Our transformed front garden

A couple of weeks ago I shared our back garden, and today I'm sharing our front garden transformation! Before it was very boring, just grass which was mainly weeds, always shaded because of the overgrown hedge.

We decided to take some inspiration from a neighbour's recent landscaping and open it all up with a pebbled garden inspired by our local beaches. Although we have removed the old hedge, we have left a marked out bed to replant it later in the year, perhaps with something a little lower in height. The apple tree remains, although it's definitely ready for a good prune this Autumn!

We needed to create a new gate to the other side of the house so we extended the path. The slabs are the same as those that we used in the back garden and they also match the indoor tiles. We added a deep new flower bed in front of each window and have planted those with hydrangeas. I'm trying to keep them blue so I've been using ericaceous compost and fertiliser which is supposed to enhance the blue colour! They are doing really well considering they had no flowers when we planted them a month ago. I'm constantly watering them! I chose blue petunias to match for this year.

We had the garden designed for us which really helped as I wouldn't have known where to start. The landscaper came up with the pebble arrangement and then my designer helped with buying the plants and where to place them. Me and Harry planted them and it was such a difficult job, the ground underneath was really compacted and full of gravel, stones and sand. Luckily despite the poor soil they all seem to be growing well.

We have a mixture of different grasses and also some different types of euphorbia. (I'm not very good with identifying plants!) If the garden opposite is anything to go by, in a few years they will have grown up quite a lot and it will look a little less sparse.

I really like the different mix of colours and textures. I'll be planting some bulbs in the Autumn for next year, and I'm hoping that the hydrangeas will grow to fill the borders.

It makes such a difference to the front of our house and although I do miss some of the privacy that we had from the hedge I've got used to it now. It's nice to be a bit more open, and the front of the house feels much lighter. Now I just need to come up with a plan for the front hedge area.

Looking at my current to be read pile

A few months ago I shared a photo of my to be read pile, and with my summer reading to plan I thought I'd give an update. 

Here's what the to be read shelf on my bedside table looked like in March:

And here is how it is looking now:

I think the first thing to notice is that two large books are still very much present and correct - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. They are among six books on the shelf that have a bookmark in but are not finished. I think that it may be time to be realistic and admit defeat on these two, or at least transfer them to a different location. They take up a lot of space and are not likely to be read in the near future. 

But I do definitely want to read the others! There are a couple of Haruki Murakami books which won't take long to read and then there is some non-fiction which I've picked up in charity shops and a couple of older local history books which were my Dad's. 

The reason that I need to make some space is that I have been kindly lent another lovely pile of books from a friend that I am very much looking forward to reading. I would much rather have these ones stacked up by the bed! They all look so good that I can't even decide which one to start with.

Then there is my Kindle which is filled with unread books, at least twenty, that I've downloaded as free Amazon First Reads, from the Amazon Prime library or just as free Kindle books that I spotted. They are easy to forget about because they aren't as visible, but I know that there are some good ones there that I want to get to. There are even a few books on my Amazon wish list which perhaps don't really count because I haven't actually bought them yet, but they are still lurking in the background calling 'read me! read me!'

Hopefully I can make some time over the summer and get caught up a bit!

Things that I'm looking forward to this summer

When I say summer I'm thinking of the school summer holidays, but honestly it feels as though it has been summer for months. We've been so lucky with the weather, even a few weeks ago we were sitting eating out in the garden, and so I really hope that it continues!

For Harry his summer holiday has already started now that his exams are finished, and Mia has also finished her end of year exams with only few more days at school to go. It will be such a relief to have all the exams out of the way. In the past I have often found the end of the school year quite a stressful time, but as the children have got older there have been fewer end of year events (no more sports day!) and the final term always seems very short. 

It's been a busy few months so I'm looking forward to being able to relax a bit over the summer. I always appreciate not having to do the school run, which has increased recently with extra trips around the exams. It makes my day feel so much longer! We don't have much planned yet - I know that the calendar will fill up, but hopefully there will be lots of time left to chill as well as getting out and about.

Although we still have some decorating to get on with over the summer we have almost reached the end of our big home projects which is a relief. I do need to have a big sort out in Harry's room once his exams are finished, which I'm looking forward to because it's a bit of a post-exams mess at the moment! Then I need to have another sort out of old toys and start listing things on eBay again. It always feels good to have a clear out.

Our garden is mostly planted now so it's just about maintenance, and I'm looking forward to making the most of our new garden furniture. In particular we have bought a fire pit table which we've already used a few times, it's so nice to sit out in the garden in the evening and enjoy the beautiful space. I love pottering around the garden deadheading, picking up weeds, and planning what I want to do with the empty spaces.

Finally we have a big holiday coming up over the summer which is very exciting. Unusually for us we haven't been away yet this year so it feels a long time coming. 

What are you looking forward to this summer?

How our back garden is looking now

A couple of months ago I shared some photos of our poor garden, which had never been that exciting to begin with and was looking very sad after our building work. It was pretty much a blank slate, mainly some tired grass and dominated by a dull fence across the back.

So here are some photos after it has undergone an amazing transformation!

