Notes from the week

It's been a challenging week to be honest, the kind of week where you have to force yourself to remember the things for which you are grateful. That's one of the many reasons I love writing Notes from the Week. It reminds me of all the little moments of joy and gratitude I experience day in, day out, but which are so easy to forget in all the overwhelming life going on around you.

For all that life can be stressful and emotional, I'm so thankful to have this space to call my own, and the people and animals that fill it and surround it.

I've been working on my patio since February, when my mum came to visit and helped me salvage the plants that were in the original flower bed. I'm going to do a full write up of this project in the next few weeks, I want to leave it to settle in a little and style it a bit more, but I'm so proud of myself that this is finally done! I built it mostly by myself, with a bit of help shifting aggregate from Andrew and my father-in-law. I only finished it a week ago and we're already getting so much more use from this space than we ever did previously. It's going to be a lovely area to have a cider of an evening and throw the ball for the dogs (did exactly that last Sunday).

The bees are doing well and there are signs we may get some honey later in the season. I'm not getting my hopes up, the bees always have their own ideas, but I'm very much enjoying my two-weekly trips to the countryside to check on them. It generally involves a cuppa and a natter with my bee pal, which is also a lovely date in my diary.

My work colleagues recently gifted me, amongst other things, this beautiful yarn bowl for my birthday. It's made by a local potter (Daoine Pottery) and they specifically asked for colours and a design they felt reflected me. It's got Highland plants imprinted in the clay. It's such a thoughtful gift and the perfect accompaniment to my latest project, a baby blanket for a relative (Aquinnah by Kerry Robb).

My woodland border is looking very lovely and I'm enjoying my lupins especially. I'll definitely be planting more of them next season. I love how everything looks backed against our trellis (another very satisfying DIY project).

Inspired by my summer joy list, I made some rhubarb and ginger jam recently. It came out super runny, despite in my opinion reaching setting point, and it's incredibly sweet. Not wholly a winner but edible. I froze the rest of the rhubarb until I have capacity to do something with it. I made some compote as well, but have decided I don't love rhubarb compote, so that went into the food waste. I've been trying to convince myself I like rhubarb, mostly because my grandad liked it. I'm wondering if I should be more honest with myself though…

Summer joy list

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Jun 14

I wrote recently about my winter joy list, of which I only managed 1.5 out of 5 activities, and how I didn’t set a spring list at all. I find it really hard to prioritise joy over productivity. Living in a renovation house, with a garden that needs designed somewhat from scratch, it's hard to make space and time for activities that don't appear to move …