THE FIRST VISIT

It was when the New Year storm of 2005 was still raging that we first walked around The Nook. The wind had flattened half a million trees in the north including the great cedar at Levens Hall. The main news was virtually silent regarding it but then this was not happening in the south east of England.

The old prefab had been empty for a while and was dry but cold.

The 'garden' was a jungle with a large area of bog near the far end and large conifers obstructing and view from the house.

This was the first time we saw the mouse nest in the well top.

It took until May to complete the purchase of the property and the land, the latter from the local Town Lands Trust. Only then could we begin to address both the build and the garden. The daffodils and primroses were over but there were plants flowering in Tom's old beds.

I made a temporary bed in a sunny place, (just visible upper left edge of picture taken on 15th November 2005 ), and filled it with cuttings and bits of plants from out current garden. This was a labour which proved in the end to be a fruitless exercise as the builder, after stripping off the topsoil, dumped the lot on top of my nursery bed! Lost the lot.

Incidentally, if you go on Google Earth today, you can see the original building and garden as Google have not updated the image since before 2005!

Here it is with a red line marking the boundary of the plot. The old prefab and the garage are in the top right hand corner by the gate. The track from the road comes in from the right.

When they update the image I will post the new view. There is a distant view up the field on Google Street view.