When we were planning the garden, I knew that I wanted a pretty garden with lots of flowers. We wanted areas around the garden to sit and relax as a family, and I was keen to have something attractive to look at while I prepared food in the kitchen.

I've always loved my secret vegetable patch and so we now have this amazing arch which creates a lovely entrance to the area. I have a clematis planted on one side which will hopefully grow up and over the arch, and I may also add something else to the trellis next year. We added a wooden bench so it is now a really private place to sit, watch the bees buzzing around the lavender and admire my tomatoes, courgettes and strawberries.

We've been making regular visits to the garden centre and picking up things that catch our eye. These cannas were suggested by our garden designer and I love the bold colours, they also add some height to the bed.

I'm gradually filling up the beds with flowers and hoping that they will last through the winter as the cost is adding up! I'll be much more organised next year and plant from seeds which will save some money.

I've always disliked the long boring fence across the back which dominates the view from the house. It will take a few years for things to get going, but we've planted some shrubs which will grow up a bit, and also two trees. We already have an apple tree at the front so we are trying a pear tree and a cherry tree, so hopefully I can keep them under control and thy will provide us with some fruit over the years! We also have two smaller trees around the pergola - a photinia and an acer.

I want to create a garden that attracts wildlife. We are lucky that our regular hedgehog visitor has returned - when we had new fencing installed we asked them to cut a hole so that hedgehogs could get into the garden and as soon as we started putting food out they appeared. It has even spent a night or two in our hedgehog house. There are plenty of bees around the flowers but I'm struggling a bit with the aphids at the moment, I need to work out how to attract the ladybirds!

I'm so in love with our garden now. I'm always wandering about deadheading and pulling up weeds and just enjoying the beautiful space. I can't wait to see how it changes over the years when things start to take off!

As a reminder, here's what we had done:

Pulp at the O2 in London - You Deserve More

I am a huge Pulp fan, and I've been following them since 1995 when Common People was released. I vividly remember hearing the song for the first time on the radio one evening and I was hooked, but I didn't catch the song or artist's name. The next day I had a school trip and I spent the whole coach journey listening to Radio 1 on my personal stereo hoping that they would play it again. I finally heard it again on the way home, and I went straight out and bought the single! Oh back in the old days, before you could just search up a song that you liked in Spotify and listen to it on repeat. 

Each of their albums brings back memories of the time in my life when I listened to it over and over. "Different Class" was my mid-teenage years, "This is Hardcore" when I was a bit more grown up. The album "We Love Life" released in October 2001 was the soundtrack to my final year at university. Then Pulp disappeared for years, and I was busy having babies when they released the single "After You" in 2013, so I completely missed it until a few years ago when it popped up on a Spotify playlist.

Their new album "More" was released a couple of weeks ago, and I bought a copy even though I don't own a CD player. I have a small collection of their albums and singles so I wasn't going to miss owning a physical copy! I love it, it's a perfect selection of tracks, a mixture upbeat dancy ones and more reflective songs. There are loads of call backs to their previous songs in the lyrics which I love to spot. I don't know what it is about Pulp songs that I love so much but I think it's that each one tells a story.

We were lucky enough to get tickets to see them at the O2 on Saturday, and it was just amazing. We arrived and parked early at the O2, and although it was busy there were only a few fans milling about. We took the tube to Stratford for a few hours for a wander around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a place that has many happy memories. Then there was a brilliant change in atmosphere when we returned and the fans were out in full force. I wore my tour T-shirt from when we saw them in Sheffield two years ago and saw so many other people in the same one which made me happy! The atmosphere really was electric.

You can find the full setlist here - Pulp at the O2, June 14th 2025. The set was split into two halves with an unusual and yet convenient 15 minute interval. They began with "Spike Island" which was the first single from the new album, then a couple of other new songs before moving on to some of the old  favourites like "Disco 2000", "Sorted for E's and Wizz". We had amazing seats close to the front on the side. I swear Jarvis pointed right at me when he arranged to meet me at 2 o'clock by the fountain down the road!

The second half began with an acoustic version of one of my favourites "Something Changed" and then ramped up through the hits until the finale "Common People". I can't think of many better feelings than to be stood dancing and shouting along to a song with a whole stadium of people that know every word. I was totally immersed in the music, and I had tears in my eyes at the end! The encore was "A Sunset" which is the final song on the new album, and I really hope that I'm not reading too much into the lyrics about things coming to and end.

It was such a great show, I came home and wanted to watch it all over again. 

If you want to read a far better written review of the show, then I think this review from The Standard is perfect - Pulp at the O2 review: greatest gig of the summer so far? 

We have a few more gigs still to come this summer, but I can't see how they can beat this one!

Some books that I've enjoyed recently - June 2025

I decided it's time again for another post about some books that I've loved recently! I track all the books that I'm reading over on Goodreads, and these are books that I've awarded a five star rating. 

First up are a couple of re-reads:

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is one of my favourite books, and I've read it several times. It's set mainly in Saint Malo in occupied France and follows the story of Marie-Laure, a young blind woman and Werner, a young German man. Their stories are told through flashbacks as they grow up, and their stories collide when Marie-Laura begins to work for the resistance using her radio and Werner is enlisted to use his talent with the devices to track them down. It's really well written and I enjoy seeing the very different stories come together.

