well its sure been a while ....

... since my last visit !

I'd like to say I've been busy in the background, beavering away at my lottie, but sadly I can't claim anything of the sort. Ah well - always next season 'eh :)

So here are my excuses: first we had the rain, then we had the drought, then my OH was away for what seemed like months, in between I moved to a new job at work, then we decided to sell our house which meant finishing all those pesky jobs that we never got around to finishing (or indeed starting in some cases), then OH was rushed into emergency A&E and spent a week in hospital (kidney stone - he is fine now) and then I went on a business trip. Hmmmm is that enough :)

I have managed to harvest some things:
- had fabulous garlic late spring
- OK onions
- fabulous potatoes (still digging them - what a surprise I hear you say cheekily)
- apples (they don't look like the brambleys that the label promised, but will still make a nice apple tart)
- purple beans - managed to save some seed for next year. They are sooooo fabulous chopped up with butter
- peas - enough for a couple of batches of soup
- a few strawberries & raspberries - got some jam made
- a few squashes - pretty small overall, but then I haven't watered at all and have barely visited.
- jerusalem artichokes
- kohl rabi
- tomatoes
- herbs
- beetroot

What wasn't so good:
- my fabulous carrots for carrot fly AGAIN
- peppers
- cucumbers
- sweetcorn
- borlotti beans
- courgettes (gasp)
- florence fennel
- globe artichoke
- blueberries

My house looks fab tho !
Am very pleased - we've had 8 viewings and 5 offers so far ... not quite at the price that we want yet, but not far off now, so fingers crossed :)
We do live here, seriously ! hahah ... you don't even want to know what we did with all our 'stuff'

Kitchen - the rabbit pictures on the left were my birthday present last year from a fabulous English artist living in Paris. I love my kitchen - the black art deco doors are going to be very hard to find again :(





Here is our city garden - the paving is Chinese slate - it is blue and rusty coloured - looks amazing after the rain. That's a Eucalyptus tree on the left (it needs chopping in half - it's only a couple of years old gulp) and golden bamboo against the back wall on the right. The silver tubs have French lavender, lambs ears (no idea of it's proper name, but its those silky / silver leaves that look like rabbits ears - so velvety you can't stop stroking them) and a clematis called Henri - a nod to OH's dad who died a few years ago.



Here's my bathroom - is this getting weird LOL


my living room


spare room / library


and my bedroom !


Hmm, so what other excuses did I list ... oh yes - OH !

So I'm at work and my colleague interrupts a meeting to tell me there is a problem at home - oh I say, is it the cats ! no she says, I think it's your OH. Oh right LOL. So I call him and he is gasping and groaning and it's very difficult to make out anything of sense at all, but it seems he has passed out three times (chipped a tooth !), been throwing up and immobilised by dreadful pain through his kidneys. So I call an ambulance BUT I'm 30 miles away from home (1.5hour drive !!) so I call his friend who has a set of keys. Said friend runs to the house to try and beat the ambulance, but when he gets there, OH has left his key in the door, so friend can't open the door !!! oh no. S'OK he says ... I'll break in ! Managed to persuade him not to and he figured out a plan B.

In the meantime I jump into my car and drive very fast to the adult A&E department ... can you believe I got there BEFORE the ambulance ... which went past me as I was walking up the hospital driveway !!!

I find OH on a trolly, curled up in a foetus position, shaking so violently that I thought he was going to fall off. After a few tests and a scan of some sort the verdict of kidney stones is delivered (to his relief). He is dosed up with morphine, dyctytrecky-something or other, another drug that I've forgotten and a paracetamol (doctor why are you giving him a paracetamol - 'it tops the other drugs off nicely' ....er, okaaaayy !)

Finally, nearly a week week later he has 'passed' the 4mm stone (ouch) and fought off the infection and is sent home :)

Apparently kidney stones are the male equivalent of giving birth ... OH managed not to slap the grinning female nurse who delivered this gem to him haha. So my sympathy to any of you who have experienced the pain.

I've also managed to fit in a business trip to Chicago. I'm not really a fan of the US, but I LOVED Chicago and would move there tomorrow ! What an amazing place - I had a ball - even though it was a work trip :)



This is the John Hancock building:


The view looking down on Chicago at night from the 95th floor bar of the John Hancock building !!! so high, my boss was shaking and we had to leave after just a few minutes :)


Trump Towers !


The city reflected in Trump Towers:


This is Chicago's Millennium sculpture - the Bean ... it captures the city perfectly:






Sunset through the skyscrapers:


So having run out of excuses, I had my first visit this afternoon for what feels like an entire season. It's not as bad as I feared - even the weeds haven't really done much. I shall go for a proper visit tomorrow and start the big clear up. Watch this space haha !