San Fairy Anne

Bonjour!
Je m'apelle Ca Ne Fait Rien. Or as Eleanor used to call me San Fairy Anne.

I was made by Eleanor's Mum while she was pregnant, so I am a little creaky and a bit worse for wear in places. I have been well loved. I was named by Eleanor's Dad. My name means, It's Nothing, in the sense that it is no trouble.

I have lovely girly clothes: a lacy petticoat, a yellow dress and a pink apron.

I also have a pretty face with long brown hair, just like Eleanor did when she was a little girl.

Handmade gifts, made with love are to be especially treasured, don't you think?

xx

Open Gardens

The National Garden Scheme has to be one of the most civilised ideas that I know of, it is right up there with libraries and free museums. There is also a Scottish version which is what we took advantage of yesterday.

For a small entry fee (which goes to charity) you can visit some of the loveliest private gardens in the country.

Sometimes they are large gardens attached to country estates and sometimes a village gets together and opens a few gardens. We visited 10 gardens within a couple of hundred yards and they are all lovely.

At one we were introduced to their four Shetland sheep.

I was paying special attention to sheds. We could do with a new shed, although it will be a while before we have saved up the pennies so in the mean time I am dreaming about how I will decorate it.
I love the clematis on this one,

and the muted colours on this one.

The most amazing garden building has to be the green house at the primary school.

It is entirely made of plastic bottles - I think I am in love!

It is so innovative and cheap and completely brilliant that I might just need one. Sadly there was a sign up saying it took 1300 bottles to make so it might take a week or two to save them all up.

Sheep weren't the only animals we spotted. There were about six frogs around this pool.

This garden wasn't open but the topiary was brilliant.

Lots of gardens contained fun sculpture. I do like sculpture in a garden. Don't you?

xx

Camp out

On Friday Tall Girl and I went camping. It was the first time I had camped in about 20 years. The long gap had definitely not been intentional so I was extremely excited, even though our exotic destination was - wait for it... the school field!

For one night we seemed to need a huge quantity of stuff!

Before the camp out there was a fair in the playground. J brought Tiny Boy and Giant Baby up for a look round but by 7pm Tiny Boy was asking to go home to bed so off they toddled.

Tall Girl wanted to show me round the school garden. There are raised beds for each class including the pre-school plus one for gardening club. There is a fledgling orchard and a forest of waist-high trees that will, one day, be all grown up and make a real, if tiny, forest.

The main part of the field was covered in a tent village.

The little blue one is ours.

During the evening there were lots of culinary delights laid on by the teachers with a little background help from the school kitchen.

We  started with wonderful soup served in colourful plastic cups. Then we made mini pizzas which were cooked on the fire. These were followed by fruit kebabs and chocolate bananas, also cooked on the fire, all washed down with hot chocolate.

By the time it got dark at about 10pm I was dead beat but Tall Girl was still raring to go so we sat by the fire for a while before turning in.

Next morning we woke at 5am to the most beautiful sunshine.

Despite the vast quantities of food consumed throughout the evening we were both ravenous!

So I struck camp while Tall Girl did some early morning photography, then we headed home for a welcome breakfast.

 xx

After school beach adventure

We have been trying to make the very most of this beautiful weather, so after school today we jumped in the car and headed about 15 minutes north, picked up Grandma and went to the beach.

No sooner were shoes, socks and shorts removed than Tall Girl and Tiny boy were off to do a little light river rerouting.

Next came island creation.

Meanwhile Giant Baby experimented with sand, ultimately discovering that putting it in your mouth is still not a good idea.

Flapjack however goes down a treat.

Once much fun had been had and everyone was thoroughly sandy, tired and hungry we headed back to Grandma's for tea. The smalls had a grand time pretending to be horses before consuming an alarming quantity of pizza.

Fabulous!

xx

Courgette joy

Hello

I am feeling a little less than chipper today. I had to visit the dentist twice and feel decidedly bruised and battered as a result.

Happily, in between the poking and prodding I made it out into the sunshine with Tiny Boy. When I told him on the way home from preschool that he was to help me plant the courgettes we bought yesterday he skipped and whooped with joy. A joy that is truly infectious and should be bottled and doled out to people suffering dentist filled days.

He carefully carried two of the pots up to the veggie patch while I was left with the third pot, a trowel, a can of water and the camera. He didn't moan, not even the tiniest bit, when I said we had to weed the bed before we could dig holes. In fact he declared that I kept invading his half and that he was doing it by himself.

Eventually we had a weed-free zone with three beautiful holes. I was allowed to help put the water in the first because the can was a bit heavy, but by holes two and three I was no longer needed. He paid very careful attention while I showed him how to tip up the pot without spilling any soil, catching the plant and root ball in his hand with his little fingers either side of the stem.

He lovingly placed each in its hole and tucked them in with the soil and watered them again.

Truly a labour of love and the highlight of my day.

xx



Weekend lunch

Good morning!

A new week and the sun is off again as they say in these parts.

I am not much one for salad - can't stand tomato or cucumber but I do like my veg. My favorate at the moment is roast veg with feta. It takes about five minutes to cut up, squirt with spray oil, chuck on a few herbs and voila...

Add a few leaves out of the garden and some bread and you have a lunch fit for a king!

xx

Patchwork stripes

So I didn't quite get another cushion made on Friday but I did get all the pieces cut out then I stole a few minutes yesterday to stitch them together.

The stripes were completely inspired by Lucy over at Attic 24 who has made completely delicious cushions this way. Although I have to say, lack of shopping opportunity means I wriggled out of faffing about with zips and just made a big overlap at the back of each cushion.

I am not totally happy with the fabric choices but it'll do. I think a bit of stash growing is required to improve the options available.

They look quite nice together though!

I met someone yesterday that had been missing from my life for a while:

The weather has been so foul of late that we have been shadowless. It was still chilly (10 deg in May!) but at least the sun was out so we had a happy time weeding and tidying after all the rain.

Looks promising today to so I'm off to skip out in it while I can.

Have a happy Sunday.

xx

Impulse make

Until now my sofa has sadly been a cushion-free-zone. (I can almost hear the gasps of horror!) J hates cushions and I have never got round to rustling some up. This morning though I had a small moment of enlightenment: I spend considerably more time in the vicinity of our sofa than J does. He is at liberty to have as few cushions as he pleases at work and I can have some if I want - so there. I am such a rebel!

So I riffled through the old stash and picked a couple of things.

Spent a few happy minutes snipping, sewing and pressing...

And ta-da!

My sofa is one cushion closer to being the happily squishy place that I dream of it being!

I wonder if I have time to whip up another one before Giant Baby wakes up?

xx