Wednesday 29 July 2015

A quick random catch up post


Just a quick catch-up post or such things will lose all relevence.  This is the book I treated myself to at Chatsworth.  I can recommend it - some lovely recipes, and not just what it says on the cover, but baking too, as a way of using up your preserved goodies.  I don't often pay full price for books, but on this occasion I had a Sod-it moment.


I bought this too.  The print is the same as one of the beautiful wallpapers in the house.  It was £6 - I'd normally pay that for a pack of lesser teatowels - and I can't quite bring myself to use it yet!  I feel it ought to be framed!


One job done - cutting back, weeding and some extra plants in the apple tree bed.  The French Lavender came from Lidl recently, where they had a two for £6 offer.  I got two white ones too, which are in pots.


Tidying up along the path edge too as the ferns had grown so enthusiastically you couldn't pass without getting soaked.


After the chap had come to clean the guttering and windows, I had little alternative but to do the insides too.  The dining room windows (20 panes) are a right royal pain . . .  All those corners.


Another job to be done, but fortunately NOT one with my name on it.


Work in progress.  OH fitting the new catflap in the new door which we bought on Ebay and had a lovely little jaunt down to the hills above Neath to collect.


This was the view from the chap's house where we went to collect the door.


And the remains (nearby) of what must have been Neath Castle.  But I digress . . .


Fitted and awaiting my painting . . .


Another corner (by the gate) which desperately needed tidying up.  I think we get so used to seeing it we don't realize how awfully untidy it looks.


Still a work in progress, but MUCH better than it was . . .


Oh, and I forgot my home grown garlic, now dried and as of yesterday, roughly plaited up.  Three plaits, so enough for one each for me and our daughters.  You can tell it's home grown as the root bases are still grubby . . .

Today I am dissecting too-narrow curtains to make up into a pair that fits . . .

10 comments:

  1. Oh another preserves book! Although as I have about 6 already as well as the folder of well used recipes, I will check the library website rather Amazon! See the Halo!

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  2. Only 6 Sue . . . I daren't count mine! This is a nice one though.

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  3. I am a sucker for preserves books, then I just have to try the recipes out, then I find I have more jars than Sainsbugs. I would have that tea towel on my wall in a flash, it is so pretty. I do have the odd one or three dotted about, I change them every now and then so I can wash the dust out. As for untidy corners, I have a few of them as well.

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  4. You are making real headway with the garden its looking lovely, I must get some windows cleaned I am so glad they re not little panes like yours, I think I will be putting bunches of garlic in christmas boxes this year :-)

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  5. Thanks Dawn. I am, of course, still playing catch up after not being here to do anything back in the spring, but I should meet myself coming back around the time of the autumn tidy up!

    Pam - I hung the teatowel up but not in its finished spot - over a doorway as there happened to be a small curtain pole there. Ah well, lightens a dark corner. I need a set of poster tops/bottoms I think.

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  6. Lovely view from Neath; and yes, that tea towel wins the "Pretty Prize" of the Week. It's gorgeous and sometimes we are just able to indulge a wee bit and buy one's self something we ordinarily would not. I love the green in the background of the towel.

    Your comment about the way we become accustomed to seeing our corners and don't see the untidiness hits directly home for so many of us. My neighbors and I commiserate about those nooks and crannies that we could do a bit about and yet we don't... And then one day the urge strikes and the tools are at hand and the job gets done. As yours did. Will you plant something pretty in there now perhaps?

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  7. Lynda - all my planters with David Austin roses are going to go in that corner to prettify it up. That will then tidy up the patio . . . The background jadey green of the teatowel has been recently introduced into my kitchen in the way of paint and a few . . . decorative . . . pieces! , so this complimented it perfectly. Unfortunately my husband will NOT change the tiles at this stage of the game (e.g. selling up), which is such a shame.

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  8. You seem to be doing such a lot Jennie, well done and your garden looks beautiful. As for untidy corners, see it had evening primrose I think, it can soon be vamped up. Think I'm with Keith on tile-changing, it is a pretty big job and then you have to re-tile tidily.

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  9. You seem to be doing such a lot Jennie, well done and your garden looks beautiful. As for untidy corners, see it had evening primrose I think, it can soon be vamped up. Think I'm with Keith on tile-changing, it is a pretty big job and then you have to re-tile tidily.

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  10. A lot of it is hard physical work Thelma, I will admit, but Keith (who hates gardening) just tells me it doesn't need doing, or it looks fine, no-one will notice! You, and Tam and Keith are all in agreement on the tile-changing (which is a job he can do, and do well), but I have picked JUST the ones I want in my next kitchen!

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