I'm moving house this summer. My current house has a sunny garden full of huge magical flowering bushes. Something is always bursting into blossom: cherry trees, oriental poppies and peonies. I usually grow tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and hundreds of flowering annual plants from seed, and I have a farmer friend who supplies me with herb and chilli plant seedlings.

At first I faced moving to a place with a shady courtyard and I was being tight-lipped about it, but at the last moment I decided to rent a bungalow with a garden so that I can take along my precious herbs, salad leaves and chillis. Having healthy, tasty food outside the door is how I combat my addiction to sugar. I used thyme, coriander, parsley, dill, and garlic on a daily basis. Also those little salad leaves and spinach leaves are growing on a pot on my kitchen steps.

Just a simple lentil soup with turmeric and coriander leaves smells and tastes so comforting!

Now that I'm moving to a place with a garden I feel so much better. Easy to talk self out of those pleasures for more practical priorities, but day to day those small smell-and-taste things add up.

I've noticed bird song in the early mornings a huge amount also now that I'm planning to leave. The smallest birds have sometimes the most powerful voices.

Another pleasure is that I joined a Facebook site where people post about making gardens out of junk in small spaces. I love the inventiveness and pleasure of sharing information that I find there.