Country Living

A story I loved as a child, little did I know ...

All my life I lived in the country.  A single house on a site, a large garden, swings, slides, lots of places to hide and explore, cows over the hedge, tractors in the feild behind and room to spare. When heading off to college I was excited to be moving to a town, even more excited to move to city outskirts for my first job. However on becoming pregnant I was eager to return to my countryside roots and bring our children up like I was. Ah ya all lovely I thought: Oh no! Daddy is from a city, had never lived in a detached house, used indoor voices all the time, his neighbours were next door, not half a field away, he liked having street lights!!! Uh oh!! Hang on a second! Where were the cows??? So as you can imagine there was discussions back and forth, and in the end we came to a compromise! We moved back to Cork to an estate in a village... it had a street light outsde the house and it was a back house so we had cows in the back garden eating our hedging perfect!!

Yet a time has come to move! We both now love the countryside and would love more space (and cows!) around us! So the first weekend of September we went on the move....to a bungalow on a site...alone....no other house attached!! Yipee! Its exactly (ish!) what we were looking for this past year. But wait...now that we have actually moved there  "might", ok ok ARE  some things we miss about living in an estate.

1: The neighbours. Ive made some great friends through my neighbours and  will certainly miss walking down to them.

2: The Green : Sean sometimes goes out (with us)  to play on the green with the other children and he loved it!

3: Walking to the shop or just popping down......2, 3 even 4 times a day!!

However there are some many things we have gained.

1. Space. I am a huge believer that physical space creates mental space. Its certainly done so for us. Maybe its the fact we have more space to each be apart from each other, but we are all getting along so well. (long may it last!)

2. Pets. We've already started off with two kittens (essentials when surrounded by fields) and hopefully we will add to that soon. Chickens and a dog are on the list! staying well away from fish!! (read here if you don't know that story!!) 

3. Country life. Wellies on and walking through the fields or down the road picking blackberries are part of our weekly routine. playing outside in the back garden, cutting the grass, and just becoming more 'outdoorsy' in general. 

4. A very happy and active boy. Sean now runs into us each morning with a big greeting followed by a big hug. He then runs up to his playroom, run out for his breakfast and its the same in the evenings, bursts in the front door and straight out the back. He loves his new house and new country life. 

We are almost a month here now and loving it more and more each day. So far so good. We will keep you updated on how we are getting on. So far Daddy loves it! and me.....well Im so glad to be home xxx

Thanks for reading. 

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Hello!

Today I am blogging about our wildflower garden.

As our house is newly built and garden just recently finished we didn't have many bees and butterflies around to pollinate the garden. We decided a wildflower garden would be a great and beautiful addition to entice the wildlife in and benefit the garden.  A wildflower garden creates a wonderful display and is of great benefit to conservation and wildlife.  Bees are on the decrease and they are reliable for pollinating over 80% of crops so it is vital to provide them with plants to feed on i.e wildflowers.

So how we went about it. We picked an area of our garden that is a bit away from where the girls normally hang out in the garden i.e the playground area. You don't want the wildflowers being hit and deheaded by a ball etc.  You want the wildflower garden to reflect reality, so think of where these flowers would grow in the wild i.e shade from trees and along banks. Next decide what types of wildflower you want to grow, ask yourself what flowers do you see growing wildly locally. Visit a local nature preserve for inspiration. Next you need to buy the seeds. We bought packets of wildflower mixed seeds online and in Aldi. Prepare your soil. Remove any vegetation. Rake the soil about 1 inch. Mix in some potting soil to enrich soil. Plant the seeds in the spring when danger of frost has passed. Sprinkle seeds evenly to get good coverage. Press seeds into soil by walking gently on them. Water yours seeds but don't drown them. They should start sprouting after about two weeks!

Advantages of wildflower garden?

Looks amazing and less mowing. It's a very practical labour saving approach for small gardens!

Enjoy!  I love my Wildflower garden!

Anyone ever plant wildflowers? Any favourite flowers? Would love to hear x