We love our little cottage by the sea – we bought it in 2004 for a place to escape to at weekends and holidays until we can move and live there permanently. Although it is a bit ramshackle in places and the garden resembled an overgrown jungle we could see its great potential and have been renovating it at weekends and holidays ever since but it is a slow and long term project.
The cottage stands in three quarters of an acre, a third of which is woodland on one side, and on the other looks out over the bay down on the Mull of Galloway.
Part of my blog is a documentary about our trials and tribulations as we continue (sometimes against great odds) to make this our dream home by the sea.
Come and have a wander round…
Through the blue gate and down the daisy path…
to the little hideaway by the porch…
inside you can sit and doze happily in the warm sunshine and watch the sea…
the seaside garden is a bit of a bare plot at the moment…
but if you go round the back you will find the lawned garden…
and another ramshackle sunroom!…
and finally slip between the trees and shrubs into the woodland walk in the lower wood…
I would take you over the little bridge and up into the upper wood but it is a bit of a jungle – perhaps we will venture in there soon!
But then came Big Bertha in August 2014 and the flood struck…
all around and through the cottage – nothing stopped the torrent of water,
the seaside garden was awash…
even the firemen could do nothing…
the woodland garden was 2 feet under in places
and the cute little bridge down to the sea swept aside and then washed away…
so now a lot of my blog is about the recovery from the flood – stay with me on the journey and watch our progress.
Oh and please leave a comment to say you have been – or drop in for a cup of tea.
where the journey takes me 
I can already imagine how lovely your beach cottage looks like, as it is. Add to it your personal touches — never mind such fetching vistas — it can only become lovelier, and better. Thank you for sharing.
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Looks like a dream and ‘Mull of Galloway’ is just pure joy to say 🙂
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It looks a perfect location, just beautiful!
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I would be devastated to have that happen to my garden. Have you a d the garden recovered and have you moved there permanently yet?
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Hello Brian
We bought the cottage to retire to in 2004 (my hubby is from this area of Scotland) but it needed a lot of renovating. We did this over the space of 10 years whilst still working in Yorkshire our home at present – but the sudden flood in 2014 trashed everything we had done. If you read my blog you may know that the stream bank has now been reinstated but we have still to tackle the renovation of the cottage so our plans to move here permanently are on hold at the moment until we have somewhere to retire to! The garden recovered very quickly but left us with a mass of three cornered leek everywhere which is probably spreading as I write. If you are a gardener and know how to get rid of this I am all ears!!
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I had to google three cornered leek. The page I found said “to eradicate it spray with glyphosate after trampling the leaves to improve absorption “.
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Would that be Roundup then do you think or something more powerful?
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Roundup is the garden trade name for glyphosate. If you do buy some look for the strongest concentration, it is the cheapest in the long run. If you would like more info visit Roger Brook the no dig gardener’s blog and search for his posts on using glyphosate.
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Great information Brian – thank you so much – this is why I like blogging so much there is always someone in the know out there. We don’t tend to use chemicals normally so don’t really know much about them, but we are desparate to get this leek under control before it takes over the garden and gets entwined further into my plants and shrubs. No amount of digging it out has worked – it is worse than ever now.
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Alliums multiple by seed, so it would be important to spray before flowering. Glyphosate will kill every thing green including the roots but once it makes contact with the soil it becomes inactive.
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These have tiny bulbs that multiply with roots on the bulbs they are minute and everywhere like little pearls. Some of it is already in flower – we are in a gulf stream up here near the botanic gardens so a lot of things grow even through the winter!
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Hi. Popped over from Sadie’s blog. I hope things have been progressing well for you after the flood. Will be back to read more another day.
Lisa x
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Hi Lisa and welcome to my blog – I often have a bit of a browse around blogland and then forget where I have been – I think I might have seen yours before but have not connected the name. I like your name and header and have already been over to read your story. Your children are gorgeous and I am so pleased it is working out for you despite the hitch you are going through at the moment. Hang in there I am sure the family therapy will help – I work in Legal Aid mainly care proceedings but sadly our fastest growth area now is adoption breakdown – they are the most heart rendering stories attached to these little lives and the people trying their best to care for them. I admire anyone who takes on this role. Hope to hear from you again and glad to have found your blog again.
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