Bits and pieces

The miserable May weather we have been having lately has driven Ivy to make her own pretend garden from the floral patterned door curtain and our green shaded door mat. I do think that she looks like she is trying to "make-believe" that she is a lovely sunny cottage garden, lying on soft grass with tall stocks and delphiniums in the flower beds behind her. Poor Ivy, hopefully the weather will improve soon and we can both be out in the garden!

I promised in my last post to share the few goodies that I picked up during Chloe Antiques Spring Open House Sale. There are only three things - I did tell you I was remarkable restrained and a little curtailed by some last minute dithering over some lovely plain white French dinner plates which I wasn't sure about. Then after thinking about it I realised that I did like them only to find the whole stack had been bought by some one much more decisive than me!
After that the first thing I picked up was this pretty cushion in old linen with a faded floral panel. I really like the colours and the fact that you can just make out the outline of what look like light coloured delphiniums or hollyhocks in the background.

Then I chanced upon this pretty little sugar pot (I think it was the little pear shaped handle that swung it for me - I do seem to have a thing about pears!)

 
Plus it matches in with a pretty Luneville cup that I found in an antique shop ages ago. I've been keeping an eye out for these for a while now but can never find any in this nice large breakfast cup shape. I think I'm more than a little swayed by Christina Strutt's beautiful dresser which is practically dripping in these pretty cups!

And last but not least, Cherub Antiques also had a little stand in Chloe's kitchen with some gorgeous pieces of old jewellery. I spied this pretty shaped watch fob which came with a lovely old coin with Islamic calligraphy on the front. I plan on wearing it as a pendant on a long chain and artfully arranging it on my dressing table when it is not around my neck!

Beautiful Bath

The first Bank holiday of May coincided with Chloe Antiques Spring Open House sale so off down the road to Warminster we went. The sun was out and apart from a few rain spots the English countryside looked glorious and fresh. It was delightful to be bobbing up and down the road that wends it's way across the Salisbury plain with the sun on our faces.

Chloe's house was looking beautiful as always with a large selection of beautiful items to tempt shoppers. Unfortunately I got rather blinkered by all the lovely things and neglected to take any photos! I was remarkably restrained and came back with quite a small haul - more about that later.
After enjoying some tea and cake in Chloe's cosy kitchen we were back on the road to pay a visit to Bath.

It took us a while to find somewhere to park but we quickly left the car and with stomachs rumbling made our way through the thronging streets to Sally Lunn's Bakehouse and Cafe. The buns did certainly not disappoint and my husband made a bulk purchase of several from the bakery shop to enjoy at home!

We then headed over the Roman baths which was fascinating, I know it sounds strange but I often forget how old some of our cities are. Living in London I don't often think about the ancient roots of the city that much despite loving history. I guess when you see it everyday you cease to notice it.

I loved seeing all the little bits of everyday life that they had excavated from the nearby area. I couldn't help but think of the poor person who had gone to the baths that day, thousands of years ago, only to find they had lost their bracelet. I bet they certainly didn't think that centuries later hundreds of people would be staring at it in a glass case!

Bath certainly was beautiful in the sunshine with the golden stone that makes up most of the city bathed in a lovely warm glow. We will certainly be back!

Spring!

Finally! Spring seems to have arrived, we had some gloriously warm days earlier last week, with highs of 19 degrees. Which had everyone reaching for their sandals only to be plunged back into the early teens within the next few days, the weather can be such a tease!

The combination of warmth and wet (it rained lots yesterday) seems have kicked the garden into high gear and you can practically hear the sap rising. I've been pottering about in the garden almost every weekend and as a result my little grow house is bursting at the seams with foxglove, alpine strawberry, cucumber, tomato, tobacco plant, nigella seedlings and quite a few more. Plus a few geranium cuttings which I bravely took a week or so ago (with absolutely no idea what I was doing).
Seedlings also seem to be pushing through the soil at a startling pace which does make for some very lazy gardening - I'm currently on the "no-weeding whatsoever" approach as my flower markers have been strewn about the garden by Holly and Ivy and as a result I now have no idea whether the fresh green shoots are weeds or not!

I was also determined to replace the black glass and plastic garden furniture we have had in the garden since we moved in. A quick scout round eBay resulted in this lovely old French table and set of four folding chairs. My head is filled with lots of ideas for chair cushions to make them a bit more comfortable. But I am in two minds as to whether I should paint them or not. I quite like the rusty rustic finish and don't think I would like them to be too pristine looking. But I would also like this set to last and don't want the rust to do any damage. Plus I do wonder what they would like look like in a slightly lighter shade...

Oh and just in case anyone was wondering - we will be submitting our garden room plans to the Planning office so fingers crossed!

Dithering

Image from Decorative Country Living blog

It's probably not going to come as much of a surprise to anyone who reads this blog to find out that we love our cottage. But that doesn't mean that we are blind to it's drawbacks. It is rather small; we have two bedrooms and while they are both very good sized rooms, there are still only two of them.

So we started thinking about what we could do to add on a bit of space. 

