I’m a self-confessed sparkly thing lover and so when DM said to me last week that we could both have a ‘little pressie’ from our immoral earnings(!) while he chose walking boots and waterproof trousers, I chose things that sparkle. Most of the money from our immoral earnings, if there is any left after we’ve ‘fed’ the beast, goes on important things that we need but he’d decided we needed a treat.

I opted to buy some ‘tree ornaments’ from the Duchy……not that trees need ornaments as such, I just loved the sparkly dangly things that they sell at the Duchy, that shimmer in the sun and I couldn’t normally justify buying fripperies when we’ve got so much building work to be done so I’d never have bought any myself out of ‘normal money’ if you see what I mean.

So, we’ve been to the Duchy, returning with another plant from ‘sorry corner’ as well as some more herbaceous plants and my sparkly dangly things. BTW – my Indian Bean tree, despite its miserable start in life, seems to be thriving now – lots of leaves and new shoots so I’m hoping I have saved it.

This afternoon, I’ve been up a ladder, fixing them so they dangle from trees over our lawn, where they can spin around and look gorgeous. I’ve got two of them and can’t begin to describe them or why they’re so lovely but they just are.

This, though, isn’t one of them…..! It’s a pressie from my folks from last time they came to see us and they’d been to the ‘house of marbles’ on the way down, where my little sis had said ‘oh look at that, she’d love that’ so they bought it and gave to to me when they arrived. It’s been hanging in one of the willow trees in the garden ever since, waiting for me to photograph it.

Why didn’t the new danglies get photographed? Well, they’re in the shade now, this was ‘full of sun’ and I’ve been meaning to shoot it for ages so it got shot!

Last year, I was in heaven!