The movers

is all your main living accomodation up stairs ~ with lovely views no doubt!!

You made it then Ptaro? When will you return to Japan?

A big undertaking, packing up and moving...have you left things in storage for your return?

I remember well the job of packing up our home in Canada, listing every item by box number and providing customs with a list. Thankfully our container arrived 3 months later all intact.

Hope you are happily adjusting to life back in the UK, Ptaro. You will be missing your Japanese garden and its rural location no doubt.

Yes, made it. enjoying the Cambridge college gardens, but thinking about my own back in Japan too. Yes, Stickitoffee, most of the accommodation is on the 1st (2nd for our American friends) floor. The entrance hall is downstairs and one room which will be a study - hopefully we'll put in a better window at the front to improve on the iron bars. There is also a large pump room and a small boiler room. When we eventually replace the boiler system and find that we can have the same heating effect with 1/10 the size of the boiler (such is the modern improvement), the pump room will become a fully fledged tool store. Having most of the accommodation on up-stairs does of course give stunning views, but it is mainly to prevent damp. It's hard to explain, but Hakone is really damp in the summer (we have the rainy season June-mid-July), it's not however jsutthe rain, but the humidity. Having the bulk of the accommodation upstairs helps with air-flow, and also keeps us away from the mozzies and other crawling pests. We return in a year's time - and I can't wait to see what has happened to the stuff I put in before I left. The gooseberries, the apple trees, the roses and so on. No doubt I'll lose some without having someone there to tend them all the time, but the soil is so rich and the air so humid that I think most should survive.

I'm taking the opportunity of being in the UK to refresh my visual memory of all those wonderful plants that blend wonderfully in the classic English country garden. Then I look up on Rakuten (their English language site) and see if I can get hold of the plants in Japan. It's pretty much a lottery, somethings that you imagine you ahve no chance with have been imported or grown by some nursery - at other times it is very frustrating that you can't buy a weeping silve birch - for example.

If we have enough money in the pot after our year in the UK, I am trying to have a Victorian glass-house errected to the rear to serve all my cultivation needs.

if you have time a visit to hidcote gardens which is national trust in worcestershire is well worth a visit at the moment ~ a very english garden.

thanks for the tip about hidcote - I'm not familiar with it, so will go and see it. It will suit my professional interests too. I also plan to visit Exbury to see the Rothschild collection of Rhododenrons. Might give me some good ideas - though on a more modest scale! rgs, ptarotuos

Thanks for your note Whistonlass. Moves can be stressful, but we arrived in the UK with just 7 cases and aim to take the opportunity to buy a few practical but nice antiques in the UK whilst we are here, and take the container-load option on the way back! ptarotuos

i hope you enjoy it ptarotuos; im sure if you put a blog on here asking people for suggestions you would get some really good recommendations.

Ptarotuos, looking around for antiques will be a good pastime for you...there's plenty about and a lot of them are underpriced at the moment because darker woods seem to be out of fashion just now...so wish you lots of happy purchases :)

Your idea for a glass house sound excellent....I hope on your return to Japan you will be able to cater to that dream.

Hope the children are settling in to life in the UK...it won't be completely strange to them, having visited previously, but it can still seem a bit daunting with all the changes to adapt to. Sounds like you are doing very well travelling with 7 cases...and a container on the return journey will be an enjoyable challenge!