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.

Two Go Mad at Detling!

I have been slightly lack with my blog updates for the last couple of weeks - I don't know quite what we've been doing but it seems to have gone jolly fast!

The garden is looking good - we continue to get lots of potatoes and now have a good crop of chillis coming on. These three little fellas I picked for dinner earlier in the week (I know they're not supposed to be wonky but I'm not a very consistent waterer!)



We also have the girls a little more under control, with their smart new movable run. This means that they aren't digging up the flower beds as much but they are giving this patch of lawn a good go, but they seem to really like it and it means that we don't have to keep an eye on them all of the time:



The biggest update, however, comes from indoors, where we have been spending some of our hard earned cash on some lovely bargains. Firstly, last weekend, we had a trip to Northcote Road in Clapham which has loads of lovely little shops and antique markets. Being Clapham they are a little over-priced so we resisted and only got one thing, this lovely tablecloth from Susie Watson Designs:



Our other purchase of the week were a couple of lovely serving plates from our local antique/junk shop:



This weekend we stayed in Kent and paid another trip to the Antique Fair at the Kent County Showground in Detling. The last couple of times we haven't really found much but really made up for it this time!

We managed to pick up a good range of crockery. A lady convinced us to buy some spotty plates that I had been admiring for some time and (I think accidentally) threw in two TG Green Domnino sugar bowls. The bowls themselves should have been £12 each so this was brilliant for £20 for the whole lot! Also in this picture you can see some lovely jelly moulds, a little tin which I am going to use for paperclips, some cornishware plates (which we also got for a bargain £7 for the lot!) and a cornishware butter dish - the dish itself we've had for some time but we managed to find a very elusive lid for it, which we were delighted about:



With all of this new crockery we needed somewhere to store it so what luck that we came upon a lovely plate rack. We see them all the time for over £100, which seems far too expensive, so were chuffed with this one for £60:



We have also been looking for quite a while for an old telephone but they are ridiculously overpriced so were delighted with an absolute bargain for £30 which is in full working order, shown here below the plate rack:



We have also been looking for a bakelite radio for a while, which we want to use to hide an ipod dock so that we can be 21st century without ruining the look of the house! We were delighted to find this one:



Until, that is, that we walked around the corner and saw an even nicer one for the same price! So, we had to getg that one too and we'll just ebay the first. Still a bargain at £30 because we think this one might actually work once we replace a valve. It looks perfect in the living room:



Our other finds, were a very nice and very cheap wooden egg rack:



a stair-basket, for no other reason that it was cute and only £4:



Right, must dash. We popped down to visit the allotment site this evening and bumped into our neighbour who insisted on giving us a marrow and some cooking apples (which was very nice of her) so I am making some chutney. We took her some eggs in exchange - the allotment is creating such a lovely community, we can't wait to get going on our plot number 5:

A little inspiration

I am feeling a little worse for wear today after spending yesterday out in Soho with my friend, Sarah, who I am a bridesmaid for in May next year along with her two other bridesmaids - we were shopping for the fabric for the dresses, which Sarah is making herself. They are all natural greens - mine is a beautiful light-ish colour with hints of gold. I'm very excited about seeing the final version. Going around all of the fabric shops inspired me too and so this morning, whilst nursing my hangover I ordered this pattern, which I have had my eye on for a while:



I have never made anything from a pattern before so I am both excited and nervous about how it's turn out so watch this space! My mum also sent me a photo of the pencil case I made for her, which she is acutually using as a travel tapestry bag so that she can take her sewing to the allotment with her but, looking at it now, I'm rather pleased with myself and looking forward to making mine once my zips arrive:



My mum also sent me a photo of this lovely serving plate/charger - we've been looking for one for a while but haven't quite found one that we like but this one is lovely and apparently belonged to my Great, great grandmother (or possibly even her mother) and is definately from before 1904 by the back-stamp. She's offered it to us and I am delighted:



On another plate-related topic - a few weeks ago we popped in to see my mum and she had some plates which she had got from an auction and was going to chop up to make mosaic - I thought they were too lovely for such an end so I pilfered them and they are now proudly living with our crockery so I wanted to share them:



Finally to the garden - the back garden is mainly green at the moment, most of the flowers having finished (apart from some more sweet pease but the front garden, being shadier and therefore later, is really coming into it's own. Our hollyhocks are finally out and they are the most beautiful colour - I have taken some photos so that I can try to colour match this for somewhere in the house because the dusty cream and deep pink of the flowers really is wonderful:



The Japanese Anemone is also flowering, which is one of my favourites, and so lovely to have in the garden:

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.

