This kind of size...



Etc...



The garden flat at Belsize Park is big enough to take that without being swamped by it, and still have lots of space for other things.

Like so...



Safely potted, in more attractive pots, dotted around and able to be moved around/spend winter blanketed in a greenhouse.

Hot orange frangipani begging for a terracotta pot to call it's own...

TDF...

I forgot to add, some form of lawn is essential. As a child/tyrant I used to make my grandfather mow his lawns in stripes, and only put the lawnmower away once I'd approved it from different angles.

I'd also need an area of lavender with one of those washing/drying tripod things in the middle - to infuse the laundry, and be discreetly covered when collapsed/not in use. Also to place a lounger in it to relax amidst the scent with a book.

And as I say, a secret white garden where hooded friends could gather to have as an outdoor room, for afternoon tea or special little parties - additional to the regular dining and reclining areas in the main body of the garden, where more vibrant coloured plants would reign.

Im going to try to fix up a viewing at Belsize Park. Apparently only walk throughs via camera are being conducted, so I'll have to ask when physical viewings are permitted.

I sent the link to Sean and he saw three negatives - he shares custody pretty much 50/50 and it's nowhere near his daughters school, whoever lives in the flat above might be noisy, and he would only be able to afford about a tenth of it. My answers to those are...

1) I say she can either move in with us Mon-Fri, or stay exclusively with her mother Mon-Fri, and once she's 9/10 she can travel to school by herself anyway so it could return to 50/50. 2) They might be noisy, but that's life. 3) The affordability differential would be a problem with anything we bought together, and I'm not living in a 400,000 semi in Wembley so someone doesn't feel emasculated.

As we basically have no idea what this catastrophe will do to the economy, who knows what it will do to property prices. That flat is as high as I can go without a mortgage, and I would be loathe to get one under all economic conditions, but especially during this.

Seeing as the garden is currently a mess, and work needs to be done to the inside, they might take quite a bit less, and the difference could be put to work immediately on those areas.

Anyway, it's a decent template for him to know what ballpark he's playing in. There can be no more email links containing diamond pane windows, mock Tudor detailing, electric gates, and 'easy access' to motorways and countryside flagged up as desirable features.

cosmictanya wrote:

'easy access' to motorways and countryside flagged up as desirable features.

I saw a house in Fanchester advertised as having 'easy access to A12'. I suppose it did, if you consider driving 2 miles via the three most notoriously gridlocked roundabouts in town to be 'easy access'.

I wonder if estate agents just have a good laugh all day long - 'look at this dump in the back of beyond, what barely credible things can we put in the particulars for it? Exemption from tonights first round for the winning suggestion', etc.

I harvested the first strawberry yesterday evening. It was delish.

I have a lovely crop of weeds. I'm going to have to take my hoe to them.

I'm absolutely desperate to go to a garden centre but it seems a bit foolish. All these crowds of people outside IKEA and McDonalds - what's the rush?

My mothers neighbours downstairs are having an enormous glass box extension - she's getting a free balcony/terrace on part of the top of it.

I've been saved from having to mow the lawns by a fortuitously timed shower of rain.

Presumably that was summer. I noticed earlier that two proud and tall stems, each bearing several white stargazer lilies, had been stripped back to twigs by some kind of greenfly. I must've just got so used to them in the background I was unable to take protective action in time.

The potato harvest continues. I've already had a week's free spudulity.

I got rid of all the weeds from the front of the house, and the front garden path. It looks a lot smarter now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-54347696

I suppose I'd better give the lawnmower its annual overhaul, so I can mow the lawns the first warm weekend we get.

Its last ever annual overhaul perhaps. I don't expect to have a garden again.

Yesterday I had to make a list of all the stuff in the sheds, and decide what to try and give away, what to keep, and what to try and palm off on the buyer.

I did indeed overhaul the lawnmower.

Which is lucky because I think today's the day the lawns need their first mow of 2021.