Six on Saturday – Distracted

Posted byofftheedgegardeningPosted inChez Nous, Six on SaturdayTags:, , , , ,

I have been a little distracted of late, which has resulted in a deficiency in the blogging department. The reason for being even more away with the fairies than normal is that we are moving house. To be more accurate, we are attempting to. Yes, you heard me right, we trying to sell our house in the middle of a pandemic. We wouldn’t want it to be too easy. For this reason, my mind in the last few months has often been elsewhere; wondering if anyone is actually doing anything constructive to further the cause and would someone please remind me how much an hour our solicitor gets paid for doing exactly what? In a sublime piece of synchronicity, several of my clients are also moving on, or have done already. Times are very strange on Planet Gill. Of course, to everyone in the else in the world all this is of meagre consequence, and quite rightly so. I bet our leader, The Prop, doesn’t even mention it. So, without further excusing, let us get on with the task at hand.

First, we have a plum pudding. Not really, it is a well wrapped Grewia occidentalis. This tender, cos it’s worth it, plant stubbornly refused to flower this year, possibly due to inadequate protection last winter. Slightly shamed by my short-comings I have made a special effort. Others thereabouts are quite rightly feeling a little miffed. Hopefully I will get around to them before too long.

Last Sunday I had a good clear out, horticulturally speaking. I rearranged and titivated The Step and surrounding area. The glass door opens out from the dining room, but is (luckily) seldom used. Sneaky slugs were dealt with, the disappointing dahlias put to dry and chosen pots snuggled together ready for their fleece as and when necessary. It was a cathartic experience and a start. Choices will have to be made; only the strong will survive.

Now, a lone, valiant, battered flower of Erigeron karvinskianus. A shadow of its heyday self, but still a daisy is a daisy is a daisy and always welcome.

Then, another lone survivor, the last leaf on our peach seedling. Whether this tree-ette will ever amount to anything is doubtful. Still, we don’t care, which is all that matters.

Onto, a spilling seed pod of the big blue agapanthus. It is big, it is blue and it is an agapanthus, any more I can’t tell you. Except it is liable to seed itself all over the place, which is both a blessing and a curse. I am hoping one will lodge in a pot to be carried to pastures new. Or I could just collect the seed, which doesn’t seem quite as romantic.

Lastly, a festive primula. Bright and joyful and all the things we need in these dark days.

Keep the faith, my friends. Now the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, I will attempt to shield you from the worst of our conveyancing traumas. Which I know are inevitable. And hope that sometime in the near-to-middle future we will have a new garden to dissect for SoS. Although sometimes the prospect seems a long way away.

61 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – Distracted”

  2. Selfishly, I’m hoping that move doesn’t take place before we’re allowed to have a proper hug again. But then I’m also looking forward to hearing about your new garden. Gill without a garden? Never!

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  3. Take heart, some friends have recently sold their house, all done during the pandemic and it seems to be going ok. Hopefully yours will work out too. And I hope you find your bigger garden!

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  4. Good lucky with house move. I argued with ours as they gave us a cost and I made it very clear that I wanted to know did this cost include everything. They later sent a bill for an admin fee which I refused to pay on top of what we’d already paid. Luckily I had it in email that their initial price included everything. I mean an admin fee! The whole job is admin and I don’t believe that many hours work for the price they charge but you have to go through it.

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  5. ?! Just like that? I mean, I know you mentioned the difficulty of it, but I was not at all aware that you were relocating. Goodness, you have been through a lot, and are still going through it! Well, that is my perspective. I do not relocate easily, so I assume it is a major undertaking for everyone else too.

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  9. Best wishes for the mig move, Gill. How are you feeling about leaving your existing garden? Are you excited about putting your stamp on the next one?
    On a less (more?) important note, the primula is go h-álainn ar fad.

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  10. Patience and perseverance, and a willingness to steer the process even though you have agents and solicitors, is required in my experience. All the best. Nice to see you have plenty in pots to take with you.

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  12. Moving house is always so hard. I do hope you are successful at selling. The property market in Queensland is just booming, with many wanting to relocate out of the cities. I do hope the ‘plum pudding and your lovely potted plants survive the winter chills.

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  13. Moving house is always so hard. I do hope you are successful at selling. The property market in Queensland is just booming, with many wanting to relocate out of the cities. I do hope the ‘plum pudding’ and your lovely potted plants survive the winter chills.

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  14. So that offer you had? Solicitirs, like authors, are paid by the word. They do little themselves other than raise a bill. They pay some random word generator a pittance to assemble a collection of boilerplate paragraphs (the “legal executive”), then someone to proofread (the “articled clerk” who might even be an unpaid intern!) Clients are merely a handicap.

    Don’t let yours call you an “important client” – those two words will cost you £50! 😏

    Meanwhile, I await the arrival of my new gardening intern. 🤓

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  19. Good luck to you Gill! Surprisingly the house market is very ‘hot’ here. I found it to be a stressful experience but the new larger garden space compensated for all the trouble!
    Fingers crossed for you 🙂

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  21. Hi Gill – that step looks so pretty with that congregation of pots. Plus you used the word titivating which is a big bonus – what a word! Good luck with the conveyancing.

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  24. I seem to move on average every five years so on that record it looks like next year we will be putting our house on the market. I loathe the buying/selling process and the costs, but needs must and all that… Have you found another house? Is it still in Devon?

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    1. You are an expert! We are hoping to move closer to mum and one of my brothers and his family in South Wales. Unfortunately we are not allowed in at the moment, although we don’t really want to go as they have one of the highest Covid rates in the UK! We are planning to rent in the gap. Fingers crossed.

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      1. I’m sorry we didn’t get to meet, I was hoping to get to rosemoor at some point. We’ll probably move back eastwards to be closer to some of the children. We know from experience how crap it is looking after elderly relatives from afar. And we are pretty far from anyone down here. Good luck with the house hunting, when you can. We considered Wales before moving here. Saw a lovely barn conversion in Laugharne.

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  25. I was stopped in my tracks at your first photo! I have an identical fleece situation in my garden and the very same pegs! Mine are helping to protect an agapanthus which you then go on to feature. But there the similarity ends. No house move here, did that a few years ago now. I hope you find something beautiful very soon. Mr K will be pleased, won’t he?

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