Blockprint

Hello my little cauliflowers!

I hope you are well.

I thought I'd start off this post with 2 outfits I wore last month with the blockprint skirt I bought in Majorca. It came from a lovely shop called Zoe Del Mundo and they had a man's shop, women's shop and kids shop.  CBC and I bought something from each shop. Me, this skirt, a top and a belt plus a lizard clatterpillar instrument and CBC a nice shirt. It has shirring at the back so is nice and comfy

I liked the colours together of this first outfit but not sure whether they worked together - it emphasizes my chest a bit too much and makes it look bigger than it is! Wore it with my Lorelai LQ ombre rainbow earrings and my new Timberland suede shoes (Charity shop, Hebden Bridge)

This was last weekend's outfit instead which I think works MUCH better. I wore this short-sleeved F&F jumper (bought about 11 years ago) with Balinese moonstone earrings and a simple necklace. Same shoes.

The orange waistband makes it harder to style. What would YOU wear with this skirt?

Ta da!! My shoes!

Last weekend, CBC was away with the Art department at school in St Ives. He had a really lovely time, which I am glad about, as he really needed it.

I also had a lovely weekend. Mine was spent in various ways.

On Friday night, after school, I caught the trains (3 of them!) to my Mum's.  The timing didn't work out well, so I arrived at Rush hour, so rather than make her come out to give me a lift, I cycled the 3.5 miles or so to her house.  I had a big, full bag to carry but the cycle route was mostly quite good so it was fine and in fact, the sun was shining and I really enjoyed the cycle.  Mainly I rode on pavements or side roads (some of it marked cycle lane) as the traffic is quite aggressive there, but I met no pedestrians at all. I felt good when I arrived at hers.

When I got to Mum, she'd a cup of Lemon Balm tea awaiting me. It was really delicious.  After saying hello to her adorable kitties, we went for the customary walk around her garden. I adore her gardens (her front garden is just as interesting and well-curated as her back garden) and there is always something interesting to see.

 After we headed back in, Mum started cooking the pasta because she had made my favourite dinner, Spaghetti bolognese (with Farfalle instead).   I actually like hers more than when I have it in Italy!

It was scrumptious, accompanied by Parmesan and Blackcurrant Kefir water.  We watched some TV and then had a tasty fruit salad to finish.

We headed to bed fairly early. I read some of my Kate Shackleton book, Dying in the Wool.  I've had this series on my shelf for about 8 years so it is time I actually read more than one of them.

Annoyingly, I awoke around 6.00am. Mum's room is quite light and I am one who needs darkness, plus, I ALWAYS awake early on Saturday morning. Not sure why I can't do this on a school day when getting up at 6am would be really useful!

We read in bed for a while, accompanied by a cup of tea and after showers, we walked to the Sandwich bar near her house to buy Bacon Baguettes for Breakfast.  Mum likes to support this place as she has said that some days, the lady barely breaks even and it saved her cooking. I also bought myself a Tuna Mayonnaise with cucumber and lettuce baguette for later, plus crisps.

We went to the hardware store near Mum and I picked up some bird seed then we walked down the street to try and track down an errant parcel....to no avail.

The baguettes were the perfect start to the day! I suggested, since the weather was so nice, we head down to the sea front (estuary but still nice). Mum thought we should cycle so we got the bikes out and cycled to the sea wall where we cycled from one end to the other, stopping for a little walk on the beach
 that she and my sister call 'Shelly beach' due to all the Oyster shells that are there.

I was rather appropriately dressed!

The sea wall has some beautiful murals all along,charting the history of the area but also, some fun photo bits!

I was so grateful to be spending Mother Daughter time with her.

We had a 99 ice-cream. It was very blustery but warm.

CBC sent me a lovely picture of Tree Echiums from Cornwall! I reminded him what they were called and he told all his colleagues. Thanks to Lulu who taught me about these!

It was soon time to bid Mum goodbye as I had to head up to London for my concert with Kensington Chamber orchestra.

