Post Comment Love and Blogger Showcase, 7-9 April 2017

Hello and welcome to another Friday and another PoCoLo. If you were here last week, thank you it was great to see you, if you're new here this week, welcome, I hope you'll find us a happy and friendly bunch. I'm pretty certain you'll find a wide range of posts to read, and Morgan and I are looking forward to see what you'll link up this week.

This week has been mixed for me, we finally got over to the allotment for the first time this year (yes, I know, I'm hanging our collective heads in shame) and it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. We've also got the gardening bug back, which is just as well as we've a lot to do. I had a hospital appointment for my overactive thyroid and have been discharged, which is good news, because if I'm honest the appointments weren't massively helpful. I'd been allocated a consultant at Kings which is a bit of a faff to get too, and it certainly was this week as the zip in my trousers jammed on the day of my hospital appointment.

Of course I discovered just as I was about to head into back to back meetings and then head straight off to the hospital. Cue some emergency shopping, thankfully that was successful and I made the hospital appointment with seven minutes to spare, and was so glad they didn't want to take my blood pressure this time!

And then there's been the weather, hasn't it been great?  And some lovely weather to come if we believe the forecast, we're already planning a barbecue, so I hope they're right. This week's photo is from Greenwich Park and suddenly it's been all about the blossom, so here's some blossom.

Blogger Showcase: Jessica from Enjoy the Adventure

1. Who are you

I am Jess a travel blogger - at Enjoy the Adventure - and mental health support worker. When I’m not working I love exploring new places, going out for meals, afternoon tea and watching movies.

2. How did you discover blogging?

I first discovered blogs as a teenager whilst I was looking for makeup and skincare reviews. I loved the fact it was normal people trying out products I could easily get.

3. Why did you start blogging?

I decided to start after backpacking around Europe. I was in areas such as Slovenia and Bosnia and wanted to find out more information about how to travel around the countries and the best places to visit. I couldn’t find all the information I wanted so decided to create my own blog. Describing what transport to get and how much things cost so people know this information before visiting somewhere.

4. What do you find most challenging? 

HTML I still have no idea how to do certain things. There’s also a lot of work that goes into growing a following on social media and to get a decent amount of pages views.

5. What is your favourite topic to write about?

Anything related to travel, whether it’s going on a trip abroad or a staycation.

6. Are you blogging for fun or do you have goals?

Initially I started blogging for fun, but now I have a few goals. These would be going on Press trips or events and meeting other bloggers.

7. What is your favourite thing about blogging?

I love the blogging community and receiving lovely messages on my blog! I also love having the opportunity to work with companies.

8. Have you attended a blogging conference?

I haven’t yet but plan on going to some this year. If anyone knows of any good ones please let me know...

9. What are your 3 best posts?

• What to do in Split Croatia

• Weekend in Zurich Switzerland

• What to do in Dublin Ireland

10. Describe yourself in 3 words?

Passionate, caring and loving.

11. Are you a tea and biscuits or coffee and cake person?

Definitely tea and biscuits, I love a good cuppa tea.

12. What’s your idea of a perfect night out? 

A perfect night out would be with the girls going for dinner and a few cocktails, then seeing a live band.

13. Your perfect night in?

A movie, takeaway and a face mask.

14. What would your best friend/mum say is your best quality?

I think my friends and family would say I’m kind and like helping others.

Thanks Jessica, it's been lovely to get to know more about you and your blog - you certainly have some gorgeous photos on your blog. Please do pop over and collect your "I was featured on PoCoLo" badge

Please do pop over and check out Jessica's social media channels, and follow her if you're not already. We all know how nice it is to grow our following.

You can follow Jessica here:

Blog  -  Twitter  -  Instagram  -  Facebook  -  Pinterest  

An InLinkz Link-up

Should you stay or should you go now?

Hands up, who started singing? I know I was as I was typing it, so if you weren't I salute you. I didn't know it was a Clash song, I had to google that, but I knew the words - and more than I've included here. Surprisingly though this isn't a musical post, it's something more literal, should you move or improve?

No doubt, something that crosses most of our minds at some stage. I know when we were thinking about replacing our kitchen, we knew that although our kitchen was getting tired, it wasn't completely broken. But we also knew that by the time we wanted to move on, it would most likely be in the completely broken, so we decided to go for it and enjoy the new kitchen rather than just have a new one put in just to sell the house.

But I'm not going to talk about that in this post either, I'm going to indulge in some nostalgia today and we're heading back to my previous house, which was the first house I bought on my own. It was an Edwardian style house and a probate sale, and I suspect that the owners had had the house for a very long time.