I also re-read Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. Delia is a 40-something woman who, when out at the beach one day with her unappreciative family, goes for a walk and doesn't come back. She starts a whole new life, finding her own place to live, a job and new friends, which is something that I think many people have fantasised about! There's a lot to unpick about her relationship with her husband and how she has found herself at that point and although I don't find the ending particularly satisfying I do find it an enjoyable read

Next a couple that I picked up in charity shops:

The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly was a book that I had never heard of, but I was interested to read it because it is inspired by the puzzle book Masquerade by Kit Williams which I remember reading about when I was younger. Masquerade was a picture puzzle book which contained clues leading to a buried golden hare. In this book, the narrator's father has created a similar book which contains hidden clues to various parts of a golden skeleton. Over the years people have become obsessive about finding all the pieces, in particular the final missing pelvis, and some even believe that they need to kill her in order to complete the skeleton. I did find the book a little long and rambling, but the excitement of the story was enough to keep me caught up in it!

Then I spotted The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré which I was keen to read. Set in Nigeria, it tells the story of a teenage girl called Adunni who longs for an education but instead is married at the age of 14 by her father, after her mother has died. She manages to run away and finds work as a maid, and although her situation there isn't much better she is determined to improve herself. It's a difficult read in terms of the content, but it's very well written and kept me hoping that Adunni would find her escape and have the happy ending that she deserved.

Finally a couple that I've inherited:

My copy of The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy belonged to my Grandma, and I retrieved it recently when visiting my Mum. It contains all three novels and two interludes and it's a long read - it took me several weeks! It was a little difficult to get into at first because there are many characters (often with the same names) and complicated relationships, but I'm glad that I stuck with it because once I got going I really enjoyed it. It follows the members of an upper middle class English family at the beginning of the 20th century. I enjoyed it for the well-written and fleshed out characters, the descriptive settings, and how it reflected a changing society.

Hurricane Force: The Story of the Storm of 1987 by George Hill was one of my Dad's books, a non-fiction account of the Great Storm which hit mainly southern England in October 1987. It was a few days before my 8th birthday and I do have some memories of that night - hearing the roaring wind, a tree falling down on the main road, my poor Dad's greenhouse being flattened - but it was really interested to read about the wider events in both my area and further afield, as well as across the Channel. The book was written soon after the storm and it is rather pessimistic when it talks about the long-term impact of the storm. I do remember the huge uprooted trees in the forest, but I feel like the recovery from the storm wasn't as bad as was predicted, for example Chanctonbury Ring near me was significantly damaged but it was replanted and is now pretty much regrown. Although of course it has been nearly 40 years, time flies!

Quite a varied selection of books this time I think!

Photo credit Josh Hild via Unsplash

Things I need to do by the end of the month

We have a lot on at the moment. Harry is in the middle of his GCSE exams which he's coping with marvellously, Mia also has end of year exams, and we have a lot of house projects which we are slowly working through. In late July we are going on an amazing holiday which has crept up rather quickly, and so I have lots to do before we go away. 

The most important thing is of course planning for the holiday! We are going to some countries which are new to us, and although we know for certain some of the things that we want to see and do there is plenty to research. We are visiting one country in particular which is quite different culturally and requires some organisation when it comes to planning which apps we will be able to use to translate and find our way around. I'll be writing all about it when we get back!

Photo credit Toa Heftiba via Unsplash

I definitely need to put some thought into which books to take away on holiday with me. I've become a little behind with my reading lately so I have a few books on my pile and I've also stacked up a lot of Kindle books from the Amazon First Reads and Prime Library selections. 

Harry has his prom coming up and then the next day a taster day at his new college, both big events for him. Luckily boys aren't too difficult to sort out for prom. He recently needed a black suit so he will be wearing that, brightening it up with a coloured waistcoat, a maths themed tie and some dress shoes.

Mia still needs to get to the end of term which is always a slog, but she's looking forward to saying goodbye to the subjects that she won't be taking for GCSE. 

As soon as we get back we are going to be having some decorating done in the house. Harry's room will be carpeted and painted, so we need to clear the room before we go. I usually do a big sort out in the kids rooms over the summer anyway so it's not too bad, but there are lots of things that can be decluttered and tidied up a bit so that he has a clean slate ready for college.

Photo credit Callum Hill via Unsplash

Over the last few weeks we've taken on the job of moving Mia into one of our larger rooms upstairs, so her old room will become the guest room. That will also be carpeted and painted over the summer, and while it's mostly empty of her personal things now, we do have a rather large Ikea loft bed which will have to go. It's a shame because it has served her brilliantly over the years, but we can't really expect our mothers to sleep up there when they come to stay! Hopefully we can find someone to disassemble and remove it because it's a big job.

Finally, I really want to get back into blogging properly again. I've taken a bit of a break because things have been full on since the start of the year and I've just not had the headspace for it. But I have lots of things coming up that I want to write about, so I just need to get back in the zone and back on track!

Photo credit Nic Rosenau via Unsplash