Making Good Use

Tomato Envy

This past weekend there were a lot of Open Gardens near where I live, in aid of the local Anglican churches.  Even though most of the gardens were open both Saturday and Sunday, P and I only managed to get out and about on Sunday afternoon.  We saw some fabulously gorgeous gardens - large, small and medium sized.  Some of the larger gardens were just amazing - windy paths that seemed to lead on for miles with open countryside on several sides.  One of the larger gardens was beautifully manicured, the other much wilder - although the wild one had the biggest pond I have ever seen outside of a park.

It had some beautiful wildlife around the pond, including this dragonfly.

And had proper waterlilies which were in flower.  I don't think I've ever actually seen a flowering waterlily in 'the flesh.'

At least with the larger gardens I could console myself with the fact that our garden is so much smaller in comparison that I could never emulate the loveliness of those.  Sadly, for me, a lot of the gardens were much more modest in size but still put mine to shame.  People were growing blueberries in pots on their patios, or had milk-chocolate-scented Chocolate plants in their borders. 

Or had really exotic blooms like this one - which I don't even know what it is.

And everyone seemed to have a lovely water feature somewhere in their garden.  The nicest one had been built using old railway sleepers and was like a little waterfall - very inspirational and extremely soothing to look at.

But what really made me incredibly envious was this whole garage wall of tomato plants with little green fruits hanging all over them - how do people manage to get their tomato plants so big??  Seriously, these plants were about 8 feet tall!!  I came home and gave my miniature-by-comparison tomato plants a good feed - and I had been feeling smugly pleased with their progress before I saw this mighty lot.  I've obviously a lot more to learn about tomato growing.

Also, just to say that this morning at the 'Coffee and Jumble' I came across what might well be the motherload of vintage Christmas decorations - photos to follow tomorrow when I've got a bit more time - there are some real gems in there I can tell you.

Pieces

Whilst still not exactly cool, the weather is just a tad better today.  I know it must be a bit cooler as I've actually been inspired to do a tiny bit of crafting.

I've cut out some fabric strips to make another patchwork cushion, this time on a grander scale.  My sister gave me a really large soft cushion for Christmas quite a few years ago.  It's really comfortable and squishy and is just the thing to lean against whilst lounging on the settee.  It's still in the original faux-cable knit cover but that darned cover has stretched and stretched over the years and the cushion pad inside keeps getting all lumpy and squashed.  So this afternoon I took the pad out of the cover, cue an explosion of feathers (luckily I'd had the sense to do this in the garden), measured it and cut out what I hope are enough fabric strips for the front.  I didn't have that many pieces which were actually long enough by themselves so some I've added different fabrics to to make it long enough and some, the really lovely prints, I've cut two pieces of the same fabric to make the strip.  Sadly, there are no shirts available to make the back with buttons so I'll have to resort to an envelope back, and I'm hoping I've got some Amy Butler fabric which will be big enough.  If it continues to cool down over the weekend - which the Met Office say it will - I may even get it sewn up in the next day or two.

Also in pieces today is my small Pyrex jug.  It fell off the draining board and hit the tiled kitchen floor with the force of a small bomb.  Hundreds of tiny bits of Pyrex glass went everywhere and I just know I'll be finding them in the most unexpected places for weeks to come.  B*gger, that's the second small Pyrex jug I've bust since we've lived here. 

Hot and Bothered

I know I really shouldn't complain as I've been so looking forward to some sunshine, but, really, 30 degree C plus heat is just TOO TOO much.  I'm feeling unbelievably hot and bothered at the moment.  I've spent the last couple of hours listing loads of stuff on ebay and the sun is pouring into the study where the computer is - ph-ew!! 

At least I've finally finished all the listings - thank goodness.  They seemed to take forever this afternoon and my fingers were all over the place on the keyboard.  Most of the listings are clothes as since I found so many lovely new tops at Sunday's car boot sale, I felt I really must go through my wardrobe and weed out things I no longer wear.  There were quite a lot.  Including some that still had the tags hanging off them!!  One top in particular brought the words 'mutton' and 'lamb' to mind and heaven alone knows what I was thinking of when I bought it - even if it was heavily reduced in a sale!!!!  Scary. 

I'm very lucky in that I have two wardrobes to store my clothes in although that does lead to the temptation to hold onto things that should really be got rid of.  Both wardrobes have piles of 'stuff' lurking at the bottom of them and gawd knows what's hidden in those depths!  I'm far too hot to even contemplate sorting that lot out - perhaps next week if the weather cools down. 

This is the second lot of clothes I've listed in a batch on ebay recently and I've still got an unbelievable amount of clothes hanging up.  Trouble is I never seem to have just the right stuff for the weather and / or the occasion and most of it hardly gets worn - with some uber-favourites being worn practically to death.  Is everyone like that or is it just me?

How Does My Garden Grow?

The tomato plants are coming along really nicely.

I've even got a few flowers beginning to show.

