I am still alive and well in the leafy south, but spoons have been low and I’ve been going through some fairly strong self-esteem issues. Since this blog is not the place for hosting a pity party I chose to remain quiet until such time as the black mood passed.

As a result my inbox is groaning under the weight of unanswered emails and notifications of blog posts that I have yet to read. Also emails from various other blogging sites, news from my favourite charities… the list goes on. I promise to wade through it all; it may just take some time.

Married life continues to chug along nicely. Our new garden fence was put in on Tuesday, with not a single plant/vegetable casualty to be had – which pleases me as I shall soon have Nasturtium seed pods and one of my Romanesco has developed a beautiful core which grows bigger by the day. Most of the work was done from next door’s garden (next door had been made aware and were perfectly happy with this – they’re good people) and they’re not really gardeners, so their few rose bushes and evergreens weren’t in the way at all. I hadn’t realised how much the old fence panels had bowed inwards until I saw all the extra space that is suddenly at the back of my garden borders!

It may only be July, but it feels like autumn is already here, due to heavy rains and thunderstorms and cool weather. I do hope it brightens up in August for the Discworld Convention that we are attending, but my thoughts are already turning to the cooler months ahead. We are going to have (hopefully) a bumper harvest of various garden goodies this year, which will put my pickling skills to the test, and I am very excited about this. Both D and I gain a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from growing our own food and turning it into something tasty that will last through the rest of the year and beyond.

I have also been in the mood for “feathering the nest”, as it were, and have bought us a gorgeous new duvet set – complete with a matching throw for winter. There is nothing better than snuggling down into warm, clean bedding after a hot bath on a winters night.

This has really just been a “filler post”. Now I need to get back to wading through all of those email notifications and responding where I can. I also need to get back to stitching, because my recent bout of depression has left me way behind on the progress I intended to make this year.