Morris Dancing, Ostrich eating and plenty of potatoes

What a busy week we've had again so plenty to update on...

This weekend we went to "Puzzlebury" - which is a mini-festival run by my friend's mum in the Forest of Dean. We went last year and it really is so much fun. She has the most amazing house and garden - it's an old mining house and has a big plot of land with it - complete with lake!



She puts on such a good party - there's a big water slide down the hill, a swimming pool, lots of lovely food and drink (the cider was a little too potent and I had an unfortunate run in with a bramble patch and am still removing the splinters!). We had a visit from some morris dancers on the Saturday who taught us some moves. I don't have a photo of us dancing but this is the troupe (The Widders):



There were also bands and DJ's on the Saturday night as well as a bonfire and, although we were boring/hungover from Friday and went to bed early a good time was had by all! One of the highlights was the Ostrich which was roasted in a pit with hot rocks all night and served up for lunch on Sunday:



We also had 6 Ostrich eggs, which took two people with a drill to get into:



Sadly, we had to leave before the scrambled egg was ready but I'm told it was delicious!

We came home on Sunday afternoon because I had a job interview on Monday morning. I haven't actively been looking but this would be a part-time job which would make my PhD (which starts in a month - aaaah!) more do-able so I thought I would go for it. I now really want the job but have to wait until Wednesday to find out. I think they've got 2 other strong candidates so I'm not thatg hopeful but we'll see! Fingers crossed!

We had already booked Monday off it did mean that we got to spend the day doing house stuff. Matt dug up some potatoes, which Hythe very kindly decided to give him a hand with:



As well as their pesky garden antics the girls are also determined to get into the kitchen at every opportunity:



So, I have this afternoon ordered some temporary netting to fence them into a little area of the garden so that they can run out when we're at home without making a nuisance of themselves!

We also managed to do some things in the house today, including clearing the spare room to a be a sewing/craft room. It's a difficult room to photo but this shows the new mirror on the wall and furniture layout:



On the garden front, we are still getting a good crop of raspberries, and have just dug up our second lot of potatoes. The first harvest made a delicious cottage pie and this lot are doing to be fish cakes with plenty left over for the rest of the week and into next.

The allotment site, which we have now started clearing with a vengeance is also starting to take shape. The group are meeting on Wednesday to discuss next steps and I'm going to encourage them towards dividing up plots so that we can all get going in time for Spring!

So that was our week. I have all my fingers and toes crossed for this job so I really hope to have good news for my next post.

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.

Summer Daze

What a busy week it's been!

Take That really were brilliant - we were old ladies and sat down at the back rather than joining the crush standing but what an amazing show they put on:



The 1st Tonbridge Beer Festival was also excellent - we had 8 friends come and visit for the day and we spent a day sitting in the sun and enjoying real ales and beers. I started with some Hampshire brews, which were as good as ever and moved over to Kent but I think the Hogs Back Brewery offerings from Surrey (which is the closest brewery to where I grew up) provided the most drinkable of the day. We ended up drinking for 12 hours but as we were we sipping halves rather than glugging pints we didn't overdo it too much. We were really lucky with the weather too, these beautiful clouds were on show in the early evening:



Then, on Sunday, off to Devon. We stayed in a wonderful farm B&B on the first night - we had a cream tea to greet us on arrival, a wonderfully comfortable room in which to watch the Wimbledon final then off to a local pub for some fantastic grub - I had home made chicken pie with piccalilli and chips. Bliss! For the next two nights we stayed in a farmhouse near Budleigh Salterton with my dad, step-mum, brother and grandad who were visiting from Germany for the week. What a lovely area it was and we found this little gem of a mill (Otterton Mill) which had a bakery, cafe and art galleries/shops - Matt and I treated ourselves to tea and cakes and my dad bought me a ring for my birthday, which is just lovely. The mill was so beautiful we could have stayed all day:



We travelled home yesterday and it was so lovely to get home to our little house and see the girls, we missed them! I wondered around the garden and picked two bunches of flowers:





I am really enjoying our house in the summer, it's so welcoming.

So, it's been a busy week and it's not done yet - today is my birthday so I had a wonderful smoked salmon and scrambled egg bagel in bed this morning and we're off to Tunbridge Wells in a while shopping then tomorrow Matt has a surprise day planned for me which is very exciting. The week then ends with our summer party - 20-odd people will descend on our house dressed as scouts and brownies to celebrate the Jamboree! We always have a theme to our parties and everyone embraces it so well!