The salad leaves planted a couple of weeks ago are growing by the day

And even the next lot that I sowed on Saturday afternoon are starting to sprout.

The courgette plant has been potted up into a rather manky old pot I found lurking in the shed - but at least its big.

There are plums just beginning to ripen

Apples a-plenty

And even the pears are coming on well.

I don't have silver bells, or cockle-shells, but I do have a lurking cat - next door's killing machine - Jester.

A Splendid Thrifting Weekend

I had a really good (if rather hot and sticky) weekend for thrifting. 

It started off on Saturday afternoon with a visit to a lovely traditional church fete where I found a gorgeous Ann Harvey skirt for £1.00 and a couple of books for re-sale (50p each).  Even P managed to find himself something - a Cotton Traders fleecy rugby shirt - for £1.00.  It's so thick and warm that I think he'd probably expire in a ball of grease if he tried wearing it at the moment but, no doubt, its time will come next winter!  I also bought a courgette plant for £1.50.

The church is in a lovely position surrounded by fields and, most unusually for this area, is quite high up so there was a good view over the surrounding countryside. 

I think you can probably tell from this photo that the afternoon sunshine eventually degenerated into a loud thunderstorm, although there was very little rain in our area.  A few hours later another storm blew up from a different direction and that one produced plenty of rain - so, no need for me to water the garden Saturday evening.

Sunday morning was the usual car boot sale where I found somebody selling lots of clothes in my size for 50p each. I bought nine items and only two of them didn't suit when I tried them on, so I was really pleased and have got practically a new wardrobe for £4.50.  They're all hanging out on the washing line as we speak.  I also found a long-sleeved T-shirt (20p), a pair of pyjama bottoms (10p) and a short-sleeved T-shirt (50p) for my nephew.  It was well worth venturing out into the scalding sun but I did feel a bit faint when I got home so if this really hot weather continues I think I'll have to give up the car boot sales until it gets cooler.

This morning I was out and about very early (well, very early for me anyway) to avoid the sun and as  the 'Coffee and Jumble' was already open I popped in there and came home with

a large metal saucepan (possibly an old jam pan) for 50p which I intend to use as a planter for the courgette plant, once I've drilled a few holes in the bottom.

And I got this rather splendid vintage Jacobs biscuit tin too, also 50p.  Yup, a very satisfactory thrifting weekend indeed.

Thank you all very much for your kind birthday wishes too - I had a lovely day, followed by a lovely weekend, just what a birthday 'girl' needs.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today's my birthday and, so far, I've had a lovely day, although it has rained at times in epic proportions.  At lunchtime, being inside the house was like being trapped inside a waterfall (not that I've ever been trapped inside a waterfall!!)

As usual, I've been thorougly spoilt with presents.  There was a gorgeous Cath Kidston bath towel and a CK pink paisley case for my iPod.  A new thriller to get my teeth in to.  A very posh pair of hair straighteners.  A luxurious new bathroom mat in wonderful stripey colours.  And two feather cushion pads so that I can make a couple more patchwork cushion covers.

For which these two lovely sets of fat eigths will be ideal.  I love both lots and can't decide which ones to use first - they're from Sunflower Fabrics.

The cards were pretty nice too, especially the one from my Mum which we chose together at the Vintage and Handmade Fair.  Mum recognised the pattern as one she'd used to make me a pinafore dress when I was little.  I well remember that dress, which was a midnight blue with dark green holly leaves all over it, I really loved it.

Lily, as usual, sent a self-portrait on her card.  Well, she is very pretty.

Finally, what every good Auntie needs for her birthday, a handmade-and-handpainted-by-her-nephew 'Shake and Make' Ben 10 figure.  He's now got pride of place on my bedside table.

So, that's me entering my fifth decade.  Next year will be the half century - gulp!!

Six Unimportant Things I Love

Sharie from View To The Hill tagged me for 'Six Unimportant Things I Love.'  So, in no particular order, here are six unimportant things I love right now.

1. My salad leaf seedlings are starting to sprout.  I planted these about 10 days ago with very little hope that they'd do anything at all as the seeds were a few years old but I thought I might as well try.  I'm delighted they've come to life and I've got plans to plant a few more pots of these every couple of weeks so that I can just nip out to the garden whenever I want fresh salad leaves and, hopefully, I'll have a reasonable supply all summer.

2. Being able to eat al fresco.  I love eating out of doors, there is something quite thrilling about it all - probably because the al fresco eating season is fairly short in the UK.  No matter how many evenings we can eat outdoors it never loses it's appeal for me.

