A good start!

The new year got off to a good start today, vis a vis the Year of Possibilites list! We went to one of my favourite garden centres yesterday, and they happened to be having a sale on a lot of plants. One thing on my list was to plant a couple more trees, thinking I'd plant the two or so waiting in pots in the back garden. I've been wanting more hollies for the garden, but had to wait until MrL came round - he has always said how he disliked them, stemming I think from having to pick up prickly leaves in days gone by. He did a big job for me the other day - digging out a huge rubus cockburnianus that had got far too big for its boots and was threatening imminent takeover of the western world........... With that gone, he was able to move my little holly which was getting a bit overshadowed by the Portuguese laurel beside it, so the holly was replanted where the rubus had come out. He did admit it was a nice tree - one of the native, dark glossy green ones, found as a tiny seedling by the back door a few years back, potted up and nurtured. So - strike while the horticultural iron is hot - I bought two ilex yesterday. One is Maiden - the golden and green one with the berries on the right in the picture. The other is JC van Tol, shown on the left - plain green leaves but with attractive purple stems. The Maiden was full price, so I paid for that one, MrL paid for the Van Tol, reduced to 3.00 from 10.00; also shown in the photo is my forest pansy, a tree I've been wanting for years, reduced from 27.50 to 2.50, and a well grown and strong olive tree reduced from 15.00 to 3.00.
Would have been rude to have left them there, no? lol
So, if the ground unfreezes for long enough, that may be my job for the week. Meanwhile, I'll enjoy thinking about where I might shoehorn them in!
Also on the "getting there" front, I caught up on the ironing - 2 1/2 hours, two huge baskets full, but done with breaks in between. Happy to report all up to date on the ironing front, which is good.
I'm just about to unfrock the tree and take the decoratiosn down, then it's back to the routine tomorrow, holidays over for now.
It's so nice to have a whole new year stretch out in front of me, I hope to make the most of it.
Forest pansy tree: