Time for a treat - a wander round the Garden Centre

 

February in the Garden Centre is a lot more interesting than our January visit was.  Lots of plants in flower, like these colourful Primulas.

This was what I came for - the deep pink/nearly claret ones at the top, though the two tone pink and cream below were very pretty too.  Lovely Hellebores.  The biggest were £21.99 but on the next shelf down they were also very well grown and "only" £16.99.  I chose one of those, absolutely smothered in flowers.

I noticed some unusual soft fruits I'd not seen anywhere before.  Might try the Honeyberry, but would prefer a Boysenberry first.

Inside the Farm Shop, lots of tempting goodies.

A lovely Easter Display.

I have turned the photo but it won't oblige - I didn't take it sideways on to start with either.  One for my wish list.

This was so pretty, but I can't think of anywhere I could put it in my house, apart from perhaps my sewing room.  At £34.99 I wasn't tempted anyway.

The light was poor for this photo but everything in the display had green in it.

The Hellebore I bought.  I also got 3 Lupins (£12), some Rose Feed and a packet of Nasturtiums (Tip Top Pink Blush).

Despite it raining, I cleared a bit of the area on the bank I am gradually planting up, and popped this in.  I hope it will thrive there.

I've just been up the road and collected 6 bags of my horsey friend's well rotted muck heap and will get my strong son to unload it and carry it up into the paddock tomorrow.   A job well done.

Now I am going to bake some Chocolate Blackberry Brownies for tomorrow.

Cajun Dirty Rice - my recipe

 

The original recipe comes from A Pinch of Nom, and calls for the rice to be pre-cooked in water with a chicken stock cube added.  I do it a different way:

One good size onion, chopped

Half a smallish courgette, chopped

A good handful of frozen mushrooms (about 4 medium fresh ones)

I used frozen red pepper, but try half a smallish one, chopped

Half a big carrot, grated

About 4 oz (115 g) beef mince but you can use more if you like, I'm being frugal  If veggie, just leave out and put more/different veg in.

About three tablespoons of frozen peas (I just pour until satisfied!)

I added some frozen cherry tomatoes I grew last year - the titchy ones - but you could chop up a couple of larger tomatoes

Beef stock cube 

1 pint boiling water

2 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning (note to self, add to shopping list as mine is 3 yrs out of date now!!)

A good glug of Worcestershire sauce

4 oz (generous half a cup - my rice scoop is 1/4 cup) Basmati rice - but I only had easy cook Long Grain rice in the cupboard

A little oil

                                         *            *           *

Brown off mince and set in a bowl on one side.  Fry chopped onions, and add courgette, mushrooms, pepper after a few minutes.  Fry until softened, and add cherry tomatoes, and carrot. Put mince into pan with veg.  Add Cajun seasoning and Worcs sauce.  Stir well and cook for a couple minutes more and then add rice, and stir.  Add stock and peas, and turn up to boil, before dropping it back down to a steady simmer.  It's ready when rice has absorbed all the liquid.  I love my rice dishes and make this regularly.

Well, the cats decided I was a slug-a-bed and started nagging me at 5.30 this morning.  I finally got up at 6, and then Pippi was nagging me to go out.  It was dark and raining, and I kept telling her no, and she kept on yowling until I finally gave in as it was getting lighter outside.  Yesterday I had the first Bank Vole of the season, very vocal, and I managed to rescue it using the broad yoghurt pot with a foil lid which had been my breakfast the previous day.  Pippi didn't notice I had rescued it and she and Lulu sat by the kitchen bookcase half the morning hoping it would appear again.  Then she went out and came back with a died-in-the-night Robin.  Poor soul.  I took the little corpse out and put it under the Christmas tree on a nest of grass.

I need to get back to Elderberry Bunny's bonnet today.  I have been too tired the last few evenings to work on it.  I need to go to the Vets on my way to the Garden Centre, as Alfie has a tapeworm - hence weightloss and starey coat and he is the one who is sick now and again.  They are wormed when they have the wormer/flea combo but clearly this needs a specialist wormer.  He is the one who grabs the meeces and voles from Pippi and eats them - she doesn't seem interested once they are dead.

Right, time for some breakfast and I need to put the wheeliebin out whilst I remember.  After this they are going from a two week collection to three . . . just for wheeliebins, the recycling is still weekly.

