Slacking blogger

I was told off by some of my blog followers today for not posting for a while so I'll try to catch-up with everything in this one. My studying means that the last couple of weeks haven't been particularly note-worthy, unless you want to hear about motivation theory, which I doubt, but I'll try my best to give you some interesting things...

The week before last I was part of a contingent from work who took a trip to over Trafalgar Square to welcome Eddie Izzard back from his mammoth 43 marathons in a row that he ran in aid of Sport Relief. Absolutely phenomenal I think you'll agree. It was absolutely bucketing it down but plenty of people still came out to cheer him on. I managed to sneak relatively close to him but the best photo I got was this one of his rather sweaty ear:



If you haven't done it yet (I'm sure just because you forgot!) you can still sponsor him here: http://www.comicrelief.com/donate/eddie

Closer to home we had some visitors the weekend before last in the shape of my mum, her partner Nick and my sister Katy. Katy hadn't seen the house for a while or met the girls so it was great to show her around and remember how much has changed in the past year (it's so easy to forget!). On the day of their visit the Tonbridge Medieval Fair was on in the castle, which was actually really good, if a little bit small. I forgot to take my camera but luckily mummy did so you can read about it on her blog, here.

On the house-front, we have finally managed to find a number for our front door that we like. We've only managed to find rip-off Parisian numbers until now but this is just what we wanted:



...now we just need to find a door for it to go on! We are thinking of getting a four-panelled wooden door which we'll probably paint a matt box-tree green with some nice door furniture. Knowing us it'll take us ages to find one we like but I'll keep you posted.

The garden is looking a bit straggly now but we are still enjoying some autumn flowers. The hollyhocks and anemone are absolutely beautiful and make lovely cut flowers (I just love these, I keep pausing as I wander past to look at them):



We are also still getting plenty of Rudbekia to brighten the living room but I think they might be coming to an end soon:



This weekend we took a trip over to Basingstoke to visit my mum and Nick. Mummy and I went to the fabric shop today to get the final bits for my handbag pattern so hopefully I'll have that to show you soon. I also got some felt, ready for Christmas decoration making (I know, I know, but I don't have a local fabric shop!) and to make a little needle purse which I hope to make this week. I sadly didn't have time to make either of these this evening but I tackled something much quicker - I saw a lovely flowery box file in Cath Kidston a few weeks ago for the extortionate price of £15 and I was inspired so I covered a plain box file with soem Cath Kidston wallpaper samples:



I'm going to use it to store my house-related magazine cuttings (I have a lot!).

Finally, the allotment. We popped down this evening to have a look and pulled up a few brambles. It's looking really good and we're meeting this week to talk about spending the money that we won in our bid so we should hopefully have a fence soon. At least we have a sign now:



I think that's everything for now. I promise I'll try to keep it up to date more often! Next weekend we are off to the Autumn woodland workshop day at Bore Place, a local organic farm, where I'm signed up for willow weaving and learning to make a besom broom...very exciting so hopefully I'll have more to say then.

Jammy Dodger

Last weekend we spent some time clearing the allotment site and what progress we've all made!

This picture gives you some indication of what the site was like before we started the clearance:



and here it is this weekend:



There is only really one big bramble patch left to go and we have now marked out one plot, which is great to see on the ground. Hopefully we should have plots divided within a couple of weeks and we can claim a bit for our own, which will be lovely!

The other bonus of having cleared all of the brambles (to compensate for the cuts all over my arms!) is lots of blackberries! I used just a fraction of the ones that we're collected and made this much jam:



I has also this evening been cooking up some of the fruit from our garden and made Summer Fruit jam, which strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants, all from our garden:



Unfortunately, I was also cooking dinner at the time so I got a little distracted and it cooked a little too long (like mother like daughter!) so it's more like tough jelly sweet in a jar than jam! Hopefully I'll be able to use some of it in my porridge once winter arrives...I might have to use a sledgehammer!

My final piece of handiwork this week was a couple of lavender pillows made from dried lavender from the garden - one to go in the trunk where we keep our spare bedding and one slightly wonky heart to hand on my side of the bed to help me sleep. Just lovely.

Busy July and a sad goodbye

It seems like such a long time since my last post. July, as always, is proving to be a very busy month indeed!

The weekend after my birthday we went to Latitude Festival, which was our first full weekend festival experience and it was so lovely! Nicknamed "Latte-tude" because it's a very nice middle-class Guardian-reading type festival, which was pretty much us to a T! Not only were there some big music stages, they also had a theatre and comedy stages, literature and poetry tents, a stage on the lake which had mainly opera and dance as well as little stages in the woods with everything from shakespeare to early 90's dance music. Plus, loads of quirky little touches like multi coloured sheep and a childrens arena which loads of fun looking things in it (I was very jealous!). We came back feeling very chilled out and not very enthusiastic about going back to work!





Then, this weekend just gone, my mum and her partner, Nick, came to visit. Nick and Matt went off to the War and Peace show at the Hop Farm just down the road. Not really our kind of thing so my mum and I went to the antique fair at Detling. Sadly we didn't getg anything apart from this brilliantly tacky tin for my buttons. It has a picture of a boy collecting stamps with his pet rabbit. Totally bizarre and utterly brilliant!



Then, on Sunday, we headed off to Ben and Jerry's Sundae on the common in Clapham with some friends. Sadly it was a bit rainy and much busier than in previous years so not as good as it could have been but we scoffed plenty of free ice cream and I got to see The Futureheads, who I love.




(The Futureheads)

Our weekend sadly didn't end very well. When we got home on Sunday night poor little Dymchurch was lying in the run, having not been able to make it up the ramp. Luckily Matt saw her first and brought her inside into the box that she's been staying in which we've been nursing her. She's not been well for a while and we had tried everything that we could think of but to no avail. On Monday morning she'd given us and gone to the big chard patch in the sky (chard was her favourite food). So, we are now a two chicken household and we have vowed to pay extra attention to Hythe and Romney and try to learn from our mistakes but we are very sad to lose our little Dym, who was our favourite. At least she had a happy 4 months of life since she "escaped" the farm.


(our little Dymchurch)

Strangely enough, Tinyholder, whose blog we are avid followers of, also lost one of her hens this week and my mum and Nick lost Apple, one of their ducks last week. Not a good week for poultry it seems.

I have also been doing some arts and crafts this week. I made a pencil case for my mum's birthday and I have to say i was jolly proud of it. I forgot to take a photo, but I will definately be making myself one for when I start studying again.