Downtown

When we first came here just over five years ago with a vague idea of adding it to the list of possible places to move to, I blipped a decorative bike that was parked outside this shop.  The bike is still there but today I thought it was about time the shop had its day on blip too.  I always like the look of it; somehow it looks as though it should be in a small village in southern France, particularly on a day like today when it is warm and sunny.  A lot has happened in those five years; first the move was on, then it was off so we did building work on the old house, then it was back on again and getting on for two years ago we finally moved here and have never regretted it for a minute.

For those who were a little concerned about the environmental effect of my day's weeding yesterday, don't be.  One of the challenges we gave our garden designer was that it had to attract birds and bees and he certainly fulfilled the brief.  Whilst we've only had a few birds so far, we have masses of bees, hoverflies, butterflies and other insects attracted by the planting and it will only get better.  The style is Prairie Planting and over the next couple of years all the plants will fill the spaces and be a riot of bee-friendly flowers, but in the meantime I need to make sure the weeds don't fill the gaps and prevent that from happening as intended.