juliachalkley

Mowing the lawn. Honestly.

It’s been raining here for the back of September, most of October and every morning or noon in November, so the grass has been, er, making hay. Long green grass. Today we finally got the chance to mow… and we did. Filled up the compost heap completely. Grass everywhere. It’s been a relief to getContinue reading “Mowing the lawn. Honestly.”

Planting tulips

This is the time of year when you plant tulips. Apparently. It feels too cold and damp to take them out there, but if I wait for the rain to stop I’ll be waiting years. I dug the holes and laid them in, put the plug of earth back on top and hoped. I knowContinue reading “Planting tulips”

Cutting back the hedge

When we first moved in here, there was a sort of hedge and fence around the garden. Overgrown elder, dead elm, and a mix of fence materials ranging from corrugated iron panels to iron railings to lengths of loosely anchored chicken wire. It was a mess. We spent our first year getting rid of theContinue reading “Cutting back the hedge”

Wet days

We got some work done in the garden, at the expense of wet feet and damp knees. It’s a sombre time of year. The brilliantly coloured leaves have largely been blown off their trees and into soggy browning piles, everywhere is damp and there are very few vegetables still growing. Whatever prompted me to growContinue reading “Wet days”

What started all this?

I’ve been part of an OU graduates’ writing group since 2010, contributing to their anthologies of short stories and poetry in 2014 and 2015. I didn’t take writing too seriously while I was in paid employment – holiday diaries, OU courses, small competitions. As other members of the group began to succeed in their writingContinue reading “What started all this?”