Hi. My name is VintagePretty and I am a sugar addict. It has been this way for too long, but I've overcome my denial and I'm going to conquer my addiction. *waits for rapturous applause*

Actually, it's mostly physical - I have a nasty case of the hormone collywobbles, which in turn gives me the insulin resisting collywobbles, which means I can't process sugar and insulin very well at all. It also means I crave all things sweet, all the time. Sweet and savoury, sweet and hot, sweet and cold and also just plain sweet. This is not good for a normal person, but it's doubly not-good for someone with insulin collywobbles, who doesn't manage sugar as she should. So I'm self-medicating, doing exactly what the doctor would want me to do and I've cut the stuff out. Talk about going cold-turkey! I have paced the house like a caged lion, with the temperament to match at times, scaring my poor husband to death! The cravings have been immense, but I've now been on my sugar-free diet for 6 days (haha, not that I'm counting!) and the cravings, although still strong are gradually easing off. The key is to keep the mind active, and to keep positive at all times (and remembering that your husband does love you, even when he's eating hobnobs and you're not...). Having a safe-box that only your partner knows the combination to might also work, however we've yet to cross that bridge and if we have to, then it's time for a different approach altogether!

What has made the whole thing incredibly difficult is that *everything* contains sugar. Just think of condiments, from ketchup to chutney, mayo to salad cream, even low-fat salad dressing. Ugh! I'm also avoiding anything white, as this makes the whole thing much easier to maintain. No refined anything (read: anything nice). I think I feel better for it, so I've been brave, it can only do good things! I am allowed a moderate amount of fruit to make up for the lack of white things. Bananas on toast (only allowed one a day, and on wholewheat bread etc) for breakfast are very agreeable!

Despite the withdrawl symptoms I'm now over the worst I think - I hope, and on to better things! I've gone for one whole day without biting the husband's head off - I'm doing well. Baby steps...

I am in the next planning stages of the garden! Hurrah! I have found my gardening bug again, and whenever it stops raining outside, I will be out there with my dog, my hoe and a pencil and paper to turn this big rectangle of green into something far more 'us'.

I'm starting by getting rid of all of the straight lines. Straight lines are not good feng shui, they're not very feminine, and they don't go well in the garden that I have planned! The herb bed is a keeper, as are the semi-circular beds, but adding to that we're going to have more vegetable space because we didn't have that much this year and found there was still stuff we didn't have space to grow that we really wanted to.

The lawn will be broken up and screened areas added to give shade, an orchard-y effect and will probably be something like either the Judas tree [cercis siliquastrum] or the heavenly Foxglove tree [paulownia tomentosa] and the like - it can't grow too large and should provide some shape all year round. Having read Beverly Nichols' book 'Green Grows the City', I have learnt about the eye having to wander, not just seeing the whole thing at once. There will be more ornamental planting beds in the lawn for shrubs like my amazing Philadelphus 'Snow Belle' and our Fuji cherry Prunus Incisa 'Kojo no mai' as well as annual planting. All on a gently-undulating curvy theme, hopefully adding a place to have chairs as well.

The fence that our neighbour put up for us is excellent - it has given us a proper garden for the first time, cut off from everyone, and a place where we can let the dog run free! We bought a shrub rose which is just the most prickly thing ever - she's called Frau Dagmar Hartopp (single, light pink, amazing scent, very large red hips!) - not a person to mess with - my mother thinks she must've been a very prickly one in real life! That will form part of the impenetrable barrier between us and the little hooligans. On other notes, we ate our first tomato of the season from 'Tumbling Tom', a cherry-sized red, which like the name suggests, tumbles. It was delish and we await more. Not that I can make chutney (but probably will for everyone elses benefit...), every single condiment has flippin' sugar in it.

Anyway, that's it for now, it's way past my bed time! I will post more photos of interesting things I've been upto of late, at another time!