I’m not going to apologise for neglecting my blog.

Because I don’t like it when other bloggers do that – I think blogging should be one of those things you can pick up and put down. There are very few things in my life I have time to keep doing consistently (apart from, like, bathing and dressing and eating and all that….y’know…) including yoga, running, writing, photography…I love all of them and wish I had time every day to practice each and every one, but I don’t.

Sidebar: C’mon retirement!! – only 28 years to go… <despair>

So, I pick these interests up when I can and put them down again when I must. Gardening is the exception – I ALWAYS want to garden.  But I sympathise with other bloggers when I see they’ve gone a bit quiet because I know that Real Life has got in the way.  And I’m amazed and impressed when I see other garden bloggers faithfully typing away year-round, especially during the spring and summer when the urge to be outside with soil on your hands is at its peak.

So here I am, back again.  It’s summer but it’s a rainy day.  And I’m procrastinating doing other boring admin jobs.  And I really miss writing.  And I joined a FB garden bloggers group AGES ago and feel guilty each time I see an update on there, knowing I Don’t Really Belong because I’m not *actively* blogging.

So what have I been up to?  What’s growing?  What’s failed?  How’s the garden?  What does it look like?  Well, it’s not exactly true that I haven’t been updating The Public on my corner of the earth, Alvare, as I’ve been regularly posting pics to my Instagram feed. Micro-blogging, if you will.  I try to post photos there most days of what’s looking good in the garden, or the latest significant changes or successes, what’s growing well and also what the chickens are up to!   If you’re not already following it, please feel free to check it out.  You’ll find me there as @mycorneroftheearth.

If you haven’t been following me there (it’s ok, not everyone loves Instagram) here are a few photos which I hope capture the essence of my garden over the past few months…

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When I’m not gardening my garden my next favourite thing is to photograph it.  It’s been such a joy this year not only to watch things grow and flower but also to capture a beautiful image and share it with others.  It’s addictive and I find myself wandering round the garden on evenings when the light is good, trying to pick out my next subject (flowers are very obliging and hardly ever complain that they ‘hate getting their photo taken’).

So there you have it – literally a snapshot of the spring and summer in my corner of the earth.  So much has gone unwritten in the past few months, or unphotographed but I’m working on changing that.   I have a lot of ideas about what I want to do in the garden, how to develop it and myself and I want to continue to write this stuff down, take pretty pictures and share it all with anyone who cares to read it – I don’t care if that’s 2 people or 2000.

I think it might be time to pick up something I have put down for a little while…