It was just seven hundred square meters, but to me it was a slice of paradise. The little lot was packed with huge oaks, some maples and a lot of other trees whose name I didn't know. There were also wild rose bushes and huge mossy boulders here and there. It was just perfect.

'Let's buy it, shall we?' I said to my husband.

'We'll have to look at the numbers first,' he answered. My husband likes to think things over, he doesn't have an impulsive bone in his body ... unlike me.

As luck would have it, the asking price had gone down because of the crisis and we could afford it. Now I only had to wait for my beautiful wooden house to be built.

Three months later, the house was brought and put in place by a huge lorry. It was as if had sprouted from the ground, it merged so well with its surroundings.

Once the house was in place, it became our weekend refuge.

I love sitting in my porch and looking at the garden or opening the living-room window and caressing a tree branch.

But I'm not the only one who likes my garden. Apart from the obvious insects and birds, we now have four cats that spend most of their day lazing there and waiting to be fed.

My favorite birds are the robins. There used to be squirrels as well, but they have disappeared for some reason.

I remember watching a squirrel one morning while it chewed on a piece of stale bread I had left out to throw away.

The garden goes through many changes throughout the year. It's at its most beautiful in the spring, when the grasses grow green and lush. Then, I love lying on my swing and just watching the beauty that surrounds me.

Summer takes its toll. Everything becomes yellow in the heat and it's time to weed.

I hate to see the oak trees become bare in autumn. Without their leaves, the house becomes exposed to curious eyes,

Then winter comes and with it the bitter cold of Castille. However, I remain undeterred and spend as much time as I can in my beloved garden, watching different colored flowers grow. I even sit outside, to my neighbors' amazement, wrapped warm in my coat and blanket.

It seems like no big deal, a small wild garden in the middle of nowhere. But it is a big deal . All my life I wanted to have a house and it took me forty-nine years to get it. Finally, my dream has come true.

I have my own plants, my own weeds and my own little piece of sky. I even have my own grumpy cats.

What else can a girl wish for?