I hope that the result of the election does not divide the UK further. It feels like a very uncertain place to live in at the moment. I hope that people will become united in trying to make the best of this situation for ALL people in the UK, and not just the elite or the people who stand to gain from this result the most. I hope that the media and people in government have the sense to stop the ridiculous nature of how a lot of the campaign panned out and was reported, so we can really change it for the better. I hope that our relationship with people in Europe is not completely damaged because of this – we did not all vote for this separation after all!

I also hope that we can, as individuals and communities, remain positive. That’s why I’m writing this post. Whether you voted to remain or to leave, we need to work together for a positive future. We need to remain confident and positive that we can create a better society for us, for our children and for generations to come.

#positivityremains

To play my small part in this, I’ve been thinking of the little positive things that have happened today. I believe that starting with the little things, we can build from there. Positive things are everywhere – we just have to be open to them and encourage each other to do the same. They might feel trivial, or it might sound a bit cheesy, but if it makes us feel good then who cares?! Here are mine so far today:

• Little One has been full of smiles today and thinks that fist bumps are the funniest thing ever!
• I picked 7 beautiful roses from my garden and they smell beautiful. I’ve now got them in tea cups and little bottles around the house.
• I got back from the shops just before the monsoon rain hit.
• I managed to wear my jeans for the first time since being pregnant – yay!

I’d love to know what your positive things are from today, and so I’m using the hashtag #positivityremains if you would like to join in. Tag me @hellohoorayblog on Instagram, share on Facebook or Twitter or leave a comment below.

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A few months ago we bought a few new plants with vouchers that we were very kindly given by our friends and family for our wedding last year. I say a few, but we did manage to fill the boot of Keith’s car!

Over the last few years we’ve done a lot of major things in our garden – we removed two conifer hedges that were down each side of the garden and dug out part of the existing lawn to create some wider borders. We dug up the front lawn and removed an ‘ornamental’ ash tree (!!) at the same time – but haven’t actually touched the front garden since then. Once we’ve had our building work done, I’m really hoping we can make a start on that…Anyway, these plants would fill in some of the gaps in our borders very nicely, and we started by working out where they would go:

Then, after a bit of well-needed weeding we got them planted!

We were really grateful to have Helen there to help us – especially when it comes to pruning our hedge at the back! Things were starting to come together nicely once we had got the new plants in:

Our borders have filled out really well since then. Now that Autumn is well and truly here, the leaves are turning on the willow and things are dying back a bit. We realised this year that it’s much easier to cut back the willow early in the year instead of now, because all of the leaves have fallen off and it saves having to remove them! I’m really pleased that we chose to put it in. I realised that this photo was taken before I made my bird bath – the birds have finally got the hang of it now and they love it!

Our yellow rose has done so well this year after we gave it a really good cut back at the start of the year. It has produced so many flowers and is even still going – I took this photo last week when I went to hang up some washing!

Hopefully we’ll be able to remember some of these things for next year. I guess it’s quite useful to document this on my blog – I must remember! There are so many things that I’d like to do in our garden next year, but if this year is anything to go by then I had better not make too many plans…in the meantime, I’ll enjoy the last flowers before winter comes!

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