Rose Vintage

Chicken Run

You would think that the fact that I am overrun with eggs during the summer months would put me off purchasing anymore livestock but these two little chickens were so irresistible that as you can see it did not stop me. So now I am the proud owner of two bantams, prettily named Silver Sebrights! 

Last Friday I found myself invited to a 'Hen Party' and went along the next day to hopefully meet some new people and chicken contacts. The hen party was an idea started by Francine Raymond who has written some beautiful books on the subject of the kitchen garden and all things associated with it.  Keeping hens, ducks and geese and bee-keeping are just some of the subjects she has written about.  Take a look at the book page of her website if you are looking for a book to get you started and with the added bonus of some really beautiful photographs  I met some lovely people at the party, a lot of whom were complete beginners at keeping chickens. I asked one particular lady what had started her interest and she said without a moments hesitation 'Jamie'. Ah the power of the media! She is excitedly looking forward to her hens laying their first egg. I can remember that moment, and it is a real thrill! That's without taking into consideration the wonderful taste and colour of a 'homegrown egg'. The Hen Party seemed such a good idea that I mentioned it to my neighbour Lucy. We have decided to have a party of our very own later this year and with that in mind we are going off to buy some hatching eggs this coming Monday. So expect lots of chicken posts and pictures in the next few months.

You might just be able to guess what I called my two newbies?

Francine and Raymond, what else?!

Life.....

These last few months are ones that I would really rather forget so I hope you will forgive my lack of posting. My family has unfortunately experienced illness and a very sad bereavement. My dear Father-in-law passed away last week and it has left us all very shocked...

I am hoping to be back in the swing of things very soon so in the meantime I hope you will bear with me until I feel like posting once again. I am still reading and very occasionally posting on all your lovely blogs. It has really helped me to read about other people's everyday life...

See you all soon x

P.S I heard the cuckoo for the first time today....it cheered me up no end!

January

As a rule I'm not usually that fond of the month of January as I've always felt that it to be a bit of a nothing month with Christmas long gone. This year though it's been different and it's all been due to the beautiful colours I've been seeing in the sky. The picture above was taken from my bedroom window early one morning last week. It was the most beautiful dawn that I had seen in a very long time and the thought of it kept me uplifted all day. Isn't it strange that something like that can have such an effect?

This is another early morning and you can see the moon just behind the trees.....

This is last week when we had just a bit of water!

And finally the recent beautiful full moon rising through the trees in our back field...

Amazing huh?

It's Cold.....

My goodness it's cold tonight and I'm tucked up nice and warm with the wood burner glowing and a few candles alight and a couple of the dogs by my side on the sofa! It's been trying to snow today and definitely not a day for being out of doors so it was a quick muck-out for the horses and feeding of chickens and back into the warm. I love snow and the silence it brings and was hopeful of a quite a lot but as normal we had just a few flurries. I think further up country the snow has been laying.

Christmas has come and gone and all that planning and anticipation with it! I have to say that this year was not one of the most enjoyable and for many different reasons so I am looking forward to the coming year with a view to changing a few things. It won't be major stuff just a few things to make me feel comfortable and more in control about certain situations in my life! Perhaps it's just the time of year as I usually feel a bit flat just after Christmas...well we will see! Roll on Easter I say, it's my most favourite celebration as well as all the anticipation of Spring and Summer. I been checking out a few of my favourite flower websites to get me in the mood and David Austin Roses is one of them. 

This picture is taken from the David Austin catalogue. Isn't she beautiful? She is called St.Cecilia and I first saw her at the Country Living show in November. I thought she was peony at first as her petals were so tightly compacted but after chatting with the helpful lady on the stand, I realised that she was in fact a rose. I think it is a must for one of my borders this coming summer.

Sarah Raven's Perch Farm is also quite close-by to where I live and I have been taking note of the opening days for her garden and I see also that there is a food market on these days. These dates are going into the diary! This is one of my resolutions, to write everything in the diary! So often I see something I want to do and then promptly forget about it! Hopefully this will rectify matters! There are lots of unusual seeds and flowers on her website so well worth a look if you favour the slightly more unusual in the garden! I quite like the look of her selection of seed potatoes although I still think I will grow my organic Colleen!

This is a picture of my garden last winter and a reminder of the snow that we had!

I guess there's still time!

It's Nearly Here

It's been a strange few weeks and I cannot believe that Christmas is in just a few days time. It's been a bit quiet on the posting front mainly because I've felt really rubbish with a horrible throat virus that has only just decided to make an exit! By the end of the second week I was beginning to think that I had something really horrible as I did not have any energy and was only doing what was absolutely necessary. I'm glad to say that I'm feeling much better and looking foward to Christmas.

