Where to start after a month’s absence. As usual after a blogging break this will be more of a news report than anything more insightful or evocative. But it brings us up to date.

Let’s start with last week, spent very pleasurably in Italy enjoying a much needed break in unseasonally warm Sorrento. Dave and I both love Italy. For a start the food is superb despite apparent simplicity – first class ingredients left to speak for themselves with the minimum of embellishments. And then there is the sense of people living a real, interconnected life. Sorrento’s main street is closed to traffic on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings and the entire town turns out to stroll, meet friends and gossip. Best clothes are shaken out and worn for pleasure and display, small children are coo’d over and every few yards people stop to exchange a handshake and a chat. Though few shops were open, you couldn’t see from one side of the road to the other for people.

Talking of friends, hello to Lana and Kirill, new friends from New York thanks to a piece of classic abysmal Italian driving. A car reversed into the coach we were travelling in between Naples and Sorrento, and we got chatting over the ensuing chaos. It turned out we were staying on the same floor of the same hotel and shared several very happy evenings of fine dining and great conversation. Hope the twins have remembered who you both are!

We didn’t hire a car, relying instead on Italy’s excellent public transport to get us to Pompeii (mind-blowing, wonderful)

, Capri (scenic, but overrated, overpriced and largely shut down for the winter), Amalfi (lovely, friendly, nice shops) and Positano (very pretty and a cracking restaurant on the beach). We’ll be back.

Holidays aside, I’ve been working on two customer projects – a Butterfly Garden for the Lion Salt Works in Northwich, and a garden revamp for a client with a large garden in Mobberley. I’ll post some before and after pictures one day.

But in between I’ve sneaked in a few hours of gardening pleasure here. My top treat was planting the four different varieties of garlic I bought from the Garlic Farm. Last year I only grew about 20 bulbs and we got through it all in no time. This year I’ve planted about 250…. First up, Albigensian Wight – huge softish white cloves. Next Early Purple Wight – smaller and, er, purple. Third was Picardy Wight – hard, heavy bulbs and a nightmare to separate. Feels like a good keeper. Finally Venetian Wight, small slim firm cloves. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any real difference between them in growing performance and flavour.

I snatched an hour today to sow the sweet peas – 7 varieties from Eagle Seeds, heartily recommended by keen sweet pea grower David K from the BBC Gardening Message Board. Good seeds they seemed too and not too late to order if you fancy a go.

Otherwise, the nursery is largely put to bed for the winter and Peter and I are now busy ripping bits of the garden apart. As usual I’ve probably started more projects here than we’ve got time to finish and I keep tweaking the plans as we go along, but Pete seems to take it all in his stride.