Decorations

Here's a couple of photos from our living room showing our main room decorations for Christmas this year. We don't have lots of hooks or mantelpieces or window sills for displaying Christmas ornaments etc which  is a little sad but we like what we have.

The ScrabbleLights spell Christmas on the piano and there's a wind=up Christmas tree.

Can you spot the tinsel round the clock? This is my favourite piece of tinsel from childhood which Mum bought me to wear round my neck when we used to play carols on the town hall steps with the windband in the freezing cold!

Our Christmas tree was £12 from Wilko and it seemed nice and small but jolly! 

The star at the top of the tree is from Jelly Cats and there's a blackbird which plays real birdcalls!

The tree is sitting on our mosaic plant stand with my red pashmina underneath it.

 In the kitchen as you come in, you will see one of my last Christmas decorations I made.  I decided to make a banner out of a cardboard box, some stripy string, some gold card and a black pen.  Words that are important at Christmas time.

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Then there is the decoration for our front door:

I made some silver card stars out of a takeaway shiny lid in 2020. I just cut stars and embossed lines in in them.

Just add some sellotape to stick them to our front door!

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There's my Advent Calendars of course and a few charity shopped wreaths around the place.

Speaking of wreaths, my Mum was on Morning Live 2 weeks ago showing how she made Christmas wreaths with her cats' help!

Hope you are well!

xx

The new shelf

 Confession: I have no idea or talent when it comes to house interiors or decoration.  When we bought our house, I was pleased it was new- it meant we didn't have to do much.  

CBC, however, has a bit more of a vision than I do.

He declared and decided that we needed a shelf in the kitchen. Or a couple of shelves.

He ordered a couple of wooden shelves from Etsy and 2 weekends ago, when I made my Advent calendar, he got around to putting the first one up!

The evening he finished it, I made Vegan meatball spaghetti and decided to light a candle to serve dinner which is unusual as we very rarely eat dinner at the table.

My Father-in-Law's digital radio is finally up on the shelf rather than the worktop and a couple of my plants, plus a bottle and some dipping bowls CBC bought.

We're very pleased with it and look forward to putting the other shelf on the perpendicular wall.  We are planning to put our Vegetarian cookbooks up on there...when CBC puts it up!

xx

Living Room Lounge Update

 Hello there!

In January, I shared a post of our living room with our new coffee table which we bought second hand at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre.  It really completed the space in our living room.  However, our phone and our internet router just sat on the floor behind the sofa and it was a temptation (for me!) to dump things behind there.  CBC said he wished we had some sort of narrow shelf to go behind the sofa to make the phone neater and make it easier to access. He also wished we had a more retro phone as our cordless one was being really unpredictable and dying after 10minutes of talking.

2 weeks ago, on the first Saturday of half term, CBC wanted to go and get some lunch somewhere.  We were driving aimlessly, not sure where to go, so I suggested we go to Battlesbridge to a lovely place called Frazer's Tearoom (there's a B&B above there in case anyone ever fancies a trip to Essex!) to have some lunch and perhaps we could find a vintage repurposed phone there.

The lunch was delicious and then we headed into Battlesbridge to look around.  In case you don't know, Battlesbridge is a big Antiques centre.  There's an old Mill with 6 floors of antiques sellers and some other units spread out over the village. It's really worth a day out there.

Whilst I was looking at a lovely vintage clothing store called Polly's Place-  I went in and she had some amazing pieces at really reasonable prices as well as some retro-looking modern pieces- brilliantly, I actually found a pair of Cath Kidston trousers I already own but that are too small for me and I've been searching online on eBay for the next size to replace them- I ended up getting them and a matching jacket as well as a lovely 50's shirt.

When I met CBC, he told me he'd found a SHELF to go behind the sofa.  We didn't manage to find a retro phone we liked then but actually, in Northumberland, at the Corbridge Antiques centre, we found the perfect one (which we bought!) .  CBC also bought a pair of Scrabble tile wooden coasters with our initials.  When we first got back to the car, CBC looked at the shelf (it is handmade, repurposed from pallets I think) and fretted about it.... but actually, when it was in place, it was perfect!!!

Here's the area which has been updated since the last post with a plant, the new Emma Bell painting I featured in the Bloggers Art Gallery (but wasn't up on the wall yet), the new shelf, the new phone and coasters, a plant from the kitchen and my first edition Angela Brazil book.  Oh, and some cushion rearrangement.

