Half term joy - 10 things to be thankful for.

 It's the end of half term holiday and I am so thankful to have had this time off.  I will never take school holidays for granted.   It is a privilege to be able to have these regular holidays though much needed!

I thought I'd share a few things I am grateful for:

1.  That we have CBC's mum in Northumberland to visit and stay with. She is always kind, hospitable and gracious to let us stay.  It was really nice to spend time with her and I was grateful to be able to talk with her.

2.  That I got to spend a couple of hours with my friends who live in Hexham- dear friends from my old church- our previous vicar and his wife who I love very much and their daughter who lives there also.  It was so nice to spend time with both and they are kind people who I can just spend time and talk like we've not been apart from each other. No awkward silences, we can spend time with each other so happily. I am also grateful that they let me bring compost materials down the hill from CBC's Mum's house to theirs.  My Mother in Law is highly embarrassed by my doing this and thinks it is bizarre but they really don't mind and they are kind and honest and accept me for who I am and know I want to do what I can to avoid waste.

3.  Although the weather was windy and rainy, I did manage to have one lovely walk with CBC in the Swallowship woods- so grateful to behold the natural beauty of Northumberland.

4.  I was grateful for lots of delicious meals in and out.  So grateful not to have to do loads of cooking!

5.  Grateful that we managed to get to Hexham in one piece despite discovering we had a nail in our tyre- it was a slow puncture and we didn't have any issue on the way.

6.  Was lovely to be able to have some time at home to do some tidying and cleaning though the job is never complete!

7.  I am so grateful for sleep and rest.  Much needed and much appreciated.  Thankful for warm duvets and pajamas and cosy crocheted blankets.  Very grateful for that extra hour in bed today.

8.  Grateful for those who work to put together the church services on Zoom.  Not made it to church in real life for a while for various reasons but so glad I can still join in with worship.

9. So grateful I didn't have to cope with trick or treaters.  We got two sets coming round who CBC saw. I am unabashedly bah humbug about the whole day, for a variety of reasons, and refuse to engage with it.  So grateful that for some reason, despite there being loads of them around, they don't seem to come to our house.

10. So grateful for the imaginative books I got to read this holiday and to be able to buy a few new ones in Northumberland.

What are you thankful for?

x

Fungi #8

CBC and I headed off to Northumberland on Sunday afternoon of half term.  It was a last minute decision but a happy one.

On our first full day in Hexham, I managed to lure CBC into taking a walk with me in Swallowship woods.  I love this ancient woodland- so close to town and worthy of walk- interesting and varied and easy to access.  I also hoped for Fungus spotting but would I be disppointed, I wondered?

Luckily not!

CBC spotted our first find: It was a rather battered Fly Agaric- the stereotypical fairy toadstool.

A little bit further on, on the main path, he saw another, more red, example, but, alas, it was also not so well intact and had served as dinner for some creature or other.

Soon after, on the main path, we spotted these three toadstools. I did wonder if they were false Chanterelles but I  suspect they were too big.

As we headed further into the woods, I spotted these sticking out from the side of a tree. Are they Birch Polypore?

These were the start of Turkey Fantail fungus, I suspected...

This was confirmed as I looked further down the log and saw these examples.

These may be Sulphur Tuft, but I wasn't 100% sure on this.

Not a clue on these ones.

 If you know the names of any of these, do share! I love seeing mushrooms so let me know if you have any photos you have spotted!

And fear not, there's more to come soon!

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- The return of the 13th Doctor

Hello there,

This week for TARDIS Tuesday, I am celebrating the return of Doctor Who with a homage to Jodie Whittaker's Doctor outfit worn in her first episode. I have tried this outfit 3 times now on here with differences and upgrades each time.

Let's have a look at this outfit.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-jodie-whittaker-costume-outfit/

Image from Radiotimes 

And here's mine:

Uh-oh, it's the famous Jodie Whittaker nose scrunch! Or at least my attempt at it!

Here's the outfit!

Let's look at each aspect:

The old:

I'm still wearing the same Brandy Melville rainbow top and CBC's Olympic opening ceremony stripy socks.

I ended up buying some new trousers for this look.  These Asos culottes are the closest colour and shape I was going to find second hand and I was delighted to find them for £7 a year ago and they are very comfortable. I also ended up with some better braces that my first in that, if I sew on buttons to my trousers, they might actually stay on, unlike my old ones.

The coat I wore last time was awful and I sent it back but someone was selling this one which is in a nice soft material and fully lined for £20 which, in lockdown last year, when all the shops were shut, tempted me into buying it.  They also sold me the braces above and a alternative t-shirt which I didn't keep- horrid material!

