Saturday, 15 May 2021

Lights on a dark hillside, and P.S. Blogger has been removing my posts

 Whenever I get up for the loo in the middle of the night, I can see distant lights out of the bathroom window.  The main ones are from the Quarry down in the town.  Not the best thing to have a view of, I'm sure you are thinking, but at night they leave office lights on and a light up on the building where the stone is graded (think that's what it does anyway) and they are cheerful.  The weather can also be read by their clarity!  To the right, on a hillside over by the church, there is a farmhouse that always leaves a light on at night - end of hallway I assume - there's a bit that sticks out the back of the building.  It is exactly between two bushy fir trees that are planted in the garden of the empty house opposite us. That light is soft and yellowy and often isn't on when we come up to bed, but is always there in the middle of the night, and I find it comforting.  We leave our top hall light on too, so I guess we are also a friendly light in the night to someone living round here.


Above and below: displays at Velvet Fern.  We bought middle daughter's birthday present from there last week - she has some lovely things in store, and at sensible prices too.



This is a shop which always has an interesting window display.  Lots of French stuff.  Not sure what anyone would want shabby distressed doors for, but that's me - I like my antiques to be less shabby-chic I guess.  Love that mixing bowl with the pears on but as I had a brand new mixing bowl for Christmas last year, I can't justify it! - although there is a smaller one on the left . . .



Further down the road is this rather scary Hare Mask.  Beautifully made.  A statement in the right setting.  This is the shop which Marina used to have and whoever made the hare mask, used to do dog ones too (Bulldogs I think) and she had a few of those to sell.


Grunge antiques.  Who would want a rusty old pram?  Or an old 60s record player with the covering peeling off?  Ah well, there must be a market or they wouldn't have them on display.



A thrifty purchase from our friend Sal's antique shop.  Just what we were looking for and a snip at £40.  Sorry about the wonky picture and the wonky shade - I can't get it to sit straighter.  I will have to sidle behind Keith's chair to straighten up this morning.


Sanderson curtains for our bedroom.  I had to let the hems down, but they are Sanderson and good quality and so pretty - and only cost £6 from a Charity Shop in Brecon.  


Wallpaper samples, with the Hot Pink bedroom in mind.  We are papering below the dado rail only as above it is still the original pitch pine planking (painted) and we will just paint it a different colour.  They both look nice on the wall, and although we all love the black one, not sure if we are going to use such a bold colourway.  Feel free to think Yuk if you want - wallpaper designs are such individual taste.   I am waiting for the William Morris designs to arrive - they may knock these clean out of the water!


Finally, I also got this in Hay.  Very like the Veronica I saw in the Open Garden. It may be a tad paler, but near enough.  Not sure quite where to plant it yet, as it needs to be admired not stuck at the back of the top of bank plantings.


P.S.  Apologies for past posts which Blogger have deemed offensive for some obscure reason (buying plants in Morrisons, REALLY?) or going for a Covid jab?  Anyway, they have removed them - just re-read their emails and it's on the grounds of malware or viruses, none of which I am generating personally.  I cannot for the life of me think WHY as in no way have I transgressed their rules.  Update: Just twigged - my fault for reporting spam.  If you just delete it, nowt happens.  If you report it, they take your post down!  I shan't make that mistake again.


Further update:  Blogger has had a look at the post content, found nothing offensive, and reinstated them.  Hmmm . . .  

31 comments:

  1. I think I've been to that shop - in Hay? Really nice things.

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  2. The French stuff one Mark? Velvet Fern is new, but if that's the one, yes, gorgeous stuff and affordable. She's not gone down the normal Hay Rabbit-hole of putting walloping prices on stuff.

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  3. A delightfully colourful post! I never thought to get my curtains in a charity shop, I don't know why, and with the large window I need to curtain it could be a substantial saving! I would be flat broke if I lived there. Thanks for the tip on reporting spam too, berlimin nuisance that you can't report without such repercussions.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it RP. Charity shops and car boot sales - good hunting grounds for curtains at bargain prices. I have some lovely vintage Laura Ashley ones (several pairs) bought from charity shops, but sadly too small for our big windows here. Hopefully our son may be able to use them when he buys a house.

      Now I know what I did and repercussions like that I can do without. I thought they would just get the spammers, not ME for being spammed!

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  4. What interesting shops to have to browse in and I love the mixing bowls. I like both the wallpapers but probably the lighter one slightly more. The Veronica looks lovely, I shall have to look for one in our local garden centre - you can never have too many plants.

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    1. Aren't they lovely? I'm sure if you went to Totnes you would find similar shops. My gran lived there but wouldn't recognize it these days!

      The Veronica has been temporarily put where I would like it to grow. I will need to widen the border and transplant some of the Primroses to the paddock, but it's the right spot for it.

      Glad you like the wallpaper. The jury is out until we see the (cheaper!!) William Morris ones. I'm only doing this once, so we are going for what we really like, even if much dearer than we would normally consider spending.

