The rain is hammering down on our lovely new plants. Yesterday, we went to two nurseries, as we have finally begun the most exciting and fun bit of the garden - stocking up on plants. Our first stop was an excellent nursery over in the west of the city specialising in trees, specimen and architectural plants. Most of what we ordered is being delivered on Tuesday. This will include a liquidambar, a very small acer with delicate purple leaves, a spectacular phormium, a Chinese fire bush (can't remember its proper name), an eucalyptus and a wonderful black stemmed bamboo. We had hoped to buy a rowan, and the main tree, a multi stemmed birch but they didn't have the variety of birch we particularly wanted. However, they are receiving more stock in, later this month, so I think we will be OK. As well as these larger specimens, we took with us five ferns, for the dark corner near the house. Plus an elegant palm.

Then on to our nearby Blooms. A full trolley worth of smaller plants and a variety of pots. Plants included a holly (not variegated, thankfully - I hate variegated hollies), three Japanese anemones, an orange pyracantha, a beautiful scarlet dogwood, prostrate rosemary, a santolina, a potentilla, a sedum, a smaller bamboo, three alchemilla, three aquilega, another beautiful phormium and a couple of bushes and climbers whose names I can't remember. Also a grass to go in a pot - a departure for me, as I am not generally a big fan of grasses, so this is an experimental toe in the water. We were hoping to return today and purchase some colourful bits to make up some baskets and pots - things like pansies, ivy, cyclamen, etc. The rain is incredibly heavy though - we may need to wait.

When I woke up this morning, it was so exciting to be able to peep out of the window and see plants in our garden - it already makes such a difference. If the light improves later on today I will try to take some photos and post them here. At the moment, the rain is so heavy the sky is virtually black - not suitable for photos at all.

Friday went extremely well - our presentation seemed to be well-received. I wore my new pink shoes - they looked stunning and were a great confidence booster. The judges will now be visiting us for the announced visit week commencing November 4th, allowing us some time to prepare and make a few minor improvements.

The morning was made dramatic and exciting by D's performance - any trip with him always seems to be memorable. Firstly, he'd packed one of his smart formal shirts but then realised he hadn't packed his cufflinks. Secondly, new suit bought for the occasion from Markles and Sparkles (which I must say looked fantastic when he finally appeared in it) still had security tag attached to trousers, so he had had to wrestle with removal by use of hotel teaspoons in his room and ended up with blue dye all over his hands. Cuff links were solved by an early morning visit to Northampton Tesco and wearing two long screws (yes, really!) through his cuffs. Quite enough excitement for one day. I can't wait to see what happens on our next adventure.