck.  I’m also enjoying doing prints again, I’ve missed them.

We’re getting there, slowly but surely. If the weather will just stay nice enough for us to put our new washing-line poles up, it’d be great. Have a wonderful weekend whatever you’re doing. And enjoy every moment.

It’s been a bit of a funny road that I’ve been down recently. But if one thing has helped at all it has been the immense and blindingly bright days that have for me, shone like a beacon amongst the dark. Of course there are still lots of hurdles to overcome, a diet I’m fighting very hard to keep up with, and more hospital appointments in the near future. Though I’m feeling more positive that I can eventually get on top of things after letting things slip - around the house and in the garden - for too long. The sun seems to have brought out more than just the buds on bare branches - I saw my first Queen Bee the other day, and Mr. VP saw the first wasp. Unfortunately it doesn’t look good for them as we’ve been having harsh -6ºC nights for the last week.

My Mum came up for a visit - the first time since Christmas - and we got lots of things done. She bought us what will be a very snazzy washing line, which Mr. VP spent some of Saturday digging the (first of three) holes for. While she was here we also got some gardening done on a grand scale. I excavated the last bed in the garden - the so-called feral bed. It’s now covered in some not-so-snazzy “weed-supressing membrane” until the last of the grass and prodigiously-sized dandelions are dead, at which point we (notice I do say “we” quite a bit!) will fill the bed with some pretty perennials that tolerate the lack of mid-day sun and the privet hedge. It doesn’t look much, but that bed has been referred-to many times as being the bain of the garden. I’m pleased over the moon that it has gone from knee-high grass and weeds to something that will finally resemble an ornamental bed. Any suggestions for shade-loving, hardy perennials?

And the best £10 I’ve spent recently? Buying some ecologically-friendly bark mulch for the garden. It’s excellent at retaining water and supresses weeds too. It has made our cottage-garden bed look beautiful and will even let the daffs and tulips through.

I also found some Aquilegias ‘McKana Hybirds’ and a beautiful scented peony ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ going for a song, so my Mum treated me. They were planted this afternoon - I hope they survive the frosts!

A couple of weekends ago Mr. VP and I made fat balls, or rather “fat rectangles” (not to be confused with a quilter’s fat quarters!) using beef suet and a mix of seeds and oats. It was quite a while before the birds came to them - we didn’t see any blue tits for ages, and then all at once, we have coal, great and blue tits visiting. Today I watched as an intrepid coal tit ate from the block in a very contented manner. Perhaps he’s got some eggs on the way - who knows?

He was close enough that I could see every single feather on his little black-capped head.

Even the chickens have welcomed my outside presence. They love it when I’m out weeding and I let them out too. Gooseberry is like a heat-seeking slug-eating missile. She can sniff out a slug at 100 paces and gulp it down before it knows what has hit it! Marigold found a cache of slug eggs and picked every one up, looking so pleased with herself. I’ve got to say I’m pleased with them as well - but they will need a good worming soon.

Have you ever seen a more inquisitive chicken?!

And from top to bottom. Marigold’s egg, Gooseberry’s egg and Nutmeg’s egg (who happens to lay nutmeg-coloured eggs!)

And last but not least, the sunset this evening. I love being able to make the most of these lighter evenings but the skies of late have been incredibly eerie. A shade of orange not usually seen, permeating everything as the last rays of sun dip beneath the skyline. As I sit and type this there is still the merest hint of light, and it’s almost 6pm. Lovely.

It is true, I am back. I will be making tentative steps towards posting and commenting again. Until then, I’ll leave you with my recipe for some cupcakes I made the other day. Chocka-mocha cupcakes, no less. See what I mean about stuggling with the diet?