It’s nearly time! It’s nearly time to see people. Not just one person on your daily exercise but up to 6 people or 2 families in the comfort of your garden. I am excited but also rather on edge about this.

Last time restrictions lifted for a bit I felt this way. The months and months of an empty diary rather suited my hermit like tendencies. I’m not a social butterfly and not having to see people all the time sat well with me. At the same time, just to really confuse me, I’ve missed people.

The Easter holidays are nearly here and my diary is looking alarmingly full. Getting to see my sister, her new house and her new baby! Exciting, Seeing my parents in the flesh for the first time this year. Catching up with a friend and getting to see her new house. A walk with some of our oldest friends and their boy. Work. Football camp. A husband back on the golf course. And even as I’m typing this an overwhelming urge to run for the hills as it’s too much too soon and I want to stay locked away forever.

It really is a confusing feeling to want to go back to normal and see people but be almost scared to at the same time. I know for L’s sake we need to see people, he needs to see people. His homework from school this week was to write a list of things he’d like to do over the Easter holidays and he wrote three things; meet his new baby cousin, see his nanny and grandad and go to the zoo to see the giraffes. Now we can’t go to the zoo but I can do the rest, so why wouldn’t I? I don’t want my worries and fears to affect him, he’s worried and fearful enough, this whole thing has really changed him.

The one saving grace is the ability to see people in private gardens. At least I can keep contact with other people to a minimum and it feels a little bit less daunting. Why, when I work in a supermarket, I’m worried about the amount of people I see, I don’t know. I’m seeing all the people, all the time. I’m ok when I’m at work, I wouldn’t go as far as saying it doesn’t bother me, it does but I’m OK. Yes, I’m always stepping back from people getting too close and getting annoyed with the people purposefully wearing their masks under their noses, we all know it huffs your glasses up and isn’t all that fun but I’ve been wearing my mask for 9 hours, you’re in shopping for 20 minutes. When I’m at work I have to do it though, I have to be there, it’s my job and that’s what my job entails. So I’m ok with it.

Anyway, I digress, gardens and the fact we can socialise but don’t have to do it amongst other people has made me feel a bit more comfortable about things. It has also got me thinking about how to make our garden more sociable. I’m sorted for the summer, we have a nice table and chair set with a parasol, a couple of lovely recliners and a little bistro set. We’ve got a good barbecue and lots of twinkly solar lights. Summertime in our garden is lovely. This isn’t summer though, it’s Spring and a far chillier Spring that last year!

I’d love to get a fire pit for the garden, or a garden heater. Annoyingly we had a great garden heater, but a couple of years ago decided we rarely used it so sold it. At the time, if it was cold outside, we went inside, who knew that option was about to be removed from us. I’m also considering some kind of cover, I don’t know whether to go for a gazebo, just an open sided one, that we could pop up as and when we needed it. Or, for something a bit more permanent like a sail, we could attach one to the side of the house and have some all year cover from rain and shade from the sun. My heart tells me that would annoy us pretty quickly though, my heart also tells me that we would get fed up of taking the gazebo up and down. The ideal solution would be a little wooden pergola or something similar, but that is expensive.

If anyone has some insight on how they manage to have pleasant get togethers in their garden, when it’s not summer and warm, but a chilly and slightly damp Spring day then please let me know.

I also want to get a few more bits planted, we’re short on spring colour. I know I’m too late to get spring bulbs planted, but I might get some pre-planted tubs and after they’ve had there time transfer the bulbs into the garden ready for next year. I would also like to get a little wild flower, meadow area planted up for the bees. I’ve got a little corner of the garden I think that would work well in and it shouldn’t be too difficult to do. A little pond area, or water feature would be nice too. I’m all for a wildlife pond but husb would rather have a fish pond. There’s plenty to be getting on with and between work and general life, not all that much time to do it!

So if you need me, for the next week or so, I’ll be stressing about the state of my garden as a way to distract myself from the upcoming Easter holidays and the diary full of people wanting to see us.

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