What do you think?

I can't tell you what a pain it was to get this picture up on the wall- It took us hours and CBC was going to kill the wall plugs in the end!

Here's the shelf- I couldn't believe it fitted the gap behind the sofa exactly!

And here's the retro phone in position. It's really nice to have a proper phone although it takes an age to dial a number!

The coasters work well as well.  I put a cup of tea on the C when chatting to my mum on the phone earlier.

I also put the hand-crocheted Ombre blanket my mum made for me on the back of the sofa.

Two other updates to the living room are the Monstera plant (found in Lidl!) and the handmade stool which CBC bought from Re in Corbridge in Northumberland last week.

What do you think?

Garden produce

Lockdown gave me a chance to work on my garden more than usual.   CBC made me a raised bed for growing vegetables, at the back of our garden  (which I blogged about here).

I was able to water my vegetables morning and evening in the hot weather because I didn't have to head out early to school every day and therefore was able to do better than I did usually.

In the raised bed, I planted:

• San Marzano tomato plants
• Black Russian tomato plants
• Welsh onions
• Runner Beans
• Dwarf Beans
• Climbing Beans
• Yellow Courgettes
• Peas
• Turban Squashes,
• Cucumbers
• Swiss Chard
• Rocket
• Patty Pan squashes
• Miscellaneous Tomato
• Radishes

In addition, outside of the raised bed, I have grown the following plants:

• Raspberries
• Strawberries
• Rhubarb
• Blueberries
• Candycane Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Peas
• Nasturtiums
• Alpine Strawberies
• Cucumelons
• \\Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes

Whilst some haven't been successful as others, I have managed to harvest something from all those plants.

I wish I had shared more of my early harvests on here like I did on Instagram but I thought I'd share a few harvest photos as I was so proud of them

Undoubtedly, my most prolific growers have been the raspberries- hundreds of them and all huge!

Sadly, the tomatoes were late in growing and 2 weeks ago, I had plants teeming full of unripe green tomaotes that would surely ripen but I have been hit by tomato blight after the dry weather followed by wet weather and have lost about 60 large tomatoes if not more... I am gutted to say the least. If only I had picked them 2-3 weeks ago and left to ripen inside.  I ended up pulling up most of the plants yesterday.

The runner beans have been late but prolific and considering the plants were freebies from someone round the corner, I am chuffed.

The only successful Turban squash above but it has a big chunk out of the other side.

If you're wondering about the leek- I regrew it from an end of one I bought!

The tomato pictures are making me sad in retrospect.

Considering there was just one plant- I had a lot of courgettes.

I've had various salad leaves as well.

There are lots of raspberries in the freezer- yummy!

CBC is a real convert to home grown Cucumber.

Whilst my Chard bolted fairly early, several times, I've still eaten a fair bit!

What have you grown successfully this year or in the past?

x

 

Garden promise

 I realise that I haven't shared loads of posts about my garden this Spring and Summer which is silly as it has been a big highlight of my year. I've shared plenty of pictures on Instagram but I prefer to keep these two mediums separate!

For many, the growing year is drawing to a close, things are starting to fruit and flower less and plants are waiting to be cut down perhaps? I am sad about this though there are lots of things that can grow from Autumn to Winter...I'm going to plant some Cavolo Nero in November and some garlic now.

However, my garden doesn't seem to be giving up.  My tomatoes are a complete mess, taking over the entire raised bed- I am told to cut the foliage off but I am optimistic that they will still grow regardless.

Here are some things that are currently holding promise of things to come...

Peppers!  I germinated these from seed back in April and they've been slow to grow but look at these peppers waiting to turn pink/red! Hurry up my friends!

Another slow-burner was my Patty pan squash plant. Sophie sent me some Pattypan squash seeds last year that she didn't want to plant again as she knew I like them and I planted them in pots in April. Luckily ONE germinated but it has been SOOOOO slow to grow but now, it seems to have found its rhythm...

Look at this new small fluffy embryo!

And this morning, I noticed these two embryos crowned in glory with their exuberant yellow flowers!

There are two of these larger, more formed specimens- I hope they grow!

The runner beans have been prolific over the past few weeks- I even sent my mum home with some! Look at this truss that is growing!

I've picked 3 monster cucumbers this past week but now they've gone, the plant has energy to grow a few more- it doesn't seem to be able to cope with more than three at a time! I bought two plants from the local Londis during early lockdown in April when plants and seeds were hard to obtain.  They had handwritten labels so perhaps someone was being entrepreneurial? 