We're heading back to 1993 and while I'd just bought the house, improving it was essential. Every room needed bringing up to date and the garden needed completely taming. I've found a load of old photos, but sadly not all of them just yet, and I'm still deciding which to share with you today. They've brought back so many memories that I think I'll be sharing all of them at some point and looking out the ones that I haven't found yet.

I'll give you a taste of the work we undertook, but as the sun is shining let's focus on the garden today.

REWIRING THE WHOLE HOUSE

PART-WAY THROUGH DECORATING THE FRONT BEDROOM

THE RE-DECORATED BOX ROOM

AND THE COMPLETED VIEW, WITH HAND-PAINTED TILES

I'll leave the rest of upstairs as the back bedroom has its own story, as we replaced the bomb-damaged ceiling. Yes, I know I said 1993, but the ceiling was battened which was typical of bomb damage. That gives you an idea of what I took on, and I don't think I knew just how much that was until we started. Thankfully my dad, a veteran tradesman and my brother, an electrician along with my ginger cat, Quickly were willing to take on a lot of the work. I kid you not about the cat, every time there was DIY work going on he was there helping out, the other cats (I had three more) made themselves scarce, just like normal cats.

In the dining room, you can see work is still underway, but that built in cupboard was my pride and joy. I personally, and painstakingly, scraped years and years worth of paint off of the original in-built cupboard, and it turned out rather well. The curtains behind the glass were a genius idea as they hid a multitude of sins, but I remember mum thinking how old-fashioned they were, as it was something her nan would have had.

WORK IS UNDERWAY IN THE DINING ROOM, AND THE STEPLADDER WAS IN REGULARLY USED

We'll leave the kitchen too, as I don't have the "after" pictures yet, I must have them somewhere and that can be a whole blog post on its own. Let's head out into the garden, in 1993, it looked like this:

THE BACK GARDEN IN 1993: WHO KNEW WHAT WAS HIDDEN IN THERE...

Yes, it was quite the mystery garden. We knew from the gardens next door that there was more to discover, but we also knew that we needed our secateurs to find out exactly what! There was a path on the right-hand side that was just about squeeze-through-able, but as with all gardens, it continued to grow. The birdbath looks great with its ring of yellow plant doesn't it? Only thing was the plant was planted in a plastic washing up bowl that had perished, so as soon as I investigated further it disintegrated in my hands. I'd forgotten that until I saw this picture, funny how our memories are tied into photos isn't it?

There was a garden shed though, right outside the back door:

A GARDEN SHED THAT WAS AS RICKETY AS IT LOOKS

It wasn't long before the brambles had at least been cut down, something that was a regular task over the next few years, and taming was a little way off yet. But with them cut down and a clearer pathway beginning to emerge it was time to start building a new shed. I think my dad was in his element as he made the frame out of angle line, or grown ups meccano as I often called it.  

STARTING TO TAME THE BRAMBLES, AND BUILD A NEW SHED

And I'll have you know that that slant is just an illusion of camera angles, it was perfectly straight. I know I measured it plenty of times, as dad has a habit of preferring things with a bit of a lean. The windows were old ones that dad had from I'm not sure where, but he was right, they did come in useful one day. 

We'd found the breeze blocks you can see scattered around the photo in the garden, on the left-hand edge. I think some of them went back to where they came from and others I found new homes for. A strange thing to have discovered in all those weeds.

THE SHED THAT DAD BUILT

But it wasn't long before the new shed took shape. The door was from an inbuilt cupboard in one of the bedrooms, so small that a coathanger didn't actually fit in sideways, and so useless as a wardrobe. But pretty useful as a shed door. The wood that was added to the metal frame, was from my brother's dogs kennel, which they no longer used. He had two alsatians, so it was a fairly big kennel.  

How I'd wished I'd hung onto that zinc bucket and butler's sink, but sadly I didn't. My re-use tendencies clearly had left me at this point. I'm not sure where the crazy paving slabs came from, but I do remember collecting bottles to add some interest to the round-edged patio. That was something else I'd forgotten about, I was adamant it had to be round, and well here we are again creating circles in this garden, although this time in grass.  

THIS PATIO WASN'T SQUARE EITHER, I SEEM TO HAVE A THING FOR CIRCULAR SHAPES IN GARDENS

And so the garden started to take shape. This was the garden that got me into gardening, partly because it was a challenge and partly because it was hard to not get into gardening after I'd seen - and contributed - to the work bringing it back under control. 