The 3 or so trains were fine but carrying my bike plus a very heavy pannier, full of clothes, school work and now birdseed was a little cumbersome.

When I arrived in Nottinghill, I was early and the church was locked so I carried on cycling down to Portobello Road to the market.  Despite my already loaded bag, I could not resist the lure of the plastic free vegetable market (plus a MASSIVE strawberry donut!) so I bought...

• Peas in the pod
• Eschalion Shallots
• 3 enormous Chichory/Endives
• British Asparagus
• Organic carrots with tops
• Watercress
• Mini cucumbers
• French beans
• 1 enormous yellow courgette

I had to empty my tote bag of clothing into the pannier to house all my veg (to avoid the dreaded carrier bag) and had to precariously cycle back up the hill to the church with dangling tote bag and arrived back at the church to start the rehearsal.

We began our rehearsal of Brahms Serenade no.1 and Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony.  Thankfully things were sounding a bit better than Tuesday's rehearsal where our 1st clarinettist (not the regular one) had turned up for the FIRST time in 4 rehearsals and was not so hot at counting or sight-reading, rendering the rehearsal super irritating.   They still had some counting issues but at least not in as many places.    It's been a bit of a strange rehearsal series (not even taking into account the total Clarinet debacle!) as it was the first one with our new leader after over 13 years of the previous leader. In addition, the conductor, the absolutely wonderful Mark Biggins (current chorus master at ENO but moving to Geneva) hasn't conducted me in this particular orchestra before (he is fab!) but also, our regular 1st and 2nd clarinets, 1st and 2nd bassoons, 2nd clarinettist, 1st and 2nd trumpets and 2nd horn were not able to play so it was all deps PLUS a horn player went sick on the day!)

After the rehearsal, I wasn't feeling like a big meal (and I hadn't eaten my tuna Baguette yet!) so I decided to walk back down to Portobello to soak up the sun and ended up buying a bargain box of veg including Pak Choi, turnips, Cos Lettuce, Tenderstem broccoli. Of course, I had no idea how I was going to carry it all home!

Back at the church, after the delicious baguette, I got ready for the concert.

It went pretty well, barring a couple of rogue clarinet moments and for the first time in an absolute age,I did not get nervous and get the horrible feeling where I can't get my flute sound right (apparently I am imagining this but I FEEL it though) and felt like I really did a good job on the prolific amount of very big flute solos I had to play!

Our previous leader came to watch, as she hasn't moved yet, and she very kindly said that when she heard me play a particular solo, that was the moment she felt like this was the orchestra and how much she missed it already and it almost made her cry!  She's never said anything like that to me before so that really meant a lot!  After the concert, everyone had a lovely social and then it was time for me to head back to Essex.  I tried to rearrange my bag to accommodate at least part of the veg....I still ended up with a shoulder bag and a bulging pannier.

The walk into Nottinghill station and down the 3 escalators and corridors to the central line (plus the walk along the platform to avoid the vexing Liverpool Street getting stuck behind people who walk slower than a person holding a folded bike, a pannier and a tote of veg) was tiring but I was SO lucky at Liverpool street to make the train with 2 minutes to spare (thus avoiding 30mins wait)

I arrived home around 12.30am after the interesting dark cycle with the veg.

The next morning, I got up at 8am and dressed for church as Sue, who plays piano was supposed to be giving me a lift.

Alas, she forgot so I made a quick dangerous dash on my bike with 2 tote bags (pannier was still loaded) and the long skirt (wasn't expecting to cycle) to church. Sue suddenly remembered as I arrived.

It's the first time I've played flute at church. It was the curate's last service so I offered to play. It was a lovely service. After a quick cup of tea, I folded Delphi and Sue drove us to the other church for the 2nd service where we repeated the service.

People were really kind and appreciative of my flute playing.  It was very lovely to be part of the bigger worship team at the other church too!