One of those catch-up days

 I unloaded the car first thing.  Just have a big box to bring in but may wait until my offspring are here on Weds.  I went to Llandod and got some shopping - just £42 this week, but then the only meal type food was a big tray of mince for £7.50 which will feed me for two nights (Cajun Dirty Rice) and one portion in the freezer, and then a Mince Cobbler with cheesey scone topping for Weds to feed all of us.  After all the driving to and fro at the weekend, I had to put yet more diesel in the car.  I also came to the end of the latest Audible book - Ken Follet's latest, Circle of Days, which I can recommend.  It's about the building of Stonehenge.

On a winter's day, the sofa is the best place to be.  Alfie was by me on the recliner.

Cajun Dirty Rice, my meal for tonight and tomorrow and a portion for the freezer.

Some more stands.  The little brass figures on this stand sold well.  But you would need to sell an awful lot of them to cover the cost of the double pitch.  There used to be a lovely couple who had the stand next to ours, back in the day, and they specialized in brass and copper, but the bigger pieces.  They retired just before Covid hit.

This painting on Richard Bebb's stand was intriguing, with quotes from the Bible written all over it.

More collectable paintings on offer.  Mr Bebb particularly focuses on the works of Kyffin Williams.

I have to say, not this one, but a couple of stands were very glass and  china-heavy (as those are readily available and cheap to buy) but it would drive me mad at the end of a long and tiring weekend, to have to wrap up 150 breakables.  It took me half an hour to sort mine, and then an hour to go and get the car, try and park somewhere near the doorway, and then walk back and forth and pack it neatly.  I might add,  there were LOTS of new traders in the Fair, and they were selling to the cheaper end of the market.  If people don't buy, the traders have no option but to go elsewhere.  

Tomorrow I have made an executive decision that my "wages" for the weekend are going to be £21 worth of well grown dark pink Hellebore from the expensive garden centres.  I reckon I more than earned one!

Some other stalls at the Fair, and a couple of outside pictures plus words now too!

 

The gardens at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales are beautiful throughout the seasons.  I didn't get a photo (couldn't leave my stand for long) but there were quite a few daffodils out and that always lifts the heart at the end of winter.  I can't imagine how much it cost to plant the gardens up as there are lots of beds like this.  

This makes me look as if I had a long coat and not a short jacket!  The water flows down a shallow channel towards the entrance to the gardens, and gets sequestered further down the hill.

It's always interesting to see what other people are selling.  Enjoy.

I couldn't get excited about selling used old paintbrushes . . .  WHY would anyone want to display those in their home?!

The old samplers were reduced.  Looking through them I could see why.

I don't know why they all came out badly focused.  Apologies. 

I was awake Saturday night and it suddenly came to me that in the past, and I am talking about pre-Covid here, when we used to do this Fair every couple of months when it was held, if I had a bad weekend, Keith's militaria would save the day.  It usually did anyway as some expensive items in his stock.  I suddenly remembered there were a couple of things in the box in the Utility, and still the three muskets on the Library wall.  I took the cheapest one of those and the 4 other bits and it saved my bacon.  The musket sold, and a Kukri and a reproduction pistol.  I shan't be doing this Fair again though as the drive home was so tiring in the dark.  It took me an hour and a half to pack up and get going by which time (5.30) it was nearly dark and I hate driving in the dark.  There was more traffic than usual coming from Builth too - normally when I turn off at Llandovery, I have the road more or less to myself.

Anyway, I had the last of the bottle of wine, was in bed by 9 and slept for 10 hours. Pippi has been out (delighted, after 3 days shut in/rained in) and been delighted to come back with a very lively and vocal bank vole which I managed to save using the lidded broad yoghurt pot from yesterday's breakfast.

Talking to the couple opposite me, who I am stalled out next to at Builth as well, they sell lots of their stock via Instagram and I think that has been the trend since Covid and Lockdown.  Mind you, they go from Fair to Fair every weekend, including much further afield and will be at Bath next.  I can't go that far these days, now I don't have Keith to share the driving as of old.  Old Age has caught up with me!  Right, I will have to look into clearing some of my things via Instagram.  I can sit down quietly once I've unloaded the car and work that one out.

So, end of an era.  Sadly will only go back to this Fair for a day out and to look round, which is pretty well what 95% of the people at the Fair do - they get free entry to the gardens for 5 days, so their "day out" pays off.  Mind you, we used to have the same problem in the old days when we did Carmarthen Fleamarket - it was looked on as a day out rather than a chance to buy something nice.  One woman even proudly told us she left her purse at home, so she wasn't even tempted to buy anything.  What the hell was the point of that? 