I've had lots of Black Russian tomatoes and now San Marzano but this plant, which I carried in my rucksack during 35miles of cycling in hot sun in May after finding a free tray of them, is holding lots of scrummy salad tomatoes!

 A recent acquision is the Cucuamelon plants which my Mum obtained from a friend of my Granddad's from Bee-keeping- she gave us a few plants and they grew whilst I was away! I hope for these little mini darlings to grow big enough for picking soon- there's loads but will the weather hold? 

And yet more yellow courgettes on the way.  Mum is deeply jealous of these since she gave me the one plant and it has yielded lots of courgettes so far- I gave her one when she came over. All hers came to nothing, a bit like mine weren't very good last year apart from a few.

Last year, I got dozens of Alpine strawberries until it shrivelled to a crisp after 2 weeks of no watering and a heat wave. It and I didn't give up and it grew some new shoots.  This year, it's been a slow burner and has only occasionally had fruit though recently, there's been quite a few.

I will never fail to be grateful, humbled, excited and gleeful about what grows in my garden and I think that's a good way to be.  Never grow contemptuous of something- always give it the awe and wonder it demands!

New Coffee Table

When CBC and I moved into our house 2 years ago (it'll be 2 years ago this weekend- and sadly, therefore, 2 years since WOMOTM died....), it took us a while to choose furniture for downstairs. We had beds, we had some drawers and bookcases but downstairs, we needed most things- all we had was a wooden cabinet, a TV which we had bought from our friends who rented us the bungalow before and their leather reclining chair.  Choosing of the sofa took a very long time and we didn't get it and our dining table till at least April. 

I was always a bit disappointed that we bought those things new and didn't find something second-hand.  We knew we wanted a coffee table to go in front of our corner sofa but we needed something quite specific as our room starts off thinner at this end before getting a bit wider towards the patio doors and it needed to fit within the corner shape.  We didn't' know what we wanted and we used my wicker picnic hamper as a temporary solution- one that lasted till yesterday!  We definitely wanted one as I like to have something to dump stuff on! Honest, but true!

When we visited Ghent earlier on in the year, we loved the retro style and really wanted to find see if we could find a coffee table in Belgium as there are a lot of flea markets and opportunities to find something cool.  Alas, we didn't find anything suitable in our price range and so we continued tableless.

On Sunday, our friends Lara and Tim came over for dinner and to play boardgames and they talked about how they had found really nice pieces at Battlesbridge Antiques centre which isn't SO far for us to get to.  They mentioned someone who does reclaimed furniture and so yesterday, on our way back from a fruitless search for Farrow and Ball pigeon paint (CBC wants to paint the hall- I've given up fighting against it. It DOES look scuffed, but I think it's ok but I need to pick my battles and this is one to concede to), I suggested we drive to Battlesbridge as it isn't such a detour.

Surprisingly, we only saw about 4 coffee tables in total in the whole building, there was a distinct lack of them, but we found the perfect one!

Solid oak, it was the perfect size and it has a fold-open top as well so if we wanted to play board games (with Lara and Tim!) we can extend it.  It was reduced by £100 from the original price-tag and the man knocked a further £15 off the price.

We brought it home and I suddenly thought that our grey sheepskin rug which has been sitting in a bag in the garage for 2 years, would go perfectly under it thus freeing up a bit more space in the garage which CBC has been moaning on and on and on and on and on at me about.

And Da naaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Here it is in situ!

What do you think?

I've avoided all sales shopping (in fact all shopping full stop...except CBC has just bought us a new TV grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!) this holiday so it's nice that we have put the money into something that works so well, something that has already had a life, something made out of proper materials and something that is frankly, rather lovely!

What do you think?

xx

Unexpected growth

There's something I find particularly wonderful about the first year of living in a new home and that is discovering the garden.  Of course, if you move to or buy a house which has no garden or that has been paved over, has only lawn or worse, fake grass, this won't happen.  However, if you are fortunate enough to inherit the garden of gardeners, that first year is voyage of discovery.
I remember the joy of my first year in the bungalow that we rented before buying our own house- in its 100+ feet of garden, there were so many shrubs and plants, that there was always a new joyful discovery of a new plant that would interesting shaped leaves and then flower subsequently.

