"But why would I want a yard?"

Before I had a yard of my own, I had no clue why I'd ever want one. I mean, our block of flats had a common yard, free for everyone to hang out in, with swings and jungle gyms for the kids and big swathes of lawn for the adults to lie on blankets and get a tan. Going outside with the kids was a bit of a chore sometimes, to be honest, and I managed to sit or lie outside reading maybe a total of ten times in fourteen years, but still--there's nothing to do outside, I thought.
Now that we have our very own yard, though--how different everything is! I could sit outside all day. On Saturday I fell asleep on the lawn for half an hour, not even on a blanket or anything (I just had to lie down because the grass was so cool and green and, well, oops). On Sunday we grilled yummy food and sat with a friend for hours, talking and feeling peaceful.
I'm so happy we took the chance and moved here.

Best foot forward

Being sick for a few days gave me a chance to get to grips with gardening shows and vlogs and instructional videos. It was illuminating to watch how people actually interact with their gardens and what their plants and spaces mean to them. Until now, what I've been feeling myself has mostly been an abstract sort of desire to have a space where I can enter to be refreshed by beauty. Monty Don made me realise that actually, it's possible to just love plants, that that's a valid way to be attached to your garden; as is love of weather gadgetry or love of wildlife or love of a particular type of garden.

One important takeaway from the shows has been the idea that it's your garden and you do what you want with it. It's not like children or pets, where your task is to help them become what they want to and need to become. A garden is yours. If you don't like that tree, get rid of it. If that branch is tripping you every time you walk past, cut it off. If you sort of like those flowers but want to get something else this year, you just do it--you can always do it over next year. Less with the supposed to and more with the just do it.

And so I trimmed the living daylights out of this.