My top 10 posts of 2023

This year there’s been challenges putting this post together, but I think I’m there. The challenges are, obviously, my blog name change but also an update to Google Analytics earlier in the year which I knew about, but hadn’t really engaged with. But I have now, my head’s still spinning!

Anyway, it’s good to be able to carry on with my annual tradition at looking which posts from the past year which have been the most popular and those that have been around a while longer that continue to bring in the views.

But let’s start with my most popular posts from 2023, not surprisingly the first three relate to the giveaways I hosted:

1 Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Live on Sunday 18 June

I was proud to partner with Gardeners World to host this both this giveaway and the one for the Spring Fair, which is number three on this year’s list. It was great to go along and see the show, though as you’ll see further down in this post that brought about its own challenges.

2 Eight new cards for Spring - and a giveaway for UK postal addresses

This giveaway came about as I was sent a duplicate box of cards which the Card Boys were keen for me to share with someone who would enjoy them. And so I shared more about the box and held a giveaway and I was really pleased that one of my regular readers won them.

3 Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Spring Fair on Sunday 30 April

This was the first giveaway of the year, and my first time attending the Spring Fair. We had a great time at the fair and exploring Beaulieu - another first visit for me. With everything else that’s been going on this year - especially our house move - I don’t think I’ve shared as many posts from there, or our visit to the area generally, as I originally planned

4 Welcome to Bosworth Life

I’m pleased this post - where I share my new blog name and the reasoning behind it - is high on the list, especially as before we moved I had no intention of changing this space very much at all. But moving house changed all that.

We’ve done a lot since we moved in last July, and we’ve some more to do and sort out and I look forward to sharing here how we’re making our new house our home. Moving really was the right thing for us to do, so I’m glad we were able to make it happen, though it wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done!

5 Making an autumn wreath

By October I was keen to get out and meet people around Newark, and for me craft workshops and groups have provided a way to do that, and even better is that I also left with a wreath or two along the way. I’ve never had an autumn wreath before, but I’m up for having a wreath on my door all year round now.

6 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and me

After finally getting myself to the doctors about my numb hands, doing the exercises set by the physio and not really seeing much of an improvement I was referred to a specialist. Things really started to move then after being able to take advantage of a cancellation spot - for both my initial appointment, and later for my op. It was quite a whirlwind and completely unknown, though I soon discovered quite a few people that had experienced it and some that had also had the op. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have been quite so worried and I’ll definitely have the op on my left hand when that’s offered.

7 My garden in August

As we settled in to our new house it was my garden that I shared with you first, and so it’s not a real surprise that one of those first posts has made the list. For a new build house we have a pretty established, and pretty decent, garden. There’s also so much more that we can do with it, and we have some plans, but first we’re enjoying what it does have and seeing how that works with the light and the space, and you can look forward to much more of the same this year.

8 Some of my highlights from Gardeners' World Live

This year we went up to Gardeners’ World Live for the Press Preview the day before the show opened, and it was brilliant. I mean, you get to see all the same things you would see on a show day, but with much fewer people about. In fact in the marquee it looked quite different as I hadn’t realised the aisles between exhibitors was quite so wide - the next day when they were full I would have easily believed you if you told me they’d been narrowed!

Anyway, navigating the show with a dodgy arm (the show was about two weeks after my Carpal Tunnel op!) was much easier than I expected. We travelled light and MOH carried the bags (he’s a keeper!) and we spent a good couple of days wandering around the NEC soaking up all the garden inspiration.

9 Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and me - a post-op update

A month after my operation I shared an update sharing how I’d got on including my fears ahead of the operation. The bandage was something else, they said be prepared for a large bandage - clearly I needed to do more preparation, as this wasn’t what I was expecting at all. And thankfully my fingers are less oompah-loompah like too.

Seriously though, my hand is fine. In fact it’s much better than it was before - the tingling and regular numbness are a thing of the past. If you’re down to have a CST op and are concerned, believe what people tell you, there’s really little to worry about.

10 Pepping up the grey

I’ve a lot more time to dedicate to crafts now that we’ve moved and we’ve both given up work, and that’s a good thing. Though moving house also meant I was faced with my many work in progresses (WIPs) - I’m pretty sure they’ll be more on those in another post, but needless to say I need to start working my way through them and finishing them off.

I’ve made a good start as the grey blanket which didn’t make my heart sing, is now finished - and while I didn’t entirely stick to my plan, it’s finished. In the end I only added the yellow granny squares, and I’m using the various pink, orange and red granny squares to make myself a cardigan. Er, so actually, the net number of WIPs remains the same - perhaps not the progress I thought it was initially then.

