I can hear lawn mowers busily mowing lawns, across the whole of Woking all day, in the UK. And I love the smell of freshly mown grass, as I go for my walks. With a great combination of such a lot of rain and now sunshine as well, the lawns grow really fast and so people need to mow them weekly to keep up. What’s interesting is the grass is left behind in clumps on the lawns to mulch and feed the green grass, rather than take it away. That makes the birds come swooping down in flocks to search for insects and gobble them up across the commons in Woking.

In the garden the pigeons check out the lawn from the fence and the black birds are smarter coming down and pecking out worms from the top soil of the grass. I watch them through the huge bay windows. They stand with their feet firmly on the grass and swoop down with their yellow beaks, pecking out and pulling at the worm that they see. It’s just like the Disney cartoon, with the blackbird catching the worm, pulling and pulling it like elastic out of the soil.

The earth worms in the UK are huge. Really fat guys and I feel icky when I see them and won’t touch them, like I do with the Indian ones. These here are fat and flatish and pink. But they seem to be doing a fantastic job in the garden as the soil is black and full off decomposed stuff. Infact the compost we buy from the nursery seems the same colour and consistency as the soil in Dave’s garden.

The first few days I was here the sun came out and shone long and hard all day. I worked with my gardening mat and trowel for hours, enjoying weeding the beds which were over run with all sorts of grass and weeds. It was hard work, but I took parts of the beds every day and finally got to the bottom of the garden. Inspite of the sun I did not feel hot and sticky as the sun here is not sharp. Then David brought out his strymer and did the edges of the beds and made them all look perfect.

I was just worried about the nettles, as I have been stung once and they take ages to heal -- the stings, and they only get better if I put calamine on the stings. This time however I got bitten by midges on my legs and those itched like crazy, but putting calamine helped get them healed in three days. But that wont stop me from gardening as its easy peasy weeding here since the soil is always wet and huge weeds come out just with a tug of my gloved hand.

Friends always bring plants for them, as they know they have a huge garden that needs to be populated. So when I arrived there were a heap of pots which needed to be planted across the garden. The friends brought snap dragons and petunias and a trailing white flower to get their hanging baskets done. They are in bloom now and look gorgeous.

Lots of salvias and creepers have also been brought along with iris and gladioli which I have put down to flower over the summer. The hydrangea I had bought 3 years ago with David from a flower fair has turned into a ball and is full of little flower bunches which will grow and bloom long after I have left.

Lucky for me the Clematis is out in grand show, with their maroon and pink plate sized flowers on the criss cross stand nailed to the fence.I trim the Penstemons which seem to have overgrown into massive bushes. We bought them for a pound a pot and they were so tiny. Now they are huge and I have trimmed the woody bits to make many more young plants.

And then the Hostas have grown well in the shade where they have been planted. Lucky the slugs have not got to them, so I crush egg shells and put them all around to ward off the slimy creatures. David sprinkles his slug pellets which are a bright blue in colour near the Primulas and the young Dutch Irises springing up.

The robin flies in and out of the little ornamental conifers. Probably making a nest or feeding young ones. I steer clear so as not to scare it. It’s not like the big and bold American robins who chatter with rage if I came near their nests in the US.

And then the rose which I put down 3 years ago is loaded with enormous buds. Probably over 25 of them and soon it will be full of scented pink roses and worth the 12 quid Dave paid all those years ago.