A Haven in the Manor

Our friends have lent us their Manor House while they are away. What a blessing it has been for us! There is wild, historical beauty at every turn.

The beauty of produce

Well, my children are very clever. They discovered our friends' vegetable garden, went picking, and laid out a beautiful still life, without me even asking! It's quite beautiful.

Please welcome....Melissa from Wife in Training!!

I am in the superb chaos of house-packing for our move. My dear and new friend Melissa, fellow-blogger extraordinaire, is kindly guest-blogging for me so that you lovely readers have something to read while I am engaged profoundly in moving my family overseas.

Melissa writes a wonderful, funny, fascinating, insightful blog about her life and interests over at Wife in Training. I love her wry sense of humour, the fact that she is really well read, and that she has a unique and poignant interaction with her daily life. Also we have in common...Indiana! She fell in love with the state when living there a few years ago, and is insanely jealous that I am moving there soon.

Melissa is doing something fun for us - a series of responses to one of my Pinterest boards, kind of stream of consciousness, and a great way of getting to know her as well as comparing your response to gorgeous images.

Here is the board. Check back every day for Melissa response to each picture, and go say hi to her over at Wife in Training!

CHA CHA CHA - the art of retro and vintage

I have told you once before about my very talented friend Megan (remember the great photography site!). Well, there is no end to Megan's creativity. When I visited her in London two years ago, I discovered that the living room of their very gorgeous Victorian semi was full of...yes you guessed it...STASH!! Fabric, lampshades, vintage retro finds. I think Megan's husband Hugh is a saint to be not even bothered by the loss of a room in the house to eye candy.

The purpose behind the stash (there always is one of course!) is Megan's online shop which sells the most unique and original retro and vintage finds, including lighting, furniture and clothing. Let me give you a little taste...

An original 1950's Lloyd Loom chair re-upholstered in original Alexander Girard fabric.  Is it not a thing of true beauty?

Megan sources original vintage fabric, and can upholster furniture and lampshades as request. Doesn't this just take you right back to the seventies?

The great thing about Megan's store is that she has taken the hard work out of sourcing vintage. She has a fantastic eye, and you can be guaranteed that anything she has chosen will have that stylish "kick".

I am the proud owner of a vintage wallpaper-covered scrapbook, and address book. Isn't this a great idea! Especially if you are not courageous enough to cover a whole wall in it!


Take a look at her shop and be inspired!

Help! I need a girl's birthday gift, now!

This Friday evening I panicked. I suddenly remembered that my daughter had a birthday party to attend the next morning. And we were going out that evening. And I had forgotten to buy a gift.

Yes, in the past, I must confess, I have grabbed the newest looking book off my children's bookshelf and wrapped it. But this party was for my daughter's best friend, and I couldn't get away with something, well, less than the best. Knowing the birthday girl is feminine and loves vintage dresses and hair accessories, I went online and found a great, easy (and free) fabric rosette pattern.

In the morning, I spent twenty minutes over breakfast making the rosettes, and then attached them to one of my daughter's pink headbands. Popped into a pretty gift bag with some tissue paper and sparkly sprinkles, it made a gorgeous, handmade gift (that would have cost a lot of money at an uptown boutique).

So if you have a girl's gift emergency, here is the pattern for the rosettes. If you don't have a headband handy, you could attach them to a hair elastic, or you could sew a little square purse and attach them to that. They make anything fabulous.

I shared this on

         

Kittens, Steak, Cardboard Boxes and Roses

This has been an interesting week. Let me show you.
I did not put off having my cat neutered, and ended up having kittens exactly eight weeks before we emigrate. No not me.

My children did not go to sleep in a large cardboard box tonight.

My dog does not lick our feet while we eat breakfast. I would NEVER let him do that. No not me.

I did not use my beautiful new canvas and paints to paint a cliched picture of a pink rose.

No..

Not me.

I did not have a second helping, and two desserts after this rib eye steak at a friend's barbeque. 

No No. Not me.

Water Joy

Hot days and hosepipes are pure pleasure for little boys.

Entered into

Kitten Tales update

No news about our Annie's babies yet although she is getting rather round, very heavy and hungry, and she has been scratching around in the corner of my clothes cupboard. Today I cleaned out the bottom and put her birthing bed in it, hoping to encourage her. Yes she has a birthing bed. My dear brother-in-law made it lovingly with his son Tarquin (he is a yacht-builder so you can imagine the care that was put into this baby). (He is also no. 1 in line for one of the kittens).

Here it is.

Please note the Tigger pillow left there by my son especially for the kittens.

Annie has been home a lot more than usual lately, and likes to sleep in the dog's bed mostly, although she occasionally chills out on my favourite chair in the sun.

Yes it is a good life.

A walk in the morning.

I know that I am mightily blessed to live in an idyllic English Country Village. As we are moving on from here in a couple of months, I thought I would celebrate a little of the unique Englishness we have been privileged to partake of (especially in the Spring time).

As I occasionally do, this morning I took a walk through our village, Hinton St George, population 400, to Dorothy's Tea Room to have a cup of coffee.

The roses are in full bloom, and the spring flowers pregnant with bees.

I know this shot could have been taken fifty years ago, but I promise you I took it this morning.

Dorothy's is a quintessential English Tea Room, serving cream scones, fresh cakes and delicious coffees (as well as lunches for the hungry) in an assortment of china. They sell local crafts, host speakers for the over-50s, and are generally community minded. We always feel welcome there. And they are extremely generous with their clotted cream.

So, after a satisfying walk, I made my way home and I am glad I will always have a record of the simple joys of living in England.

Kitten Tales - Living a Country Life

There are certain things one always associates with living in the country. These make up part of the nostalgic ideal that every person entertains when they are cooped up in a city apartment with a grey concrete walk to a monotonous job. I know because I dreamed about these things for the years I lived in the city.

Firstly, chickens. I love the thought of walking through the dewy grass down to the nesting coop to collect fresh eggs for breakfast.

Secondly, wood-burning fireplaces. Not silly shallow, coal-burning fireplaces like you get in the fancy city houses but big, deep hungry black holes of fireplaces that gobble wood and pump out real flames and heat. The kind you can put a pot on and make a stew. The kind you have to have a wood pile against the side of your house to keep alive.

Thirdly, and this is where I will pause, kittens. Real live freshly-born kittens, perhaps in a woollens drawer or in a blanket-filled box under the kitchen table. It has always been a dream of mine to wake up to a litter of kittens with their mewling, wriggling tight-eyed cuteness.

I am pausing here because, believe it or not, we now live in a country house. We do not have chickens because we have a dog that would eat them. But we do have a cat who is now pregnant.

Oh the joy! And slight panic, when I realised that there was probably more to having kittens born in your house than sweety, cutey fluffiness. My daughter and I have pledged to do some "research" together on Google tonight. She is seven, and has just discovered "research". She is very excited about the world of information that has suddenly opened up.

I thought I would share all of this for those of you have always had closet fantasies about woollen-drawer kitten births, but never had the opportunity to witness the reality of it. My Kitten Tales posts will document the progress of our adventure. I hope you, and your children, enjoy watching the story unfold!

You will be excited to know that you won't have long to wait! The vet has announced that the event could occur within a fortnight. So keep an close eye here to see how things proceed. If you don't want to miss an instalment, subscribe here to the posts!

An introduction, then, is necessary. This is Annie our mum-to-be, a $10 daughter of a stray. We think she is beautiful. (PS We think the dad is a ginger tom, who was found on our upstairs landing while we were away on holiday. It seems Annie had had a house guest).