The only aspect of my outfit I wasn't happy with were my boots- I couldn't seem to find my better coloured boots but these did.

When did I wear this outfit?  Friday, we had an online INSET (training day) at school and I wore this for it.  I then walked to town after the INSET.  No one batted an eyelid in either place!

It was such a beautiful day on Friday.  Look how the Clematis Tangutica has completely gone grey now after its yellow lantern zenith!  It needs to be cut back soon!

Hope all is well with you.

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Clara's red and black look from The Day of the Doctor

I last wore this popular Clara look on here on March 10th, 2020.  What an absolute age ago that seems and that was just before went into Lockdown.

Image borrowed from this Pinterest

She wears a ridiculous contrast in her outfit with a £350+ Bellstaff Roadmaster coat on top of a cheapish River Island ditsy red floral tea dress.  Her accessories are a Hobbs horseshoe necklace and some black Topshop boots

Image borrowed from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/339881103102661537/

Here's my outfit which is pretty much identical to when I wore it last year except for my hair being shorter, different boots and a better location.

I wore this outfit to visit an art exhibition at the Factory Project which is quite appropriate as Day of the Doctor begins in an art gallery!

This beautiful glass sculpture by the lovely Lex Shute (who I had the pleasure to talk to after this photo) has a definite other-worldly quality to it- could definitely be Zygon-tech- they are the villains of the episode.

I felt cute in this outfit, yet practical with the coat for the possible rain but still a bit dressy and smart.  I wore my new Clarks boots for the day as I had to walk to and from the stations to reach the gallery so my other Clara boots aren't as comfortable.

My coat is a secondhand Barbour one rather than an expensive Bellstaff one but I like it and it's really good for the weather at the moment so it's become my current jacket of choice.

CBC just made a tasty veg risotto which I am very thankful for as I was so tired and fully expected to cook dinner (as per usual - despite my longer work journey, I end up doing it  the majority of the time or we'd never eat).  I did get out all the ingredients and make up the stock though- so I helped a tiny bit!!

Hope you are well.

Style Imitating Art- Jazz Stories- 3 for the price of 1!

Evening there,

Hope you are well.

This evening, for Style Imitating Art, Daenel picked a brilliant piece of artwork, right up my street!

Inspiration piece: Jazz Stories: Mama Can Sing, Papa Can Blow #1: Somebody Stole My Broken Heart by Faith Ringgold.

Ah, isn't it brilliant! So bright and so many cool features! Plus, of course, it's all about music!!!

Here's my collage I sent to Daenel.  Yes, I went for three outfits!

I'll talk you through my sartorial choices each in turn.

Outfit no. 1 was based round this lightweight vintage blouse I picked up from Polly's Vintage at Battlesbridge antiques centre last Summer.  The pattern reminded me of the stripy edge of the inspiration piece.  Underneath, for warmth, I chose to wear a navy turtle neck (M&S) and trousers (Just Female)- the colours aren't quite on but I thought it could represent the blue suits of the men. My Clarks Originals red desert boots and bead necklace were a nod to all the red.  This is what I wore to school today. Oh, and my red and blue Swatch watch was a nod to all the colours of the piece.

Outfit no. 2 is based on the dress of the main singer.  I took one look at the picture and realised that I had a dress with a very similar sort of print...but I had put it in the charity bag! I love the dress shape but the colour and material doesn't quite work for me. I find it hard to wear in the Autumn/winter in terms of colours and layering but the material is too hot for Summer. I added a beaded necklace (from a local shop near my childhood home).  I did want to wear my red heels with it, like the singer...but of course I couldn't find them! So I donned a scruffy pair of old red spotty ballet pumps.

My third, and final, outfit, is a dress I bought from ex-blogger and penpal, Char from her insta sale last year.  Honestly, when I saw she had a brand new dress with violins on it for a mere £8, I couldn't resist it!  That is, of course, a nod to our Double bass player at the back.  I liked the smart high-necked collar which made a nod to the suits of the men.  My T bar Clarks shoes completed the outfit.

I wished I had donned one or two items of jewellery in my collection, two of which are pictured.

This Tatty Devine musical necklace would work well with the whole vibe, as would this musical brooch trio. I have a saxophone brooch which is attached to a corduroy blazer but it's hard to undo so I didn't bother and believe it or not, I have a blue drum pin badge which is almost identical to the one being played by the drummer.  However, I couldn't find it!

And that's the whole band:

What do you think?

What would you have worn? Which of my outfits do you think is your favourite.