It's a bit full on in the next few days so I don't know if I will get a chance to post again before Christmas  day so I just want to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year!

Have a wonderful time x

Chemical Cocktail

Regular readers of this blog will know that I don't use chemical sprays on my home grown vegetables and that I am particular about the food that I eat, preferring organic food if available. Imagine my horror just recently when I discovered what a witches brew I have been using to colour my hair for the past few years!

I have coloured my hair for some time now switching to a permanent dye just over a year ago. About 2 months ago my head started to itch and feel a bit hot after I had got home from the hairdressers. I didn't pay it too much attention to be honest, and assumed that I had reacted to the new shampoo the hairdresser had used on my hair. The next time I had my hair coloured, I itched a bit more and when I went to the salon, I mentioned it to my hairdresser. It would seem that I was starting to develop an allergy to the colouring process and it is something that does happen to some people even when they have been colouring their hair for years. It was decided that I would change to another brand of colour thinking that the manufacturer had changed the colour ingredients. I wish I had done some research before taking this step because I have had a really horrible reaction to the colour. I have had a really nasty rash on my arms and legs for about two months now which is only just starting to heal. During this time the itching has nearly driven me mad, keeping me awake at night and making me thoroughly miserable. It would seem however, that I am one of the lucky ones. A full blown reaction can be much more severe! Swelling of the head, breathing difficulties even death is some cases can be a reaction to para-phenylenediamine, one of the chemicals in hair dye. There has also been lots research linking PPD to different cancers, bladder cancer in particular. Some of the statistics are horrifying, apparently 40 minutes after a dye is applied to your hair there are traces of it in your urine. I feel so completely stupid as I had not realised the danger I had been putting myself in. Thinking I was doing the correct thing I switched to a herbal hair dye that advertised itself as having 0% parabens to which I also reacted in the same way. Only after checking out their website, it would seem that clever marketing had made me believe that it was chemical-free only to discover that there are also parabens in the herbal dye in order for the colour to hold on to the hair!

Obviously I want to warn you all about the dangers of hair dyes and to consider very carefully your options if you decide to colour your hair. I would strongly advise you to do your research very carefully before you take this step. If I had not had a reaction I do not think I would have given it a second thought and I would still be gaily colouring my hair!

It would be really useful to know If any of you have had experience with any of the alternative henna-based dyes and whether or not you have found them effective.  I would really appreciate some feedback so perhaps you could either comment or send me an email...

Have a wonderful weekend....

Anticipation....

It's that time of year again when I know that am starting to feel a bit 'Christmassy' because I have an uncontrollable urge to play Handel's Messiah. This time of year for me is strangely hypnotic as I get a real sense of peace planning Christmas and buying presents and planning what food we will eat. This year is even more exciting as it would seem that I am not the only soul to feel this way. Over at Pixie Wood, Cherry's new forum ( that girl has some great ideas!) is absolutely buzzing with Christmas ideas, recipes and fun so it would seem you girls are way ahead of me! Our Christmas this year will be quieter than last year when we had all of our family with us at our home, it was wonderful and I loved every minute.

The weather here has taken a turn for the worse and we are surrounded by huge piles of leaves from the Oak trees that reside in our fields. Luckily the leaves stayed on long enough for our bonfire party that we held last Saturday. The swag you see pictured above was part of the decoration. Lucy and I spent a fab couple of days decorating the marquee with hedgerow finds. There has been so much colour this year so we were able to collect all sorts of berries and leaves. You might be able to make out the Spindle berries, they are the orange and bright fuchsia pink flower-like berries. It would seem that Mother Nature has it dead right when it comes to colours that are supposed to clash when put together! I quite fancy growing some spindle so I have kept some berries. According to a local tree-man I have to leave them out for the frost to get them or they won't germinate so will keep you posted on that one. It all looked quite magical with the candlelight and I think that everyone had a great time. You can just see some Victorian tealights entwined in the swag and these were lit to greet people as they entered the marquee.

I'm off to the Country Living fair again next week and this to me is all part of the countdown to Christmas. I usually go with a couple of girlfriends and we all have a great time usually topped off by a meal and a few glasses of wine before we get the train home. Actually I don't really need that much this year but I just love the atmosphere there and everyone seems to have such a good time that it rubs off on to everyone else!

Anyone else going?

Blind Lemon Vintage Fair

I'm not sure what it is about Vintage girls but everyone I've met so far is a really nice person! I took myself off (or rather my husband drove me) to Brighton on Sunday so that I could go to the Blind Lemon Vintage Fair. Sue has been kindly emailing me dates of Vintage fairs as we do not seem to get many in Kent and Blind Lemon was one I quite fancied! Sue even managed to get me into fair free, courtesy of Liz who had a stall there! ( See what I mean, nice! ) When I got there it was quite quiet and not knowing what Liz looked like I took myself off around the fair. I was really drawn to the above stall which was tucked away in a corner and got talking to a friendly looking girl who turned out to be Bronia, Liz's friend, who then promptly introduced me to Liz!!

