Bringing nature indoors 19.12.2015

With Christmas round the corner and winter being officially here in a couple of days, it frustrates me to no end that I cannot potter around outside. When we lived in the house with a "proper" garden I could do some work during the winter, be it planting more bulbs, pruning and weeding. Now however, while not having to weed is great, we are more limited in terms of planting bulbs etc as it's all practically paved over and I don't want to buy loads of pots now should we get even colder weather and they crack.

A part from planning what I will need to have in the back yard next year, I will be planning when I'll need to plant what, so I  might write a post on that as well when the time comes. Something that is coming up in the New Year is a new website! I am currently working on the design and I have started the process of back uploading the posts that are on here; once that is sorted I will switch to posting over there completely, leaving a post to redirect people and eventually making this blog private.

Today, however, I bought a couple of items that inspired this blog post. Because there is not much to do outside, I enjoy having some greenery in the house. Plants and candles, the perfect items to make a house more homely - in my opinion! So, I have gone through the house today and taken some photos. While I love pouring through home magazines and Pinterest, many times the reality is that I do not have the money or time to make things as pretty add they show us in the photos, so here goes an average person's take on using plants inside.

I found these beautiful candles in a shop in Knustford; I also fell in love with the little terrarium. I had been thinking of making one myself; I think I will still get round to it, but I was drawn into this one!

I like to have pine cones on the mantle piece; I think it's a great addition not just to Christmas but autumn decorations, if you do decorate your home throughout the seasons - I must admit I don't really!

I'm trying the terrarium on a shelf, see how i fell about it being there. I'm not sure at the moment, I might change it around over the next few weeks.

We have some succulents on the kitchen window which add some colour to the room. Oh, I also have a thing about hedgehogs...

 We had the blue orchid downstairs, but it barely got any light during the day, so I brought it upstairs to our spare room so it can get some light and warmth as the radiator is directly beneath it. I repotted the sempervivum into a candle jar. It looks a little out of place but I think it's growing into the bigger pot. 

Lastly, I have already spoken about this little orchid, but it lives in the bathroom. Bathrooms are thought to be a clinical and lifeless part of the house, namely whit; but we spend a lot of our time in it, so why not make this room homely too?

Winter blooms - December 2015

There's nothing like being in the mood for blogging when you're laptop dies and the weather does not allow you to do much outside. There are exciting tings to come! This weekend we are finally getting our tree - we were supposed to get it last Saturday, but let's not talk about it (parcels that promise to come on a certain date but don't), and I am currently working on getting a new website running, which is a very exciting project.

Today, however, I was tidying outside this morning before going to work and thought I would quickly check on my plants, and I was pleasantly surprised!

The hellebore seems to have gone crazy! Lots of blooms everywhere.

 This hellebore is getting there. You can see a teeny tiny bud in the middle there.

Look at the crocus showing their little antenna already. My experiment seems to be working so far... We'll see when the bigger bulbs start to grown.

I have spoken about my soft spot for heather before.

 And the buddleia is showing signs of growth. I know they are amazing for bees, but I don't want it to get too out of hand! I'll try and keep a tight grip on in this year, especially if I want to try underplanting the area.

In the meantime, however, we will have to enjoy our indoor plants for some added greenery.