You've got till tomorrow night to put together an outfit if you want to join in.

Flatlays of clothes are acceptable too!

Head over to Daenel on Wednesday for the round up.

xx

Seedum

 

I hope you had a lovely weekend.

I have had lots of sleep.  Both mornings, I have woken up around 10 or 11am which is unusual as I've struggled to sleep in for some months.  Both days, CBC went out early for either cycling or cover teaching and woke me up so I am so happy I was able to get back to sleep.

Yesterday, after CBC had finished teaching, I got the train up to East London to visit a free art exhibition at the Factory Project in Silvertown (well worth a visit if you are local...on until the 22nd October).  I met him and his brother and then we went to his brother's flat.  We had a laze around and then went out to a proper Chinese hot pot restaurant (where the menu are in Chinese) for dinner which was superb.  After a game of Carcasonne back at T's flat, we headed home.

Today, apart from church online, I did some gardening and cooked dinner of roasted veg which included homegrown tomatoes, potatoes, artichokes, courgette, garlic. Could have also included homegrown onion scapes and peppers but forgot to include those- was a good way to use up some old carrots, Beetroot and peppers in the fridge too!

You're probably wondering about the picture and how it connects to the post. It doesn't but I enjoyed seeing this bee enjoying the Seedum.  Seedum is such an attractive plant close up- a bit like pink broccoli! I love that it is a late source of food for our precious pollinators and now I've grown a whole new plant from a pruning of it, I love it even more!

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

xx

TARDIS Tuesday- Mummy on the Orient Express flapper dress

Hello there,

Today, for TARDIS Tuesday, I thought I'd go back to a favourite glam Clara look.

Here it is:

Image borrowed from 
https://claraoswaldcosplay.com 

In Mummy on the Orient express, Clara wears this wonderful bronze-beaded flapper dress from a brand called Leluxe. It must have taken absolutely ages to intricately embroider all those beads and sequins onto it.

I've done a few permutations of this look and today, I'm updating the look a little bit and wearing an alternative dress.

I am a bit sad that I WAS going to wear this for my concert in London on Saturday but I chickened out of it because I was worried my flute might get caught on the beads in a quick page turn after a rest but I WANTED to wear it!

This dress was bought second hand from eBay.  They sell this type of dress by the dozen from Chinese sellers but someone obviously bought one and it didn't fit so I ended up with it for £8.  It's less accurate in terms of shape and detail than my other Mummy dresses but this one is the best colour!

My shoes are from Clarks and my gloves are from Accessorize and both were worn on another occasion when I did this look.

This time, I decided to add a little pearl hairgrip (she wears more of  Rhinestone clip)  and added 2 beaded bracelets which I've had a long time (both gifts) and a wine glass as a prop.

I just did this side by side photo but realise that she's not wearing her gloves here and has a phone in her hand so maybe have to try this again!

The concert went really well on Saturday and we had a really big audience which surprised us all! My audience of Deputy Head and SENCO really enjoyed it.  The soloist, Eleanor Corr, was really amazing good and our Mendelssohn was really exciting, especially the Saltarello (have a listen to the Philharmonia play it below!) 

The only downside of the day was the horrendously busy Central line train on the way home- uhrgh, it was so packed!

Yesterday, both CBC and I were really tired after getting home so late but I did a few things like dig up my Jerusalem artichokes.  I had two big tubs full of them and I picked 3 bouquets of flowers which I took into school to share with colleagues today.  I also made some fruit amber out of some rhubarb from the garden, a tub of blackberries I picked and 3 large cooking apples from a 'Help yourself' box plus some honey from a friend's bees.

I hope all is well with you!

x

Purple flowers

 It's not often you find a beautiful Monsoon dress that is totally your shape, colour and type of material but Barnardo's Southend came up trumps with this corker for £6 in August. It feels a treat to wear and can be dressed up or down. Had to wear my Autumn Aurelia earrings with it of course and some ancient Tesco ballet pumps I found under my bed.

I'm off to London for my first Kensington orchestra concert in 18months and half of our school SLT is coming to watch! Derek!!

Artichoke Flowers

Remember my artichoke plant from the other day?  Alas,it has come down in the wind and rain and is horizontal but the flowers look so bonny!

The other day, CBC had to go and have some tests done and my Mum drove him back.  She bought us a present:

She had harvested some of her own artichoke flowers as well as some other foliage from her Asparagus plants.   What a beautiful bouquet they make! 

A week later and they still look ravishing and fresh!  Even if we don't get any artichokes out of these prolific flowers, I think their floral goodness has earned them their time in my garden!