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  5. Same thing here, although I did nothing but update my computer. I was afraid to click on the link. Do you have Chrome?

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    1. Yes, I do have Chrome. I wonder if that's causing a problem?

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  6. P.S. It's only a couple of rolls per room - though that will depend on how the pattern repeat works.

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  7. I'll be back later to comment, but finding it interesting that you've had blog troubles. I was blocked yesterday from my blog, including my list of past postings--warnings of a 'phishing' malware. Today, thus far, I'm back on. Who knows what goes on in the mysterious cloud of cyber space?

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    1. Sounds scary when this sort of thing happens, beyond our control. Putin conquers Google perhaps?! Or has a dagger drawn for Bloggers . . . Hope you don't get blocked again.

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  8. Oooooooh, those shops!! Right up my alley, most definitely!! I don't understand why some of your posts have been taken down. I wonder if some of mine have been too, since I reported spam 3x in one day for one of my posts. I'll have to go look. Doesn't seem fair, does it. ~Andrea xoxo

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    1. I only reported them to make them aware and to nab the perpetrators! Not ME. I did nothing wrong after all! Will just delete in future.

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  9. A delightful outing, just lovely! Thanks for taking us along.

    I love the black wallpaper unless it creates a dark abyss feeling in the room. I like the idea of Wm Morris but find the reality a bit stodgy compared to the two choices shown.

    Could we see a "before" of the bright pink bedroom, to picture what you're planning?

    lizzy x

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    1. I think it would be ok as it's a very bright south-facing room. Will take a photo and pop it up in a minute. Check out William Morris Mary Isobel in wine/linen. That's my favourite.

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    2. Oh that Wm Morris paper you may choose is gorgeous. Outstanding. So charming and delicate, I love it. Very classic too. NOT stodgy at all. I am very impressed.

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  10. I do prefer the darker background wallpaper...but not knowing the room or light values where it will be hung...there is no saying which would look best. And, of course, you still have the William Morris papers to look over. The photo of your lovely, if momentarily slightly wonky, lamp shade reminds me that I have a modern one on a standing lamp that if you so much as breathe on the darn thing, it pops right off. Highly annoying when one wants to simply straighten it. Hope yours is less temperamental.

    Would note that many bloggers have commented about the same issue you had yesterday, so clearly something nefarious was going on in blogger cyber-world. :(

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    1. We've ordered a shorter support for the lamp, and hopefully that will level it up. The Hot Pink bedroom is south facing and very bright, and the wallpaper is just going on the bottom half of the room.

      Blogger has now reinstated my posts!

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  11. Chrome seems to be giving people problems..I did have a problem a while ago where blogs were http instead of https..
    Chrome is loading slowly on my tablet..but that could be the tablet.
    Nice shops, I would love to have a browse around them!

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    1. This is the first problem I've had - not sure if it is Chrome or just blogger getting its knickers in a twist! I expect you remember many of the shops in Hay. A few have dropped out in the past year due to Lockdown but most of the folk who have been there years seem to have gritted their teefs and survived.

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    2. I am looking forward to getting back to Hay...on a Thursday of course! If you miss the Sock Man he does Leominster on Fridays. Another town with small interesting shops and houses

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    3. We like Leominster too and were there on Market Day last time (and noticed The Sock Man!. We buy socks from him (Keith especially). We used to go to Leominster on dire January days, just to Get Out!

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  12. I like both of the wall paper choices, or maybe the William Morris wall paper will turn out to be the one. That shop has charming items, I like the graceful white ceramic rabbits.

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    1. They are nice papers, both of them. I have to wait a week or two for the William Morris though as they come from a third party.

      I was thinking, yes, those ceramics would look lovely in the sitting room, but then I thought, I think the cats might make short work of them if they were having a mad five minutes.

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  13. I love the rabbit bookends. I had my own issues with blogger a couple days ago.

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    1. Sorry blogger got to you too. I'm not sure if those are rabbits, hares or a mixture, but they looked lovely.

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  14. That is horrid re: your blog posts! How worrying :( I don't report spam must admit I did stick one in spam folder and it appeared under list of comments so now I fully delete them. Getting more recently. Some may be innocuous but if suspicious I delete and all those links deleted!!!

    Love those shops and items for sale. Really must go to Hay when rain stops if ever and we go back to that area!

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    1. I've had a few comments which "could" be ok but were on very old blog posts (in the hope I wouldn't notice I assumed) so they got binned.

      You will enjoy Hay, promise! Thursday is market day.

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  15. That's a good tip about never reporting spam to Blogger. I was once told by a policeman that you should never give the police any more information than you actually have to. They keep it and may use it against you in the future. Same principle.

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    1. Glad to be of service Tom. I shall just delete spam in future. I thought I was reporting the spammer NOT my post!!

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