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Our vizsla puppy | Growing Spaces

We have a new arrival in Casa Young! Allow me to introduce Lyra, our nine-week-old Hungarian Vizsla puppy, who joined us just a couple of weeks ago. She’s gorgeous, has ears that feel like velvet and loves cuddles. What’s not to love?! The decision to get a family dog has been nearly 20 years in the waiting, as Ben has wanted a dog ever since I first met him. Every so often he’d bring it up, but the conversation has been getting more and more frequent over the last couple of years. Then earlier this year I offered to dog-sit… View Post

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French sunflowers | Growing Spaces

Well we are home from our holiday that was pretty much as close to perfect as you can get. After my last post, I got a message from a wise friend instructing me to switch off and just enjoy the break, and once I’d got over the initial cold turkey stress at being without wifi and 3G I found that switching off (apart from sharing pics on IG when I could, which I love to do), was really rather lovely. I can’t remember that last time I’ve come back from holiday feeling this rested and refreshed. Anyway, this is just… View Post

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We’ve had some exciting guests staying with us for the last few weeks as part of B&Q‘s new partnership with wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation. The aim of this collaboration is to encourage people to plan butterfly and pollinator-friendly plants in their garden to help create a better home for insects. I thought this was a great project for the kids to get involved with, and we’ll be looking out for butterflies throughout the  year as part of the Garden Butterfly Survey – we’ll enter any sightings of butterflies in our garden online. And our guests? Five Painted Lady caterpillars… We… View Post

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Image: Thomas Sanderson When we first moved to our house we looked into adding a conservatory, and although the project had to go on the back burner, I do often find myself imagining that room, and how nice it would be to create a brand new space that I could enjoy all year round. The use of ‘I’ is important here, because in my dreams the conservatory is my personal space – somewhere peaceful and full of light that would be my own haven to retreat to. A garden room where I could surround myself with plants, curl up on… View Post

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It’s my birthday today, which gives me full dispensation to be as sentimental as I want (it’s my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to!). Today is also the last day of this month’s 30 Day Minimalism Game that I’ve been playing along with a clutter-busting gang of friends, including Jeska, Katy, Melanie, and Hannah. While I’m super-proud of how much I’ve got rid of, I came across a bag of things that made me stop and pause. It was a shopping bag that my mum dropped off on a recent visit (my parents’ version of decluttering basically involves… View Post