Post Comment Love 12-14 January

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed from the linky, and if older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

I feel like I’ve had a productive week, but one in which I don’t seem to have achieved a huge amount. I have managed to just about get to grips with the new to me Google Analytics tools, mainly so I could tick off the Top 10 post from my list.

I do like ticking things off my list - virtual or on paper, and yes, I’ve been known to add things to the list just so I can tick them off. That’s totally normal, right?

My photo this week is of some gorgeous flowers which arrived in the post - aren’t they lovely? They arrived on one of the chillier days and I think they were feeling the cold, but after a few hours in water and in the warm they perked up, let’s hope they want to hang around for a while.

Have a good week.

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My top 10 posts of 2023

This year there’s been challenges putting this post together, but I think I’m there. The challenges are, obviously, my blog name change but also an update to Google Analytics earlier in the year which I knew about, but hadn’t really engaged with. But I have now, my head’s still spinning!

Anyway, it’s good to be able to carry on with my annual tradition at looking which posts from the past year which have been the most popular and those that have been around a while longer that continue to bring in the views.

But let’s start with my most popular posts from 2023, not surprisingly the first three relate to the giveaways I hosted:

1 Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Live on Sunday 18 June

I was proud to partner with Gardeners World to host this both this giveaway and the one for the Spring Fair, which is number three on this year’s list. It was great to go along and see the show, though as you’ll see further down in this post that brought about its own challenges.

2 Eight new cards for Spring - and a giveaway for UK postal addresses

This giveaway came about as I was sent a duplicate box of cards which the Card Boys were keen for me to share with someone who would enjoy them. And so I shared more about the box and held a giveaway and I was really pleased that one of my regular readers won them.

3 Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Spring Fair on Sunday 30 April

This was the first giveaway of the year, and my first time attending the Spring Fair. We had a great time at the fair and exploring Beaulieu - another first visit for me. With everything else that’s been going on this year - especially our house move - I don’t think I’ve shared as many posts from there, or our visit to the area generally, as I originally planned

4 Welcome to Bosworth Life

I’m pleased this post - where I share my new blog name and the reasoning behind it - is high on the list, especially as before we moved I had no intention of changing this space very much at all. But moving house changed all that.

We’ve done a lot since we moved in last July, and we’ve some more to do and sort out and I look forward to sharing here how we’re making our new house our home. Moving really was the right thing for us to do, so I’m glad we were able to make it happen, though it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done!

5 Making an autumn wreath

By October I was keen to get out and meet people around Newark, and for me craft workshops and groups have provided a way to do that, and even better is that I also left with a wreath or two along the way. I’ve never had an autumn wreath before, but I’m up for having a wreath on my door all year round now.

6 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and me

After finally getting myself to the doctors about my numb hands, doing the exercises set by the physio and not really seeing much of an improvement I was referred to a specialist. Things really started to move then after being able to take advantage of a cancellation spot - for both my initial appointment, and later for my op. It was quite a whirlwind and completely unknown, though I soon discovered quite a few people that had experienced it and some that had also had the op. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have been quite so worried and I’ll definitely have the op on my left hand when that’s offered.

7 My garden in August

As we settled in to our new house it was my garden that I shared with you first, and so it’s not a real surprise that one of those first posts has made the list. For a new build house we have a pretty established, and pretty decent, garden. There’s also so much more that we can do with it, and we have some plans, but first we’re enjoying what it does have and seeing how that works with the light and the space, and you can look forward to much more of the same this year.

8 Some of my highlights from Gardeners' World Live

This year we went up to Gardeners’ World Live for the Press Preview the day before the show opened, and it was brilliant. I mean, you get to see all the same things you would see on a show day, but with much fewer people about. In fact in the marquee it looked quite different as I hadn’t realised the aisles between exhibitors was quite so wide - the next day when they were full I would have easily believed you if you told me they’d been narrowed!

Anyway, navigating the show with a dodgy arm (the show was about two weeks after my Carpal Tunnel op!) was much easier than I expected. We travelled light and MOH carried the bags (he’s a keeper!) and we spent a good couple of days wandering around the NEC soaking up all the garden inspiration.

9 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and me - a post-op update

A month after my operation I shared an update sharing how I’d got on including my fears ahead of the operation. The bandage was something else, they said be prepared for a large bandage - clearly I needed to do more preparation, as this wasn’t what I was expecting at all. And thankfully my fingers are less oompah-loompah like too.

Seriously though, my hand is fine. In fact it’s much better than it was before - the tingling and regular numbness are a thing of the past. If you’re down to have a CST op and are concerned, believe what people tell you, there’s really little to worry about.