It’s interesting to see that you have also picked up and read many of my more significant posts throughout the year, 2023 was definitely a big year for me.

So onto the second list

This list is posts created at any time but viewed in 2023, the year in brackets is the year it was originally posted - and this list is often very similar to the previous year. For whatever reason these posts continue to attract views, and it’s good to see some of the old favourites remaining on the list, though there have been a few changes this year.

1. Sean Murray's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge (2017)

2. Filling our gabion baskets (2017)

3. My IKEA hack: HOL storage table to laundry basket (2015)

4. Win a pair of tickets to BBC Gardeners' World Live on Sunday 18 June (2023)

5. In the Orangery at Belton House (2022)

6. Let's talk Edwardian house decoration (2017)

7. Vibrant interiors at Belton House (2022)

8. Planting a strawberry border (2016)

9. The Chinese Streamside Garden at RHS Bridgewater (2021)

10. Storing logs in our gabion baskets (2017)

It’s good to see some of my more recent posts appearing on the list above - and my posts sharing our visits to Belton always do well, I need to get myself over there more!

Thanks for being here over the past year, and for bearing with me sharing this post which appeals to my inner nerd.

Ten

At the end of last week my blog turned 10, which seems quite unbelievable to me. And while the voracity of my posts have slowed somewhat since I first started out (and some of the very early posts are no longer viewable having moved platforms) it’s still quite a remarkable achievement, and one that I’m grateful that many of you are still here for.

Photo by Timo Müller on Unsplash

It’s another tradition of mine to mark my blog birthdays, and it seems also a tradition to deliberate about a theme for the post. I am clearly a creature of habit, so this year is no different on both counts. So I’ve decided to share ten posts from over the years which are memorable to me, whether that’s because they were great achievements, great opportunities or just because they were special to me.

I know I have been incredibly fortunate to have had (and hopefully to continue to have) some great opportunities come my way just by posting here, and I’ve met some fantastic people through this online space over the years too. This is, and I hope will continue to be, a space for me to share many things from our home and garden projects, our garden visits, my many works in progress and hopefully much, much more.

Thank you for being here, and for being part of my online space and community.

Ten for ten

Having decided to choose ten posts, I soon realised just how hard a task I’d nonchalantly set myself. So with a brief explanation the ten are:

1. Please ring the bell - our visit to Hunte’s Garden in Barbados which is I think the most inspirational and moving gardens I’ve ever visited, and it wasn’t just because of the rum! Even looking back over these photos, and the many more that I haven’t shared here, gives me all the feels.

2. My cross stitch marathon - I have many work in progress projects as you know, and this one is one that’s likely to be around for a while yet. MOH still asks what it’s going to be, and I still say ‘hopefully finished one day!’ I know I should focus on fewer projects, but where’s the fun in that, hey?

3. More bubbles in my sourdough - this one’s on the list because I regularly refer to it to make sure my brain fogged brain has remembered the recipe correctly. And yes, I make sourdough almost every week sometimes more than once a week, but I still find myself checking to make sure.

4. The one with the redecorated loo - many of you will have at some point wondered what my fascination with the decor in loos is all about. Quite honestly, I don’t know but I knew there had to be one from The Loo Series on this list, so what better than this one.

5. A map on my wall - this is one of the collaborative posts I’m sharing here, and it’s the one that really still does give the wow factor. Having a map on a curved wall was absolutely inspired, even though I wasn’t totally aware of just how well it would turn out back at the planning stage, though I’m claiming all of the credit!

6. Highlights of my Chelsea (part 2) - I’ve been fortunate to have been invited to many events and shows such as Grand Designs and Gardener’s World Live over the years, and they’ve all been brilliant. The real highlight though was when I went along to the Chelsea Flower Show on Press Day. Totally awesome, and something I hope I’m able to repeat.

7. Highlights of my Chelsea (part 1) - this is a bit of a cheat really, but I couldn’t choose between the two posts from the day, so they’re both here.

8. Circles and slate - this is one of my great achievements posts where we transformed our garden ourselves. In the end it turned out we were up against a bit of a deadline after arranging our 110th party for that summer, so we put in many hours hard work, but it was definitely worth it.

9. More than ‘just’ a lawnmower - I never knew there was so much to know about lawnmowers, but I’m glad I got the opportunity to find out on this press trip to the Viking factory in Kufstein, a town in Austria which we travelled to by coach from Munich airport. I will never forget the warmth and hospitality of the Viking and Stihl teams and the relationship which resulted in a series of posts, and I remain impressed by the knowledge and passion which goes into each of their products, which are just brilliant too.