We knew, when buying this house, that the lady who lived here (with her family) loved gardening- she had grown a passion fruit vine (which CBC accidentally massacred...grrr).  The garden was one of the key things that made us fall in love with this house- it was so beautiful the first time we saw it, last July.

Now we've been here a few months, in addition to putting our own plants and touches into the garden (including CBC removing a tree and me, a couple of shrubs), we've started to see plants growing at different stages and we spot something new!

 In the raised bed which we can see from our Living Room, there is an abundance of Lavender growing. These spears have suddenly shot up in the past few weeks- they are dense and beautiful and will look glorious when they blossom.

These spiky, funky looking beauties have the darling name, Love in a Mist, Fennel flowers or Nigella Damascena. There's only one so far. I have no idea where these have suddenly appeared from!

 Likewise, these tiny pinky, purple flowers have suddenly blossomed abundantly but I am unsure what they are called.

 These strident leaves have such a pleasing shape.

 I have an amusing story about the next plant.  When my Mum came over in February, she saw the rose bush in our garden that was growing in all directions.  She completely decimated it, cutting it to about 15cm tall.  CBC was really worried about it saying that she'd cut it too much (he, the Passion fruit murderer). I reassured him that roses like rough treatment.

Fast forward to the first May bank holiday and it was already this tall.

May Bank holiday

Now, it has shot up a further foot or so.  I can't wait to see it bloom!

 The ultimate stunner in the garden is this plant which, before flowering,  seemed to be some sort of flowering currant but now, it looks like a Little Lime Hydrangea. Do you know what it is?

 Mum and I tied up this flowering tree which had lots of branches. Mum tried to dig it up to move it back a bit but it was too tough to move so we tied it up a bit as it was flopping forward onto the lawn.  My neighbours have a beautiful huge blue beauty version if it! I hope we haven't damaged it, trying to move it!

 This is, I suspect, the next beauty to bloom! What will it be?

 These little pink flowers are not very prolific, but very welcome.

There was only one golden flower, a month ago.

These giant chive flowers are very pretty but there are a lot less than there would have been because I cut most of their heads off because my friend told me it puts the goodness back into the soil/plant if you do that. I couldn't resist leaving a few though!

CBC and I bought a new, larger pot for my Mint plant and it has repaid the attention by growing rampantly for the last 2 weeks!

Rehomed Mint

Today, I planted out my germinated Climbing bean plants and tomatoes and Cavalo Nero which were germinated by my Mum. I've surrounded them in egg shells and Slug pellets so here's hoping they survive!

 I look forward to what else will happen in our lovely garden in year 1!

Anything lovely and surprising growing in your garden? Did you discover this delight of the first year when you moved?
xx

Positive News

Fil shared this great link to this magazine online:
https://www.positive.news/ 

It inspired me to share some positive news- I suppose this is a version of my 10 things to be thankful for but with a different title! Written on GOOD Friday.

1. Our heating is now fixed! Electrician came round and fixed new underfloor heating box.
2. Back in October, I lost my case which houses my school digital recording device, digital camera, portable hard-drive, spare batteries, memory cards and all electrically useful items.  I had no idea where it had gone but the last time I had seen it was in Northumberland- I just couldn't fathom where it had gone and thought that the people who cleaned the car (valeted it) had stolen it from under the seat as that's where it was the last time I'd seen it.  Weirdly, I opened my suitcase to go to Northumberland today and there it was in the suitcase.  I had checked said suitcase several times in the search for the case and have even used the case about 6 times since October so I have NO idea how it turned up in there! Whatever, I am so grateful!
3.  We made it up to Northumberland safely.  We are here for several days!
4. We have arranged to see my Dad the following week! So happy to see him!
5. I am meeting up with my lovely flute quartet next Tuesday for the first time in a year.  Annoyingly, I have been double-booked for a rehearsal for a Jazz gig we have at Pizza Express Jazz Cafe in Soho in 2 weeks so I can't stay as long as I would have liked but this is positive news!
6. My cold is almost gone, pretty much!
7.  Our new sofa arrived! After almost 4 months of sitting on a camp chair, I am very grateful! We took a risk on it as we hadn't tried it but it is perfect! You might even say my dream sofa!
8. Our dining table is arriving next week too!
9.  Going to the wedding of two music camp friends next Saturday who I am very excited about getting married!
10. The most positive news of all: Christ has died, but he will be risen soon!
In the words of Isaac Watts: "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all!"

Braving the cold

Hello there!

