Getting In The Garden This Summer

Can I just start off by saying how much I genuinely adore my garden.

It's pretty small and basic but to me it's what a wand is to a wizard and what the sea is to a mermaid.

I could honestly never live in a flat because I spend so much time in the garden, especially now with this just-pour-a-bucket-ice-cold-water-over-me-now weather we are having, that I literally would not know what to do with my time otherwise.  

I imagine me without a garden being a bit like when Harry freed Dobby from the Malfoy's and then after being super excited for ten minutes about being finally being a free house elf, he found himself wandering around with nothing to do so decided to dedicate the rest of his life to being Harry's protector. That would be me trying to keep a poor house plant alive, expect I wouldn't be as successful as Dobby was!

I mean how much is too much water? I just never know.

There are times (even when the sun is shining because believe it or not the sun doesn't always make everything better!) when the idea of putting on half decent clothes, doing my make up and hair so I can venture outside the front door without scaring the neighbors, is jut too much effort. Life can feel suffocating sometimes but there are way to overcome it all.

Why, as soon as it reaches 25 degrees, do we Brits have to go rushing off to the beach? Or the sea side like our lives depend on it?

Why can't I just sit in the garden on the new Miami garden furniture we brought and enjoy the sun in the comfort of my own home. And FYI you would totally want to because those babies are the comfiest seats ever and the chairs have arms.

They have arms people!

Living the dream.

And in your garden it is acceptable to do a lot of things you wouldn't dream about doing in public.

It's acceptable to wear the shortest pair of shorts you own and not have shaved your legs because who's time for that when you gotta catch all those sun rays.

You don't need to worry about your face or your hair or your borderline bingo wings; nobody can see you. They can't see you throwing caution to the wind and only applying sun cream to your arms because duh those pale things you call legs NEED some sun. They can't see you slowly eating your way through a family sized box of Fab Ice Lollies, which are actually like heaven.

No lie.

Nor do they see you sipping on jug fulls of Pimm's with homegrown strawberries, cucumber and mint at eleven o'clock in the morning. What is so bad about that anyway, didn't your mother ever tell you to keep hydrated in hot weather?

Aside from all the jokes, though, a garden is a little piece of paradise. It just what you do with it that  makes it special.

It's a place for hosting BBQ's, for camping under the stars, for growing fresh fruit and veg from teeny tiny seeds, for watching flowers that you planted bloom from buds that seemed as though they were never going to open, for admiring bees and butterflies as they bumble around the leaves, for free entertainment and most importantly for being in reaching distance of food, drink and wifi!

There is just something about being able to step outside and explore within the safety of your own property and knowing that if you don't get up in the morning to water the plants, they will be fried by the sun.

Plus by the look on my cat's face at the moment as he is stretched across the hot patio, under the shade of the umbrella, he seems to like the garden too!

So lets all get out there today. If its in a mess why not pop down to your local garden center, buy a few pots of plants and position them around the garden, nail up hanging baskets or plant your own full of strawberry seeds, treat yourself to a brightly colored watering can or one of those paper windmill things you stick in the ground for the wind to blow or hang up some bird feeders and leave food for the local hedgehog.

Please, don't mop around in doors all day when there is so much to be discovered right outside your back door. Talking of which, I'm off to eat a big slice of Victoria Sponge Cake in the sun.

I mean, why not?

Surprisingly enough this is not a sponsored post. I just love Pimm's and garden furniture!