10. 52 Cookbooks: 52 new recipes in 2014 - this series of posts was a great challenge taking place over the whole year, using a different cookbook every week. And yes, I had more than I needed to choose from so I’m minded to redo this challenge at some point, who knows maybe next year as its decennial - watch this space!

My top 10 posts of 2022

I’m back with one of my start of year traditions, which appeals to the nerd in me. Each year I like to look at the posts from the past year which have been the most popular and those that have been around a while longer that continue to bring in the views. I’m not sure there’s any scientific reasons as to why some of the posts swap around on that second list, but it’s always good to know that people are reading some of the stuff I put out there!

So let’s start with my most popular posts from 2022:

1 A new, bigger rug - eventually

Remember our year started off with a new rug, and a disagreement? Thankfully the newer, bigger rug solved that and we're still really happy with our new, bigger rug!

2 How tall is a Liver Bird?

Well seeing as though I asked, it would be rude not to tell you - it’s 18 foot - with a wingspan of 24 foot. To put that into perspective a double decker bus is 14 ft 4” - so quite big, is a good answer. This post shares views and facts from our visit to the top of the building in Liverpool, getting much closer to Bella and Bertie.

3 In the Orangery at Belton House

This year there’s an influx of posts from our trips to Lincolnshire and surrounding areas, which is not surprising really as it’s where we’ve been looking at houses. So it made sense to check out the area while we were there, and this Orangery at Belton House is likely to become an easy and early favourite of ours, hopefully when it’s much closer.

4 Interiors inspiration at Margo & Plum

The Engine Yard at Belvoir Castle was already a favourite place to stop and mooch around, and the interiors shop there is full of inspiration. So much so that MOH bought me the aqua bird decorated vase for my birthday on a whim. When I say a whim, it wasn’t quite so - it took him ages to remember the name of the shop, and then search out the vase. And I thought he’d bought it because he was an avid reader here…

5 Vibrant interiors at Belton House

Another one from Belton House, this time inside which was full of colour and peculiarly hidden (or not so hidden) greyhounds - there was even one on the weather vane.

6 Heat, feet and my happy place

In this post I’m musing about the way above average temperatures we experienced here this summer, and the trouble that had started with one of my toes - which is still not right, but not infected and not really giving the medics any clues, so we watch and wait. Thankfully though this post is accompanied by photos from the flower garden in Greenwich Park, definitely a happy place of mine.

7 A mindful afternoon twiddling

With more time on my hands this year I’ve been trying out some new crafts. Quilling, which isn’t as easy as it looks, was incredibly mindful, and for an afternoon twiddling paper this is what I had to show for it! It’s something I want to do again, but so far it’s not happened, but when I have a bit more space and my craft supplies are more ordered I hope to spend more time twiddling, and to have something more to show for my efforts.

8 The kitchens at Belvoir Castle

Belvoir (pronounced Beaver) Castle is another fascinating place in Leicestershire, and there’s a lot to see. Less so on the garden front, as you’d expect from its position on top of a hill, but there were some which I’m not sure I’ve shared here yet. While the formal rooms full of finery and treasures are fantastic, somehow the behind the scenes rooms that hold as much interest for me - and these old tins in the Housekeeper’s room where a real treat, pop over and take a look at the kitchens too.

9 Leaving flowers and a crocheted throw

So this year has been a transitional year for me, and at times it’s very much felt that. Back in May I stopped working full time after almost 40 years working at only three companies all that time. I left feeling fantastically spoiled by my colleagues, and with arms full of flowers and gifts. I was struck though by this vase of flowers and how similar the colours were to my most recent crocheted throw.

10 Where do you find peace?

This was the thought provoking question that greeted us as we started a walk around the Lake at Stourhead. Our visit was full of autumn colours too and even on a wet day, I’m sure that the surroundings help many people answer the question posed.

Again, a great choice made by many of you - and the posts here really do seem to have summed up my year, which is another reason for doing this, there’s clearly something in it!

So onto the second list

This list is posts created at any time but viewed in 2022, the year in brackets is the year it was originally posted - and it’s often very similar to the previous year. For whatever reason these posts continue to attract views, and it’s good to see some of the old favourites remaining on the list.

1. Filling our gabion baskets (2017)

2. My IKEA hack: HOL storage table to laundry basket (2015)

3. Let's talk Edwardian house decoration (2017)

4. Post Comment Love (2016)

5. About Me (2014)

6. Sean Murray's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge (2017)

7. Softening our gabion seating area with plants (2017)

8. 52 Cookbooks #36: Beef in easy tomato sauce (2014)

9. Three of the six show gardens at the Ideal Home Show (2016)

10. Fabulous outdoor planters (and more) from Cox & Cox (2016)

So, tradition completed for another year!