After the service, there was a barbecue bring and share which was really nice. I chatted to some new people I hadn't met before.

After, I cycled home (I don't mind the cycle home as it is downhill.... it's a nightmare on the way there- sooo much uphill).

Back home, I did some gardening and did some other chores and later ate left-over Thai food from Thursday.

It had been a great, busy weekend.

xx

Laura Ashley

I mentioned my friend's Jane Austen-themed hen tea party a few weeks ago and I thought I'd show you what I wore.  Of course, it isn't Regency but I was too hot to wear my proper empire line dresses so I decided to wear one of my Mum's vintage Laura Ashley dresses that she'd brought over for me to have, the day before the hen tea.

Sadly, they don't fit her anymore.

I wore this one which is made of such beautiful-quality cotton lawn and teamed it up with some un-Regency sandals and a charity-shopped cotton reversible hat.

Mum took the picture above and the one of my sitting was from the hen party!

Mum also took this picture of me before I got changed! I thought I'd show you the lovely hat that Vix sent me when we did a dress swap! Isn't it a beauty!

Hope you are well!

xx

 

It took 20 years but now it's mine!!!!

 Back in the Queen's Jubilee year, I shared my 70's handmade Kaftan when I wore it for our 1970's day at school.  My Mum handmade this herself in the 70's.  She gave this to me back when I was about 18 or 19 I believe.

Worn in this post in 2012.  I allude to the nicer kaftan in this post!

It all came about because she was wearing a beautiful blue hooded kaftan she had bought from Kensington Market when she worked up in London.  I totally loved it and asked if I could borrow it but she said that I would not be able to as it was very precious and she loved it. BUT, she gave me her handmade one instead.   I always loved that kaftan and used to love it when she wore it.

Fast forward about 2 decades and Vix has been sharing some gorgeous kaftans she has bought in recent times.  I wistfully thought about Mum's beautiful blue kaftan and I think I mentioned it in Vix's comments.  She said she'd love to see it.

This Monday, I went over to Mum's where we ate a lovely lunch in her garden and went for a walk whilst CBC was at work.

Whilst there, I asked her if I could possibly try on her kaftan as I wanted to show it to Vix.  She said yes and went to get it. At which point, she said I could have it! I was amazed as I know how much she loved it.  She did say that she probably wouldn't fit into it again and I might as well have it now rather than later on but I must be very careful with it!

So here it is! After 20 years!

Worn in my Mum's garden with her hippy fairy garden in the background- very apt I think!

And here's Mum and I on the beach on our walk.  The tide was in but this one bit of shingle was available to stand on!

Hope you are well.

I am quite sad that this is my last official day of the holidays bar the weekend but it's been a nice week all in all. Today is the only day when I haven't had plans.  I've seen different friends on different days this week which has been great.

Just waiting for CBC to come home from work. He's gone to the pub with his colleagues. Hope he's bac soon!

x

Ponytail plant

This is a post I started writing about a year and a half ago (In fact, I can tell you, by looking at the automatic date draft, it was the 13th March 2019, so actually it was 2 years ago!)  and as I was going through my drafts to delete some now obselete unfinished posts, I saw this one and decided to write it anyway, even though it is out of date.

This is a ponytail plant.

I went to my Mum's house recently and noticed this.

And it reminded me of when it first came to our house when I was an early teenager.

It was a small plant in a pot- but it had a comparatively large bulbous base with a wavy hairstyle which sat on the shelf in our bathroom- that was a very small ledge.

It liked life there and grew over time and its hair grew into ringlets!

I always liked that plant- so funky-looking.

When I saw it again at Mum's bungalow, I realised I hadn't seen it for about 15 years or so. It had grown.  It had graduated into this large white pot and had grown rotund with the years!

My affection for it remained.

Funnily enough, Mum was talking to me about it last week and she said its hair had grown so long that it has now trailed onto the floor and she needs a taller plant stand!

That plant has continued to grow well. I do wonder how old any of your house plants might be?

