January garden update

Well, here we are on the very last day of January, and I've finally managed to get out in the garden for an hour. You wouldn't think it was difficult, it's such a tiny garden, it's right outside the back door, but what with snow, PhD starting again, along with Job 3 resuming after 9 months off, this is the first time I've had a proper poke around.

And oh, it was good! I'd forgotten what wet earth smelt like.

I didn't actually do much, just pulled out some things I battled with all last summer (fighting a losing battle, probably, but I thought I'd try for a bit of a head start). Oh, and lopped off a bit of the acer that was hanging over the path, just at tripping-up height. And hacked away at the impossible-to-destroy roses.

And stood back with a cup of tea and had a good look. Because that's what gardening's all about, right?

The sage doesn't seem to have been affected by being buried under several inches of snow for a few weeks.

The chard, though, hasn't fared quite so well...

And look at this! New growth of fennel, nestled away in the corner. How exciting, I can almost believe spring's on the way!

I'm planning on doing a bit of a garden update at the end of each month this year... more to make sure I keep getting out and doing things than anything else, that's what this little blog was for, after all! I think there'll probably be lots more photos as I get out there more in the next few months. I've got lots of plans for the garden this year...

In other news, all my family Christmas presents have finally been delivered - hooray! Which means I'll be able to share them on here, hopefully in the next week or so.

And I've promised myself a post about goals (again, to make sure I actually reach some!), so I'll try for that this week too...

(and I haven't forgotten the bodging tutorial, but as I'm not going to undo part of my old rug, I'll have to start a new one (!) for that, so it'll have to wait for this week at least!)

(I know I don't have to start a whole new rug to show you what I did, by the way, but it might be just too tempting not to. We'll see...)