I have been conducting a recording exercise this evening, after a day spent gardening and cleaning the house (yep – another of those ‘OMG we’ve got a guest coming, quick, shove everything behind the sofa, run a vacuum round and hope not to be discovered as a pair of complete slobs’ moments).

Because the garden is tidy and the weather has brightened up, I thought I’d whip around with my wide-angle lens and get some shots of ‘year 1’ in the garden. It’s for a record of the start point of our garden odyssey here. I did this in my last home and was looking back in my garden journal there, remembering the journey from there to where it ended up. Boy, I hope this one doesn’t go the same way – that one definitely deteriorated towards the end of my tenure.

So, as this PAD has always been first and foremost a record of my life, I decided that even though the night is young and I could go and do a studio shot, I’d stick with one of my ‘for the record’ shots.

This is the entrance to our ‘secret garden’ one of five garden ‘rooms’ in our back garden. It’s enclosed by high hedges, though heaven knows why when the only things looking in are sheep, wabbits and ponies but this does mean it’s sheltered. It contains fruit trees, a pond (behind the right hand phormium) and a nice area to sit and watch the world go by. The hens certainly like it and as I was framing up the shot, they strolled into the viewfinder so Terri and Sherri make yet another appearance in these pages.

The fence along the left of the shot is soon to be replaced by new, super-dooper rabbit-proof (we hope) fencing as it is the side of the veggie garden. The pathway beyond the chairs leads to what’s known as ‘the thicket’ and beyond that, our ‘field of dreams’ where we’re planning our energy crops.

Behind the leylandii (soon to be cut down) is a whopping hole in the ground. We’re a bit worried about what it is, given the mining history of the area, though we know it’s not a shaft. We’re in the process of filling it in with material that’s been through our shredder – yesterday’s buddleia and yew trees are in there already!

The pond is holed and the plan is to make it a bog garden home to a gunnera and we’re going to dig a new pond where the paving is now. It’s only laid straight onto weed control matting – no hardcore so it should be easy to dig…..she says!

Gideon Bibles were what I was thinking about last year - can you tell I was in a hotel alone and bored rigid?