And as with anything, my garden continued to evolve. Net curtains were added to the inside of the shed, not because I was house proud or anything, but because the dark window used to reflect the spotlights from the football ground over the road and give me the heebie-jeebies. Trellis was added to the front of the shed to soften it further. Turfs were laid when we were confident that the brambles had lost their grip, and a new fence was erected, on the left-hand side as you look by me and dad and on the other side by the now new neighbour.

You wouldn't quite believe it's the same garden would you?

IN 2000 WHEN THE GARDEN IS MORE ESTABLISHED AND MATURE, YOU'D NEVER KNOW, WOULD YOU?

And I think this garden is a fantastic example of what you can achieve if you choose to stay and improve. I think there'll always be a time when moving on is the right thing to do, but for me, if I fell in love with a house, had invested time and money into it, then if there were no other factors I'd choose to improve, rather than move. But then again I've only ever lived in five houses, maybe that's a factor too.

So would you move or improve?

Slater and Gordon Solicitors have recently undertaken research to help you make up your mind. I don't think it that surprising that 61% of people said they'd renovate rather than move, but I am surprised that only 35% consider location as the most important factor when choosing a new home. Or maybe I've just watched too many TV programmes of the same name, same name, same name.  I would think that location is one of the things you can't change about a house so it's important to get that right, but I also suspect that if the right house comes along and you fall hard for it, then location could easily go out of the window!

Let me know what you think, and if you're in the move or improve camp, I'm keen to know.

* This is a collaborative post, but all views and opinions are my own.

A revision to our garden plan

It's been almost two years since we went along to Grand Designs clutching plans for our garden and seeking advice on how to deal with the "problem areas" in our garden. And it's been interesting to reread that post as I'm sharing yet another revision to our grand plan. 

Following that trip two years ago we were pretty much set on using upturned sleepers to form a small wall-like seat under the laurel tree at the rear of the garden. We had - and still have - some disagreements on how that might work and we were under no illusion about how much work, and digging, that would need.  But nothing happened, and that area of the garden still resembles a bit of a junk yard and is a handy store for all manner of things. That probably means that neither of us were truly committed to making that part of the plan happen.  

But we know something needs to happen, and I think we've finally cracked it.

Here's a clue to the change: 

Pretty isn't it? Although I'll have to confess it's only a very loose clue. 

Image source: Unsplash

While in Dorset without wifi, I found myself flicking through a magazine and I spotted an image of gabion baskets topped with paving slabs to form a seat and my mind began to wonder.  If we could shape the gabion baskets into a semi-circle, it might just work. So I did what I always do and did some research to combat all the questions that I knew MOH would have.

While I was doing that I found some great examples, including this one from Garden Drum on how to build a curved gabion wall.  I knew though after reading that, that I'd be unlikely to be able to convince MOH to go to all this effort. He's read it too, and says we can't do that as he doesn't have a spare wheel to use to shape the mesh, so as I thought, I've no chance of replicating that.

It's ok though because I never really thought I would. Had I wanted as many curves as they had then I'd have been making a stronger case, but as my motivation is to get something done relatively quickly, I'm settling for 0.5m square baskets shaped into a semi-circle. And like all good plans, I've even got a sketch, something I never quite managed for the upturned sleeper version of the plan.

When we looked at the space we realised that we'd need a partial second row of baskets so that there could be some planting at seat level to soften it a little. We can't raise the soil level by half a metre without them as the boundary wall is the exterior walls of two of our neighbours, but we think if we line them with membrane and fill them with earth, this will do the job. As the baskets are relatively cheap - and we have some soil, as we saved some from digging out the circles in the summer - this seems a good all round solution for us.

We'll fill the baskets at the front with what I'm calling builders rubble, but what I really mean is a combination of bricks, broken paving slabs, roofing tiles and some large pebbles which I saved when we had our patio done a few years ago. The pebbles were in the gully between the house and the patio and I knew at some point they'd come in handy!  Since then I've clearly done a good job of "hiding" them from MOH as he was surprised to learn we still had them.  

I suspect we'll need to buy some bricks, but I've already discovered you can buy them on eBay - how amazing is that? I've also discovered that there's lots of people having work done around us and whose front gardens have the sort of builder's rubble I'm after. If they still have it when we're filling our gabion baskets, I might find myself getting brave and asking if I can help them out with their junk (although I might phrase it slightly differently to that!)

So a new plan, and renewed energy and enthusiasm for making it happen.  And there's a good chance it could happen this year - watch this space!