Here are Liz and Bronia together with some of their absolutely beautiful clothes,shoes and accessories! I spent most of my time looking at their stall and the more I looked the more I saw! I think I'm starting to get my eye in at long last! I bought some lovely fabric from Liz and some of her knitted covered coat hangers.

You can just see some french hand painted buttons in the top left hand corner....

I received an email from Liz today to say how nice it was to meet me and a link to Kelly's blog, intrigued I followed the link, as you can see, these girls get about a bit ( in the nicest sense!) and I got to see what Kelly looks like!

Don't you just love how small the blogging world can be!

Nice to meet you both!

Dominique

We have a new member of our family, so please welcome Dominique! I have been trying to find a mannequin for awhile now without much success so I contacted Sue from Vintage to Victorian and she had no less than 3!  I was in Devon at the weekend and arranged to meet Sue as we drove back home in order to collect Dominique.  It was lovely to meet Sue and she was exactly as I expected but sadly we had to hit the road in order to miss the traffic so our meeting was very quick!  As we drove back from Somerset I realised what a beautiful county it is....I have not done my homework so if anyone can tell me what the 44 number represents, please let me know...

She is looking a bit naked at the moment so I am planning what to dress her in and at the moment she is standing in my kitchen ( and getting some strange looks from the dogs!) so I have to decide which room she will live in. It's just like having a new dolly!

I am really looking forward to the weekend, as I'm off to the Knitting and Stitching fair at the Ali Pali on Sunday with the girls from my embroidery group. Apparently it is the most fabulous place to purchase any manner of wonderful things and I can't wait! I feel a few purchases coming on.... One of the exhibitors is Aragon Yarns who are very local to where I live. Check out the fabulous colours and the unusual knitting needles. I just wish I could knit!

This time of year really makes me feel like cooking and baking and I've been watching Nigella Express on Monday evenings.  I really like the programme and I like Nigella but I find her wildly irritating habit of licking spoons and groaning at every opportunity a bit off putting.  Still I have caved in and bought the book so will keep you updated about the recipes I try. So far I have made the Pea and Pesto soup which was very nice. I fancy making the chocolate croissants that Nigella made on Monday and there are lots of recipes that I like the sound of. Cookery books are a bit of a passion for me and I cannot get enough of them. Just recently I bought Nigel Slaters 'The Kitchen Diaries' and I love the descriptive writing of his everyday life and the cooking of what is in season and available in the garden.

Finally,this little heart is care of Claire and arrived with an eiderdown I bought from her earlier this summer . Needless to say the eiderdown is coming in very handy on these chilly Autumn evenings!

Gathering In

Pretty aren't they, it's just a shame that they don't taste so good! Well at least that's what I thought earlier this summer but then I roasted them with a sprinkle of sugar, some good olive oil and some basil leaves and 'voila' some really good tasting tomatoes! Don't you just love the shapes and colours? The kinda crinkly red one is Brandy Wine and the ones that look like lemons are called Banana Cream but I can't remember what the other yellow one is called! I glad I persevered to try and find a recipe that brought out their flavour, I hated the thought of all that watering and tending for absolutely nothing. Things do have to 'pay' their way in the veggie patch and there are some things that I won't be growing again next year. The butternut squashes, although a decent size, taste of nothing, just not enough sun!

Still if the sun continues to shine as it has done in the last few days I will try them again. Butternut squash soup is my absolute fave and I was so disappointed with the flavour even after roasting them!

This time for the first time I grew sweetpeas and I definitely will grow them again. I had beautifully scented fresh flowers for the house for most of the summer which was wonderful. I have collected some of the seed and will dry it to plant for next year. We erected a wigwam affair in the veggie plot and grew them there. It got rather taken over by the squashes so you are not seeing it at its best!

Earlier this month my embroidery group met for 3 days in succession, what a treat! From doing very little sewing to 3 whole days, absolute bliss! I came home everyday feeling calm and refreshed and dying to get on with my sewing projects!

This is my Victorian patchwork which is taking ages but is very enjoyable.  The little rose spray above is in ribbonwork, one of my favourite ways of working. Not sure what it will be but one possibility is an  evening bag. I found this little bag in a junk shop and paid very little for it. The fabric is really past its best but the frame is really lovely, blue and purple enamel with small jewels and the colours match the fabric! Watch this space as they say and hopefully I will have an evening bag to show you all!

Have a good week!