All of these pictures have been taken from our bedroom window - not a bad view to wake up to!

The first in the sequence was taken shortly after we moved here in 2002.  A school group had asked if they could picnic in the field opposite the house.  We invited them to use the garden as there were fewer perils underfoot.  Since when the barn on the right has subsided (see 'Lean To') and many of the surrounding conifers and hedges have been cut back to open up the view.

Native Normans have a predeliction for planting huge hedges (whether leylandii or other conifers) to their north - to 'keep out the cold'.  We prefer the rather more open aspect - and confidence in modern standards of insulation.

As is often the case, when you have a lot of outside work to do (we have around 5 hectares to look after) garden design tends to take a bit of a back seat - a quick mow as and when.  Even more so with Marie now away for so much of the year.  But you'll see various things changing through the sequence - the 'throne' has moved to the foot of the garden, the wall has been breached and a set of steps now descend to the lawn, the beech hedges have come on well and are easy to maintain and what was the interior of the barn is now evolving into a rather more formal space with trellis and delineated beds.

We'll keep adding more pictures as things evolve.