My Aloe-vera is my oldest one. It's about 6 years old though I had the one that was about 10 years old before that which it grew from- CBC left it to die in the garden in our first house together.  It has had lots of babies which live around our house and in a few others!

A photoshoot with my Mum.

 I don't have a huge amount of memorabilia from my childhood due to ALWAYS having to clear out from a young age having such a small family home and then of course, my Mum selling the house when I got married but occasionally, I find something lurking somewhere that reminds me of a time.

Take these pictures. I have been clearing out a big box of things from the garage in order to create some more space (and to stop CBC from moaning about all my stuff) and I found some photos.

My Mum used to work as a vet nurse and the resident vet she worked with last before she stopped doing that was also an amateur photographer. One day, I'm not sure how it happened, but she ended up taking some photos of me playing my instruments.  I was quite a self-conscious teenager (though I liked clothes even then!) and I found it quite hard 'posing' as such.  A portrait she took of me playing the flute ended up winning a competition in our local borough and she invited me to go with her to the exhibition in the big town library where lots of people were there to view the photos. Strangely, I don't seem to have a copy of that portrait but I did find this one of me playing the viola.  So serious!

But, whilst Mum was waiting for me, she got Mum to come in a picture with me.  There is a whole set of really cute proofs of us together but this one was printed big. I really like it.  It is rare for there to be any photos of me and Mum together in my teen years. She was always working hard as a single mum, worrying about money, out working 3 different jobs and ferrying me about to music clubs when she could get away from work. She worked hard and I was a very, very grumpy teenager towards her.  I always attribute it to being hungry and never having the things to eat that I wanted to eat and having to be on the go at all times but I think hormones obviously played a large part. At the time, she kept asking me if I was on drugs because of my being so moody.  My older sister wasn't moody like that. I was always incredulous when she asked me that because a) I am a complete goody two-shoes who is scared of getting into trouble and b) I didn't want to waste my precious hard-earned money (from my job at the chipshop) on something you couldn't even see when there were clothes to be bought! and c) Not sure where I would have got them from?  I was always puzzled by it but I guess I was super moody and I am sorry for it now.

So, this was a rare picture of us. She told me once in my early 20's that no one had ever told her she looked pretty after I told her she looked really pretty in a dress at my friend Tamsin's wedding. She almost had tears in her eyes as she told me that.  I always remembered being really surprised and sad about it. She was very pretty and even now, in her 60's (ahem, almost 70's), she has the prettiest smile which I like to think is the feature I have inherited from her as my smile is the thing I like best about myself.

Anyway, I thought I'd just write and see where my thoughts took me and that's where I am.

I hope you enjoyed a little reminiscence.

Reverend Wilks and the tiny red apples.

 

Ally wrote a great post about some apples recently which prompted me to think of my own apple memories.  As this blog is a great nostalgic thing for me to look over, I thought I'd write about 2 special Apple memories for me.

The first apples- small red apples which grew on a couple of trees in my Grandad's garden in the orchard.  I've written about it before here  but I wish I had more photos of the paradise that was their vast garden.

When we used to visit them in Summer and Autumn, we always used to go home with a massive bag of these tiny red apples. My sister and I would eat one after the other in close succession, often about 5 or 6 on the way home, throwing the cores out of the window.  They were so sweet and juicy- they were the equivalent for us of sweets (something we didn't get to eat a lot of).  It was a glory of the Summer time for us- the long visits there, the idyllic days spent running through the garden with my very patient older sister. I think in retrospect of how patient she was, always playing with her 4 year younger sister.  Luckily for her, I guess, I was also a reader, and also liked playing alone. But still.