Style Imitating Art - decoupage flowers

 This week, our Style Imitating Art inspirations are the many flower collages and decoupages of 18th century Mary Delany.  In her  70's, she started making paper cut outs of flowers and they are exquisite!

Here are two examples I picked out:

I decided to take inspiration from these in my outfit, worn on Saturday, for my day out with my family to the brewery.

I decided to combine the colours and flowers for my look rather than an exact recreation.

I started with this Cath Kidston rose teadress which I bought in the charity shop, the day of my flute trio recital.  I then added this pointelle cardigan which was also a charity shop purchase.  Jewellery consists of a silver acorn necklace given to me for our first anniversary by CBC and a pair of charity shopped red earrings. My tights are an old pair of school tights- they are so comfy but very old now. The final item was my new Clarks boots I bought after getting soaking wet feet. I've been wearing them all week for school and they are fleece lined and very comfortable.

Head over to Salazar tomorrow to see how everyone else interpreted it.

Kezz and the chokestalk

Here's a throwback to the end of August.  Ah, look how  thriving my raised bed looked.

Do you see that tall plant behind me?

Well, yes, there is a beanstalk behind me....around 8 of them in a wigwam formation but also, towering above those is a Jerusalem Artichoke plant. My mum gave me a left over Tuber from some she was given and I planted it in the bed. It has grown and grown and has achieved lofty heights- it continued beyond where it is in this picture to double my height!

In the picture, I am holding a round courgette. I bought some seeds from Lidl and whilst only one of my plants survived, I've had a fair few big fruits out of it, even though not as many as last year.

I'm quite sad that a lot of the Summer plants are coming to an end- there have been successes and failures...it's been an odd year weather-wise so I'm grateful to have had anything.

I'm really rather fond of the playsuit I am wearing in the picture.  Secondhand of course...came from Depop which is a second hand sales app. Curiously, it has an almost identical pattern to a Clara dress...but in black with a different shape and it being a playsuit.

I've had a lovely weekend.  Friday night was a bit annoying as CBC went out for drinks and nibbles to a work colleague's house  (which he'd mentioned he was going to) but didn't get home to midnight but didn't let me know till about 11pm that he was actually alive...so I ate rather late.

We awoke early on Saturday morning and CBC went out to hunt for petrol which we needed for to go over to my Dad's.  He's not used the car virtually at all for about 3-4 weeks as he's been getting the train to work (not because of the petrol issues but because he wanted to start off the year with good habits for work and had to stay at home for reasons last weekend).

He managed to get some eventually and came back with McDonald's breakfast.

We then drove to Kent in horrendous traffic, made worse by the A13 being closed and there being queues on the A127 for a petrol station and ended up so late we had to head straight to Ashford rather than driving to my Dad's. We met at MacArthur glen where I accompanied my sister and stepmum to look round the shops (I was good...resisted unbelievably good Cath Kidston sale shop...ended up buying a pair of black boots in Clarks after my feet ended up well and truly soaked) in the pouring rain. CBC, meanwhile, headed off to the Curiosity brewery to meet my Dad and my sister's boyfriend The three of them were bought a brewery experience for Christmas 2019 but for obvious reasons, hadn't been able to make use of this.

After an hour and a half, we met them at the brewery restaurant for dinner.  It was excellent!  I had prawns for starter and hake for mains.  We then drove back to my Dad's house where we sat and chatted and did Jay's Pub quiz (2 of them) on YouTube which is brilliant.  We also ate a platter of chocolate, crisps and popcorn courtesy of my sister.  Reluctantly, we headed to bed, it was SO nice to stay late at my Dad's house for the first time in 2 years.

This morning, we drove to a nearby garden centre where they have an excellent cafe for breakfast. It really was delicious.  After a brief look round the centre, resulting in the purchase of a new water butt to replace our one which has a split in it, we headed home. Luckily the traffic was much more clement, as was the weather!

Back home, we both started off by doing garden chores.

I hope you are well.

xx

 

Yellow lanterns

 We inherited lots of shrubs and plants when we purchased our house. One of these  was the Clematis Tangutica  which used to share an arch with the flowering Jasmine and the Passiflora. In 2020, CBC  took down the arch as it was rotting and so the Clematis took a new life path along the fence.  It has astonished us both last year and this year with how prolific it has become in September, absolutely covered in yellow lantern flowers.  I posted a picture of the fluffy seed heads last year which I created a display with. 

Here's a dusk picture of some of the Clematis. It's a much beloved  source of late nectar for our apian  visitors  and is really cheerful!