Watery walks have reinforced my love of having a water feature and my husband uncovered a photo of me beside the pond I dug with my dad in our garden in St Albans. I think given the experiences we have had in our Letchworth house with drainage and floods, I think a pond midway up the garden might be a way of addressing the flow of water when it gets wet. However, the prognosis of hot summers for the next few years mean that I need to look at gravel and Mediterranean planting as a pond surround.

We have spent today trying to sort out the house and it’s given me lots of ideas but the windy afternoon also saw my little greenhouse blown over several times. If the gates are not rectifying the wind or the damage it can cause I might have to look at other large foliage to act as windbreaks…

The garden is messy and I have a lot of seeds from my travels in November, and I didn’t publish reviews of the gardens visited then. I wish there were more hours in every day sometimes.

I could even do than 10 year challenge with these two photos as they are approximately 11 years apart? I was a lot heavier when I was pregnant, despite having just taken three stones off (before pregnancy).