Hmmm - another Why Did I Bother . . .

 I sold just ONE item all morning.  Then 3 more by mid afternoon, but I haven't covered my outgoings yet.  February is not a good month for a Fair, and the weather didn't help either.  I was talking to another dealer friend today and saying people used to know about antiques and knew what they were looking at - now they haven't the foggiest and it's all about "the look".  What happened to those people who DID know about antiques - they can't have ALL died off during Covid.

Here's my rubbish . . .

I took the ginger Babbacombe cat off Keith's gran's dresser this morning, on the principal it was collectable, and I have just kept the little pair of black and white kittens beside it, which I have a really soft spot for.  The cat sold as a birthday present.

The little Indian horse (on right) sold too.  A good bit of age to that.

At one time, the little wooden horse and cart (c. 1900 or so) would have flown out.  Likewise the little drum shaped seed measure behind the repro pistol.   Many "old friends" on these two tables, and newer friends rapidly turning into newer old friends . . .  

The chimney is now done anyway, and new ridge tiles in place and a muddy track across the lawn, but can't be helped.  They cleared the guttering on the stable block too and put my other roll of hedgehog anti-leaf stuff in it.  The attic should hopefully soon dry out now.  

Right, an hour in front of the tv and it will be bed.  I was awake from 2.10 a.m. last night till nearly 6 a.m.  Alarm went off at 6.40 . . .

Wet socks

 It rained very heavily this afternoon, mostly when I was unpacking the car and then again when I went back to it, and then twice as hard when I was driving home.  My favourite trainers gave up the ghost and took on board water and I have had soaking feet all afternoon.  Another expense!  I went up into the attic to move something this morning, and thought I had cracked the craft light problem when I found a display light which clamps on your stand.  But no, the bulb had gone and took ten minutes to try and unscrew (it fits tightly into holder).  The air was blue . . .

On the positive side I saw two lots of 2 Magpies (good luck I hope) and I am opposite the people I was stalled out next to at Builth.  A lovely couple and they will look after my stand when I need the loo etc.  I have promised them cake.  Helen, one of our old antiquey friends, helped me unload too, bless her.  They have a huge stall, double and a doorway, so I imagine unpacking and packing up takes hours for them.  

Here are a few photos of other people's stands:

This is a stupendous display of blue and white.  If you collect it, you would be quite overwhelmed by the choice.

Mr Chair Man's stand.

They must have a big van for this lot, and a strong chap to do all the lifting.

I think these are some of the Organizer's lovely things.

These are Other Jen's lovely felted pictures.  She seems to sell out at every Fair, and there's only her doing them so she must work the night shift!!  A lovely lady, who stood up for me when I was being bullied last year.  These sheep ones sell well as lots of sheep farmers in Wales!

Aren't they lovely?  

Well, I enjoyed the drive there as it was dry, and all the Catkins are out on the Hazels, and masses of Snowdrops on the verges and in hedgerows.  SO pretty.  When I got to the Fair, there were lots of Daffodils out.  It's quite sheltered there and they flower early.

Right, fingers crossed for me tomorrow and a shame I'm not a jewellery specialist as they are about the only ones taking the money when everyone is skint.  Savvy folk always have money for jewellery.

Can I sit down now?

 

Today I have:

Done one load of washing (heavy linen duvet cover).

Washed my hair.

Researched about a dozen items, which takes longer than you would think. Lens helps a lot though.

Been in my secret cupboard to look for some pieces of studio pottery - it meant moving heavy boxes about, great fun!

Found all the other items I wanted to take to the Fair and loaded them.  Lots of different trips and careful planning/packing.  Keith was so good at that, bless him.

Taken compost out and litter tray contents (it's so wet and muddy in the orchard).

Polished a gallon copper Victorian harvest jug.

Polished a copper belly warmer (used on stagecoaches, back in the day).

Made a lovely crusty half and half loaf.

Made a Chocolate Apple Cake to thank my neighbour for bagging up some well-rotted muck heap for me.

Made a Spicy Dorset Apple Cake (and eaten a piece!)

Done three lots of washing up and drying up.

Walked 4,000 steps around the house doing all this.

I am absolutely shattered now, but still have to make a chicken curry for my own "ready meal" on Saturday and Sunday, when I come home late from the Fair.  Tomorrow will test my upper body strength . . .