Around the croft

Well - not much has been happening around here, this year, as you can well imagine. Yet - everything has changed. We sold all the livestock last year, when John became ill, and I re-homed our hens during the summer. I developed a mild intolerance to eggs all of a sudden, and also, James and I want to spend more of our holidays travelling, and visiting family, so it seemed the right decision all round.
I've had the vegetable beds removed, and the wilderness of weeds that had sprung up over the last couple of seasons hacked back. This will be cut regularly, and I hope that eventually it will resemble grass. It will never be a proper lawn, but close enough. there are some trees around the edges of the plot, and I want to have that as a woodland area, with bulbs,wildflowers, and some more trees. A nice seat here and there and it should be how I envision it. I have to say that taking out these beds was a very hard thing to do, when I think how hard John worked to put them in. I don't think he would be very pleased, to be honest, but they would have been almost impossible for me to get back into production, and to maintain them. Our needs have changed now, and we have to adapt to them.

As far as the croft land itself goes, I still have the one up at the house. My neighbour is using it, intermittently, for his sheep, and that suits me just now. Later, when I have more idea of what I am doing, (and who I am), I can decide how I am going to use it. The lease to the bottom croft - our original one, has been sold. This happened back in the spring, when John was still alive. It has gone to the son of a local crofting family. John was so happy that this young man was taking over, and getting started with his own croft.

Still - we are enjoying some early autumn colour in the garden just now - dahlias, lilies, crocosmia and a kind of spirea like shrub, which I don't know the name of. I also tried a couple of agapanthus in pots this year, and am pleased to see them flower this week. We have some salad too.

I''m beginning to have some thoughts on how to plan the space outside to suit our new circumstances. The Caravan of Delight will sadly be going. Not far - just up the road to a neighbours, but it needs to make room for a garden shed. It was a useful annexe to the house, but a shed will be even more so now. I am thinking I will put a few small raised beds over at the far end of  where the washing green is, and use the space around the polytunnel more. The polytunnel itself will be recovered soon.

This lovely sunny sheltered spot, where the henhouse used to sit, will be made into a proper seating area , and I plan to have more flower and herb beds around the perimeter. At the moment, I have a makeshift area for pots of lavender and my agapanthus, but I have big ideas for this space...

So changes are beginning to appear around this croft and garden. The focus now is on making life easier to manage, and to create a practical and beautiful space, if I can. Of course, the planning is easier than the doing, but for now, it's one step at a time. xxx