The second apple memory for me is of my childhood home.  The garden really was tiny and thin for our little Edwardian servants quarter but it was it was a good length for a Suburban garden- longer than my own current garden.  When we moved there, it was beaten earth, killed by two alsation dogs.  My Mum slowly built it into a wonderful space filled with many plants and trees.  One of three apple trees there was a Reverend Wilks apple tree.  This tiny tree used to produce a veritable bounty of the most wonderful HUGE apples.  They were cooking apples in their early stages but then became eaters- they really were gargantuan and lasted for a while!  My Mum tried to graft a cutting of it onto dwarf root stock when she moved but sadly it never succeeded. I often wonder about that tree.  One Summer, when I was living there alone, a big haul of the apples were ripening. When I returned home from holiday , there were NO apples on the tree. I was puzzled and called my Mum to ask her if she'd been round to pick them? She said no.  The house at the end of the garden had often asked about the apples and to this day, I remain convinced that someone climbed over the low and easy to navigate wall and pinched the lot! I'll never know!

Both apple varieties and their associations are pretty special to me.  Do you have any special apple associations?

A totally eco birthday present!

My mum is so clever!

She knows I like a good eco-friendly present and a useful one!

The timing is also perfect! I had just finished my Lush Imperialis face cream and I bought a jar of handmade Carrot and Avocado cream in Northumberland so I will be needing a new face cream soon.
She made me a jar of natural facecream with Shea Butter, Cocnut oil, rose hip oil, Argan oil, vanilla, Sandal wood, geranium, Frankincense, Sea buckthorn and rose oils.  It smells beautiful.

But, as well, as being handmade and eco-friendly, the jar is actually a Georganics toothpaste jar I cleaned out and gave to her to reuse.  Furthermore, she made a little bag to put it in out of a Who Gives a Crap toilet wrapper, along with some gold gift ribbon she was given and some paper washi tape!
What an excellent present!

x

From the archives: Nice work if you can get it

Greetings friend. Here's another archive post from the past I thought I would share from August the 1st 2013, a week before I got married and moved home! Enjoy.

