Gardening. Who knew?

We bought our first house about three months ago. Not our first dwelling, as we'd owned a flat and a townhouse in the past, but our first free-standing house, complete with lawns and shed and washing line and weeds. In the suburbs. (I guess that, technically, our previous places were in suburbs too, but this feels like a whole new level of suburban.) It's been a blast!

Very happy to have a full-sized, outdoor washing line

There's a cute wee deck out the back

James the goldfish even has his own room, dubbed 'the

aquarium'  by the guy who came to install curtains

I'm on a steep learning curve in the garden, but am thoroughly enjoying having so much space to potter in. At our old townhouse I grew a few vegetables and herbs, but there wasn't much room, warmth or light. Once we've eradicated more of the weeds here we're hoping to grow heaps of vegetables, fruits, flowers and native shrubs.

There's a pretty-ish little weedy wilderness behind the house

Ivy ... so much ivy! It has to go to make room for vegetable plants

Weeding. Urban archaeology? So far I've excavated
numerous balls (cricket, soccer, tennis ...) and a toilet brush

New toy! I enjoyed mowing as a teenager and enjoy mowing now

My mum never approved of my interest in lawn mowing. She wanted her daughters to be 'ladylike' and mowing seemed distinctly unladylike. Enough to see me called a tomboy. (As an aside ... I wonder if the word 'tomboy' was a 1970s euphemism for 'probable future lesbian'?)

While our previous apartments felt a bit like places to camp between work days, this house feels different. It is a place to nurture and be nurtured, a place to hang out, a place to grow old.