I thought it would be easy!

I promise that this blog isn't going to be all about the summerhouse but I thought I'd share part two of the summerhouse story with you.

Now that the long anticipated summerhouse has arrived we didn't want to waste any time in starting to use it, so yesterday we set off to find some furniture. We were convinced that a couple of garden centres fairly near to us had lots of conservatory type furniture and so didn't anticipate a problem. How wrong could we be! Why is it that when you are actually looking for something all the masses of previously seen suitable items disappear?

First stop had just a few pieces of furniture pushed together in a corner so it was quickly on to garden centre number two! More choice here but most of the chairs were too large - OK for a full sized conservatory but not suited to our needs. We didn't want the space to be filled completely by a couple of chairs and a table! There was just one set that we liked. We sat in the chairs and they were comfortable but I had expected to have been presented with a choice and didn't want just to buy the first thing that we saw.

Third stop was the showroom of Burdekins which is only about a mile or so from home. This company specialises in cane, wicker and rattan furniture but didn't have anything that would fit the bill.

In the end we decided to go back to garden centre number two and have another look at and sit in, and ponder the merits of the set that we saw there and liked. We reasoned that it would most likely have been sold when we returned so were pleased to see that the two chairs and table were sitting exactly where we had left them. So we looked at, sat in, and pondered and decided to buy.

We found an assistant who informed us that the set wasn't in stock but that he would see whether he could order one for us. However on his return we were told that there were none to be had and this was a discontinued line but that we could have a small discount if we wanted to take the set on show. We did!

On arrival home it was beginning to rain so we quickly installed the furniture in the summerhouse, made coffee and grabbed a paperback and a magazine, Result!

It was just as we had imagined, sitting overlooking the pond sipping coffee as we watched the fish and a visiting frog swimming around, the rain creating circular ripples on the surface of the water. Then a relaxing read accompanied by the song of a blackbird.

Now we need some greenery in there. Something that will like being in a summerhouse during the summer months as well as during winter when there will be no heating. That back wall looks a bit plain doesn't it? Now what shall we do about that and ... oh yes ... we really need a doormat!

PS: Don't worry that pond filter won't be a permanent feature - well not there anyway!
PPS: Today is the closing day for entering the Fruit Seeds book competition - click here for a last minute entry