Nice work if you can get it

 Hello there! I've had a really productive day working with my mother in the garden! Usually, I am a lazy hopeless slob case when it comes gardening, though occasionally, I have attacks of dilligence when the neighbour's overhanging canopy of immense proportions irritate me or there are cosmos plants to be grown! My darling Mummsy came over at 9.30am to come and sort the garden after I begged her to do it help me do it since I would like some photos in the garden before the wedding as my house is NOT remotely tidy photo territory! She arrived and we worked together (me still in my pjs!) for about 3 hours and 45 minutes! It was incredibly satisfying what we achieved and it was SUCH a nice time for me and my Mum to spend together. As I near having to move from my childhood home, I feel all these bittersweet 'last' feelings, even though I am excited at moving with CBC. When I move, it will finally be sold and that will be the end of an era. Aside from a year in central London and a year in Bali, I have always lived here since the age of 6 and I am now 32. It was nice to have this sort of final 'Mother and daughter' working time in this garden which has meant so much to us over the years, a beautiful haven in the urban jungle live in, a place that holds so many memories, dear and funny. This place my mother has worked so hard on over the years, made a beautiful place from the blank canvas of mud and beaten earth left by the previous owners and their rottweillers in 1988. I remember laying the turf, planting the Reverend Wilks apple tree, my own patch of corn on the cobs, the wildflower meadow bit. The pond with its frogs, tadpoles, sticklebacks and into which my friend Sarah fell, aged 14. I confess, as I type, to shedding a tear for the loss of this. I'm so excited and yet, there will always be that young girl in me that never wants anything to change. Even over the last 6 years, where I have lived here alone, I have loved this home, despite its idiosyncrasies- no central heating, faulty boiler, a recent mouse-problem, big mess of all my things. I love its high ceilings, its open-plan feel, the ramshackle conservatory, the easiest landline number to remember in the world, its tiny rabbit-hutch proportions, my miniscule old bedroom with no curtains or curtain-rail after a cat pulled the whole lot off the wall after climbing in the window and getting tangled in the net curtains and panicking, the place my sister and I made our own, rearranging it, her painting it and putting up the red,white,black and grey border which still is up, the airing cupboard with the top door coming off, the wallpaper falling of the ceiling. The Laura Ashley poppy tiles in the kitchen, the massive stairwell with the ceiling-mounted rack to hang clothes which I was supposed to pull up to be out of the way everytime I hung washing and yet I've left hanging down low so you are greeted with a Chinese-laundry feel as you come up the stairs. The top landing where the old wardrobe once stood, full of coats which my sister and I would put on, my always loving the inherited rabbit fur coat (sorry, contraversial but I did love it).I love it and will miss it. I must stop these reminiscences. That wasn't what I came here to type and yet the words fell out with the tears. I wish I had taken before shots! Mum first mowed the lawn and edged it. Meanwhile, I cleared up all the rampant weeds that were growing on the edge of the patio, between the fences and behind the lavender, rosemary and lemon-balm  We have 3 apple trees, two cherry trees (one self-seeded behind the shed!, a fig tree and a Victoria Plum which were really overgrown for our small garden and needed a summer pruning. Mum and I worked for an hour cutting off the growth and then cutting into small piece in the compost bin.  Next, I trimmed back my neighbours, shrubs jungles over the wall nearest ot the house. it's like the Seeds of Doom from Doctor Who. I honestly don't think the landlord has done a thing to the garden for 3 years which is why my garden has to contend against the most immense canopy overshadowing it. He doesn't live there, just a load of tennants in different rooms and there is no front door bell so not sure how to get hold of him. The privet hedge in the front garden is taking up half my drive and is taking up half the pavement!!! Any ideas what to do about it?! I threw all the offcuts over the fence since clearly nobody uses the garden and hopefully if they have a problem with it, they will come and speak to me and I can ask them to cut it themselves!  Mum emptied a compost bin of ready compost onto the flower beds and we filled it up to the absolute maximum with foliage and weeds.  After picking up all the debris from under the trees, I weeded all around the bench which was good until I scratched my arms with twigs and scraped my cheek on a cut branch! Nice look for the wedding  Here is the newly pruned Victoria Plum which I did the majority of (mum did the apple trees). Believe me, a LOT has gone!  We weeded this flower bed and then replanted the rosemary offcuts which have taken!  The Buddlea was taking over the garden so Mum trimmed it back, but not loads because the butterflies adore it! We saw a Comma, Peacock, Meadow Brown, Cabbage White and another one I forgot!  Above the collection of stones, broken china and Celtic Cross is a dense canopy of ivy. To my shame, the last time I got furious with it and hacked at it, I had just left the pile of debris so by now, it was brown and horrid and needed moving. I chopped it into tiny pieces and then removed all the brown ivy leaves which wasn't easy as there are evil brambles amongst the ivy too which kept spiking me! We then moved the bay tree which was in the front garden to here as someone apparently tried to steal it at 1am on Sunday evening according to my neighbour who shouted out the window and stopped them!  Mum picked some delicious cherries from my tree which was a Christmas present from my Grandad 10 years ago. I will miss my own special tree  Re the wildflowers- sadly, my cosmos in the trough are the only plants that grew from my seeds and I have only had about 8 flowers so far so sadly, unless we have miraculous growth in a week, they won't be featuring in my wedding. It's been fun to have them to care for though. However, I did find an unexpected delightful present when I discovered this double daisy plant had appeared from nowhere! I didn't plant it so it must have been a bird! Thanks bird!x  When my Mum left, after some delicious apple amber from the freezer (from previous Reverend Wilks apple harvest), I finally had a shower and got dressed! Promptly to get hot and sticky again when I went to go and saw up a load of mouldy cardboard boxes that I lazily left festering on my patio for a while and bin them!  I'm still trying to get on with cleaning and tidying as I try to comprehend the task of packing up 26 years worth of stuff! I shall do it cheerfully as I reflect on a happy day and understand that life moves on   Loving one who loves you, and then taking that vow. Nice work if you can get it and you can get it if you try!