10 Pepping up the grey

I’ve a lot more time to dedicate to crafts now that we’ve moved and we’ve both given up work, and that’s a good thing. Though moving house also meant I was faced with my many work in progresses (WIPs) - I’m pretty sure they’ll be more on those in another post, but needless to say I need to start working my way through them and finishing them off.

I’ve made a good start as the grey blanket which didn’t make my heart sing, is now finished - and while I didn’t entirely stick to my plan, it’s finished. In the end I only added the yellow granny squares, and I’m using the various pink, orange and red granny squares to make myself a cardigan. Er, so actually, the net number of WIPs remains the same - perhaps not the progress I thought it was initially then.

It’s interesting to see that you have also picked up and read many of my more significant posts throughout the year, 2023 was definitely a big year for me.

So onto the second list

This list is posts created at any time but viewed in 2023, the year in brackets is the year it was originally posted - and this list is often very similar to the previous year. For whatever reason these posts continue to attract views, and it’s good to see some of the old favourites remaining on the list, though there have been a few changes this year.

1. Sean Murray's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge (2017)

2. Filling our gabion baskets (2017)

3. My IKEA hack: HOL storage table to laundry basket (2015)

4. Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Live on Sunday 18 June (2023)

5. In the Orangery at Belton House (2022)

6. Let's talk Edwardian house decoration (2017)

7. Vibrant interiors at Belton House (2022)

8. Planting a strawberry border (2016)

9. The Chinese Streamside Garden at RHS Bridgewater (2021)

10. Storing logs in our gabion baskets (2017)

It’s good to see some of my more recent posts appearing on the list above - and my posts sharing our visits to Belton always do well, I need to get myself over there more!

Thanks for being here over the past year, and for bearing with me sharing this post which appeals to my inner nerd.

My Christmas (and now my Winter) wreath

I’m getting into this wreath making - and even though I made my latest wreath at the start of December as a Christmas wreath, I’m not ready to let it go yet so it’s be renamed my Winter wreath! I think that’s ok, don’t you?

For this workshop I headed over to a village outside Grantham meeting up my SIL for us each to make a wreath for our front doors (or in my case, as before, my back door!). I hadn’t realised the workshop was to be hosted in a private house and so struggled to find where I was supposed to be. Luckily though I stumbled upon a villager who was also attending and helped me, I’m so glad she did as it was a brilliant evening hosted by Chloe Jonason, along with expert wreath advice from Sarah at Sage and Satin Floral, who we discovered during the course of the evening lives in the same village as my SIL. A small world indeed.

But anyway, wreath making - entering into a room set up for the workshop with a large table in the middle and wreaths complete with moss laid out ready for easily 15 of us, with a huge pile of greenery in the centre of the table made quite an impact. The lebkuchen and mulled wine on arrival, and throughout the evening were also very much welcomed, though with a drive ahead of me in inclement weather the lebkuchen were very much more my thing!

HOW IT STARTED…

HOW IT ENDED…

Compared to my autumn wreath, this one has more decorations on which feels right for a more Christmassy effort - and it was good to learn how to wire these and attach them to the wreath. I’ve had one casualty - a cinnamon stick on our doorstep - which I’m quite impressed with, and used a very similar technique on my repurposed autumn wreath. Which reminds me I need to retrieve those pine cones and dry those before someone thoughtfully adds them to our brown bin…

Learning from my previous workshop, this time I had prepared my boot for the wreath’s journey home with a large piece of plastic and instead of moving it into the garage overnight, I left it in the boot! It was fine. In fact I didn’t hang it on my back door the next day either as I needed to make plans for storing the autumn wreath, and it was still fine. It’s still going strong and we’ve definitely had some weather in the last month or so, so I’ve also learnt that wreaths are pretty resilient.

It was only when I hung it on the door though, that I realised that my golden lotus flowers could have signified the Five Gold Rings from the 12 Days of Christmas, if only I’d thought to add another at the bottom. Never mind, it’s something to bear in mind for a future wreath, and as you’d expect I plan to remove the decorations, dry and store them for future use.

But in the meantime, enjoy a few more pictures of my newly renamed Winter wreath - I’ll let you know how long it hangs around for, and if there’s a replacement (though I’m pretty sure there will be one!)

Wreath making is definitely a skill I’m pleased I’ve added to my repertoire, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be scouring my garden for plants to use in future wreaths, as well as looking for places locally to forage materials, as my garden is unlikely to keep up with my new wreath habit for a little while yet!