3. Wearing summer sandals.  I have quite bad oedema in my feet and ankles and during the winter I'm reduced to wearing shoes from 'Cosy Feet' whose primary customer is probably an octogenarian - they're not pretty shoes by any means.  In the summer I can join the rest of the female population and wear sandals - usually Birkenstock Madrids.  If I had loads of money I'd buy the Birkentstock Madrid in every colour-way they make.  Sadly, as I don't have loads of money I've got to content myself with what I have got (five pairs, quite a few of which need to be re-soled) and am pretty pleased with these Tesco Birkenstock-style sandals that I bought in the charity shop in Chipping Sodbury a few weeks ago (when Mum and I went to the Vintage and Handmade Fair.)  For non-Birkenstock sandals they're really comfy, and they only cost me £3.50.

4. My iPod which I had as a surprise from P for Christmas.  It is the best present he's ever bought me and I love it to bits.

5. A good thriller to read.  This is the pile on the bedside table, there's at least three similar piles by the side of the bed.  Unfortunately, I've read all these books at least once and many of them four or five times.  Very ocassionally I branch out and read something that's not a thriller but I always end up going back to them in the end.

6. BBC iPlayer - what a wonderful invention.  Since our video no longer works to record programmes the BBC iPlayer has become a bit of a must for me.

I'm a terrible wuss when it comes to passing on tags so if you'd like to join in please feel free.  And, Sharie, thanks for tagging me, that was great fun to do.

A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit

Yesterday I met up with my sister and my nephew for a lovely day out in London.  We started off with a return visit to the animatroic T Rex at the Natural History Museum (please note 'cuddly' Pterodactyl toy tucked under DN's arm).  We arrived shortly after the museum opened thereby having the dinosaur exhibition almost to ourselves.  DN spent ages carefully studying the huge moving T Rex  and then whispered to me 'Is he real?'  I had to admit that he wasn't real but merely a large and very impressive robot-type thingy.  DN then wanted to know how it worked - well, I had to admit defeat here and say I had no idea, but it was very clever.   That seemed to satisfy his curiosity and he was still mightily impressed with T Rex. After a trip to the Earth Zone and a go in the moving mock-up of a Japanese supermarket during an earthquake it was on to the Science Museum for the Wallace and Gromit exhibition.  I can highly recommend it.

The whole thing was incredibly interactive and appealed not only to the six-year-old of the party but also to the two forty-somethings with him.  You could design your own wallpaper, and project it on to the wall.

DN's was much better than mine - with a rather Andy Warhol'ish effect.

Mine ended up too plain - more is obviously better for this particular game.

There was a large area where you could make your own plasticene models, my dinosaur head was laughed at uproariously!!  A huge bath through which children (and some Mummys) could slide down the plug hole.  A karaoke shower where you couldn't see yourself but everyone else could via a TV screen.  A throw the balls through the hole game, get three hits and light up the space-ships in Wallace and Gromit's living room, then get a fourth ball through and get to move the TV about by remote control.   It was all jolly good fun.

They also had some of the original sets from 'Curse of the Wererabbit', and they were so small and so detailed, the work that must go into them is just amazing.

Finally, just to prove that Nick Parks and Aardman Animation are also Bristol-based, I took a photo of a rather amusing poster at the start of the exhibition. 

 

For anyone outside of the UK, us lot from the West Country are supposed to say 'Ooh Arrrr' A LOT! 

Dad

As today is Father's Day here in the UK I've been thinking more than usual about my Dad.

My dear Dad died nearly seven years ago.  He was 77 and astonishingly fit for his age, being a keen swimmer and cyclist, but - unbeknownst to him or anyone else - many years before he'd been exposed to asbestos fibres.  One of them had pitched in the lining of his lung and that was what eventually caused his death.

He was a man who didn't suffer fools gladly, never made a fuss - even when told he was dying, was a true sun-worshipper - loved the summer, hated the winter, a staunch trade union man and was very very careful with his money.  In many ways I am my Father's daughter. 

He hated sport but had a real love of swimming and would happily watch ice dancing or snooker on TV for hours.  He had a fascination for space exploration (oh the hours spent watching grainy black and white images of space walks on TV as a child), had several flights in hot air balloons and once in an airship.  He loved the power and beauty of Concorde but never got to travel on it.

He never believed in any sort of organised religion nor any form of after-life, he always said people live on through their children and in the memories of others.  I find that so true these days - often, when I'm speaking to my nephew (or even telling him off), I hear my Father's words come tumbling out of my mouth.  It's completely without thought and it often surprises even me to hear myself repeating things just as Dad used to say them to me as a child.

It's very fitting that Father's Day this year should fall on the summer solstice - the day on which every year my Father would pronounce in a sombre tone 'it's all downhill to Christmas now!'  And, yes Dad, I feel exactly the same.

I Do Like A Nice Bit of Floral Oil Cloth

Yup, I'm a sucker for anything that's floral oil cloth.

Especially when it has a lovely red polka dot lining too.  Even if it is a slightly weird shape for a cosmetics / toiletries bag - this baby measures approx. 12 x 9 inches with the zip along one of the shorter edges!  50p from the car boot sale this morning.  No idea what I'll do with it but as I say I do like a nice bit of floral oil cloth.