We’ve been working in the garden today on a beautiful sunny day, when it feels like nothing could beat this place and being here. The views across the moor have been so utterly enchanting that we’ve both broken our step frequently to watch a buzzard or the light on the tors or any number of other things that we are lucky enough to populate our view.

Today’s task is sorting out the veggie garden because the fencer has come back to us, we can afford his price and so the rabbit proof fence is going in this coming week!!!! Hurrah. Hurrah. Hurrah. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am about that.

More rubbish has been cleared, the weed control matting has been taken up and we’ve dug up the soft fruit bushes so that we can use the rotovator tomorrow, then lay out the new beds, with the scaffolding planks as their edge trims. Although we’re actually keeping the kiwi fruit vine, it needed drastic pruning so that we can work around it and this is a section of the vine, where it’s coiled itself around the old washing line, which has now gone altogether. I love the symbolism of entwining our world with the world of the house and the landscape around us.

While we were working, I was thinking about the house and our needs here and I hit on an idea that I really think could make a huge difference to the way we live. It’s quite radical and we’ll need a lot of luck and a sailing wind to make it happen. Even then we may not be able to pull it off but it has got us both hugely excited, as well as whipping up Alan and Dee, our friends who were the recipients of four gooseberry bushes today, when we stopped by at their place and discussed this idea with them!

Now, we’re both sitting at our computers, grins on our faces, plotting how to turn this thrilling plan into a reality. I like the idea of our futures becoming more entwined with this amazing place. I love the idea that one of my own personal ambitions will be made a reality and even more than that, I love the idea of making this home even more perfect……well, once we get it beyond rats nest building site that is!

It couldn't have been a more different day last year - it was bitterly cold and foggy!