Looking good.

Skimmers are in.

Pool lights are in - pool is being filled now.

The pool is lined!

Still a little cold for swimming. The liner is going in this week.

The plants are in the ground.

The new lights at night..

The olive tree planted in the orchard.

Looking over the meadow (to be) towards the house.

The willow tree has been planted at the bottom of the garden. Next year we will put a pond in near it, with paths cut through the meadow to get to it.

The herbs for the pots on the patio. Coriander, parsley, basil...

Timer for the watering system.

The other two planters with the watering systems.

I found some planters on offer at the garden center. We will be buying lollipop type bay trees to go in these (once the drive gates are put on).

New outdoor light above the garden bedroom doors.

The kitchen garden.

Bay tree in place, next to the old rosemary bush at the back of the white house.

The plants laid out as they will be planted. Looking a little more filled out. We bought a sprinkler system to keep them watered over the summer.

We decided to go back to the garden center as the previous load of plants just weren't filling up the space we had. We bought some ground cover and some more bushes.

Anthony dancing in the garden.

The bay tree and olive tree. The bay will go outside the white house and the olive tree is destined for the orchard.

The herb garden ready to go in. Savoury, Thyme, Tarragon, Rosemary and some shrubs. We bought big pots for the basil, parsley and less hardy herbs.

2 meters of concrete, ready for tiling around the pool. Anthony is planting a row of copper beach along this side of the pool and the side furthest away from the house.

Hellebores outside the main door of the barn

New lights on the front of the white house. Anthony has planted a row of lavendar along the front to make it look a little less boxy. We bought an irrigation system and timers so that we can have them watered automatically.

Another pic of the outside lights.

Eric (the security system man) has fitted the outside lights on the barn and little house. They are made by the father in law of one of his employees. They look great.

The area for the wild flower meadow has been rotivated. Anthony has sown about 7 kilos of seed. We should see a lot of poppies this summer, with the other flowers coming through in later years.

These are the bare-root hedgerow plants - 350 of them, a mix of traditional plants

Anthony had got this far with the formal garden outside the kitchen patio. We needed to go to get the rest of the herb garden plants and some more plants to fill it out.

It's been a busy weekend. Anthony the gardener is in France and is putting a load ofplants in. There has been quite a bit of progress on the pool as well. The concrete base for the tiles has been finished and they have put a plastic cover over the pool so that they could render the bottom in the dry. The weather has been terrible.

The new security system in place - it phones us up if there is a problem...

Kevin has already set it off twice.

We were planning on turfing this area, but the pool has quite a steep side... need to think about what to do with this area.

Beverley got us a load of gardening equipment ready for next week when Anthony is down.

The radiators have been delivered for the white house. Need to get them installed.

This area of land is being rotivated (if I can find someone to do it) before next week, when Anthony (our gardener) is down. He will be planting a wild flower meadow here.

View from the other side of the pool. We chose the colour of the liner this weekend.

Bruno has put the gravel down around the back of the house. It's looking really smart, we will put down paving slabs to walk on.

Another view of the pool - it should be finished in time for Easter.

Pool surrounds almost finished, they are putting the concrete base for the tiles down today.