Greetings from our bedroom!  CBC and I are currently hiding in our bedroom as it is so cold and our boiler is broken! What unfortunate timing as we have had snow this weekend and I have been in all weekend!  

It is ironic that we have moved into our new house which is only 3 years old with a 3 year old Vaillant boiler and have been here 3 months.  And in that time, our boiler has broken TWICE!  This time it broke last Wednesday but the Vaillant engineer cannot come till Tuesday. I thought Vaillant were supposed to be the best? I can honestly say that this is not my experience at all!  We lived in the Bungalow for two years with a Vaillant boiler and it developed about 15 faults in that time.  Most of these times we managed to fix these by bleeding the radiators, allowing more water to go in, trying to raise the pressure but on THREE occasions, the engineer was called out. I have really started to develop this silly conspiracy-theory in my head where the engineer DOES something each time to ensure that it will develop a fault in a certain amount of time and then it will go wrong! 

Having got used to central heating over the past 4.5 years of being married, I sometimes struggle to imagine how I survived living in a house with no central heating for some 30 years! I DO remember the cold. I remember in my twenties when Mum had got married and moved out, sometimes, I would sit myself on one of the uncomfortable fold-up chairs from the kitchen so I could sit right up in front of our fake-fire fan heater wearing a myriad layers. In fact, I remembered a blog post in which I shared what I would put on when I get home to combat the cold and have just spent 10 minutes searching for it- here is The Blogger who came in from the Cold!

I have been adopting that very same technique today and yesterday to try and combat the cold.  I thought I'd take a picture and show me dressed up in all the layers! I am wearing thick trousers, handmade thick wool socks, sheepskin slippers, a long-sleeved top, a reasonably thick, jumper, a vintage alpaca wool over-sized jumper, a vintage sheepskin gilet, a sheepskin lined hood, a fluffy scarf, a cashmere shawl and two odd fingerless gloves! Sorry, I could have moved the unsightly boxes and random carrierbag from the background but I didn't!  

CBC and I have both turned the oven on a few times and stood in front of it with our hands in whilst in the kitchen.  Aside from the oven and layers, the other two things which have been our saviour are the tiny little portable fanheater that was my Mum's that I used to put on when I was going to bed back in my family home. We've had it on here in the bedroom.  The thing that makes me most happy about this was, when we moved here, CBC was all rude and bitchy about this little heater and told me we didn't need that dusty old rubbish any more with our new modern house with underfloor heating, EPC rating B+ and the suchlike. I told him that we WERE bringing it with us and our heating might break at some point and then he'd be grateful for it.  He was, of course, very sceptical, but I now hope that it has proved its mettle in remaining in our house as a back-up.  I keep it by my side of the bed and like to use it anyway when it is cold when we go to bed.

The other saviour comes in the form of a gift from WOMOTM, my Father-in-Law. He was already the saviour when I lived in my childhood home as he bought me an electric blanket. But Christmas 2016, he bought us an electric duvet for our present which saved us in the poorly-insulated bungalow.  Last night, I went to fetch it from the spare room and it kept us cosy all night. Even beyond the grave he is still protecting us!  On that note,I was so happy on Tuesday night because he was alive in my dream. It was so vivid, he was well and I was able to chat to him. When I woke up, I realised, of course, that it was a dream, but it was so lovely to see him. 

What do you do to combat the cold?

xx

First fruits

Here are the first strawberries of the year from my garden. I am not likely to gain a vast amount of home-grown food this year as I haven't planting anything (except a tomato plant) due to thinking I was moving.  However, the strawberries and raspberries are happy in their pots and have done this by themselves. Oh it is always so exciting to see them ripen and rejoice with great glee when they reach the desired colour without tampering by slug, snail or avian visitor!  I can scarcely believe it each year when something which has turned completely brown and had to cope with dandelion squatters and very little care becomes new, green and fresh and then fruits! It is truly astounding.

The plum/green gage tree and apple trees have many fruits upon them which I hope will not lose too many during the June drop.

There is a lot to do out here which I have failed to do this week off but today I mowed the lawn, Mum came and pruned the apple tree significantly which will help its future yield and I spent a good while pruning the roses and pulling up weeds and nettles. There is still a deal more to do.

But this kind of work is so satisfying.  To work outside, clearing and tidying in the fresh air, surrounded by the sound of cheerful birds and to come inside for a warm cup of tea!

Ah, what a life!

xx