Loft conversion? No - roof too low. 

Extend over the kitchen and bathroom? No - too expensive and would involve carving up our second bedroom whilst not gaining all that much space.

Extend into the side return? No - would give a bigger kitchen but that's about it

Garden room? Hmmm.....

Image from wild-and-precious.com

The initial idea started out as not being that much bigger than our garden shed, with electricity and lighting so that my husband could use it as an office. Then we got an architect friend involved and, boys being boys, the idea took on a life of it's own. Now it is going to be much bigger than the shed and house a shower/W.C so that it can be used as a office-come-guest room.

The only problem is that this encroaches a bit more than I had anticipated on my much beloved garden. I'll admit the idea of losing a section of my garden (even though it is the shadiest part) brings me out in a cold sweat. So, with a rather old version of Photoshop, I mocked up an image of what our garden might look like if we went ahead with the project.

Holly looks sceptical, but what do you think? It's certainly not the prettiest photo I've ever produced and it's most definitely not to scale, but the width of the garden room is probably about right although it may be slightly higher. And it certainly gives a much better idea of what it might look like if we do go ahead (I still have cold feet and we have yet to agree and submit plans).

Of course, all this dithering hasn't stopped me accumulating a large number of garden room ideas on Pinterest!

La Vie en Rose

Image from David Austin Roses

It all started with an offer on the David Austin website; get a free mystery rose and only pay the postage. I had never really given roses much thought, believing that they were rather difficult to grow. We already have a few in our garden which I inherited from the previous owner, clambering along the brick wall towards the bottom of our garden.
A blowsy red rose with a heavenly scent, a light pink rose that is a bit of a reluctant bloomer and a yellowy coloured rose with peach tips (which I threaten to cut down and remove every year but then feel sorry for it and allow it another year's grace).

Anyway, this offer seemed too good to refuse so with a few clicks I had committed myself. The delivery arrived a few days later and the mystery rose was revealed to be Harlow Carr (pictured above). To say I was pleased is a bit of an understatement; I never though that a bag of twigs (that is what a bare root rose resembles) could reduce me to sweaty palms! I really hope it blooms this year - I obviously I will have to get some more lavender plants as well as it really is a beautiful combination.

Image from fragrantplants.org.uk

For a confessed rose novice you might think that one was enough but sooner had I received my David Austin delivery I found myself ordering Napoleon's Chapeau - a variety that dates back to the 1820s and was named by the French due to moss-like growth on the buds resembling the three cornered hat worn during the Napoleonic era. The buds promise to lovely and full - very cabbagy-rosey. Already I have images of the garden buzzing with bees, soft golden summer light and these lovely rounds buds beaded with morning dew, ready to burst into bloom.

Goodies

I was very restrained during my shopping trip to the CL Fair, although looking back at the photos I could practically fill a shopping trolley with items that I didn't spy while I was there. I do find there is a slightly panicked atmosphere there especially when the crowds start turning up which does not lend itself to shopping potters (I am definitely a shopping potterer, I like to mull over prospective purchases and think about it a bit - I am not good at the smash and grab style of shopping; I would be a hopeless shopping companion during the crazy Oxford Street New Year sales!) My first purchase of the day was a sweet little brass bell with a lovely olive green and cream grosgrain ribbon and it makes a very pretty tinkling ring sound.

Next I found a lovely fabric covered box in beautiful French fabric. I am trying to build up a collection of these to stack on the shelves in our sitting room. The pretty eau de nil shade of the fabric matches perfectly soft pastel green sitting room walls.

I did find another fabric covered box, this time it was an old glove box with lovely faded floral fabric. It doesn't quite go with the French fabric box so it has gone up to the second bedroom and sits on the bedroom shelf.

On the weekend my husband and I drove all the way to Lincolnshire for the Decorative Country Living open day. It was held in the Decorative Country Living shop - a pretty little chapel built of creamy stone. Everything was beautifully laid out and Amanda was there to welcome everyone. I bought this gorgeous quilt, I love the blue-grey shade of the fabric and the pretty pink roses are divine! It has found a home in the old French linen basket on the top of the wardrobe in our bedroom (although I doubt it will stay put for long!)

CL Spring Fair

Although it doesn't feel much like Spring just now with icy winds and frosty mornings, a sure sign that it is on the way is the advent of the annual Spring Country Living Fair. Sadly, my usual partner-in-crime (my Mum) was stuck up in Scotland so I dragged my sister-in-law along instead informing her before-hand to wear comfy shoes and build up her upper body strength!

We were there queueing before it opened and were the first ones in! We made a bee-line for my favourite stalls and managed to get a good look before too many people made browsing an impossibility!
One of the first stalls I always head to is Velvet Ribbon, they always have the prettiest eiderdowns and quilts as well as oodles of painted cupboards, mirrors and lots of French paraphernalia.

I happened to have my Galaxy phone on me (no tripod etc. this time!) and they were very happy for me to take pictures of their beautiful stall. They will also be at Village Vintage later on in May - I can't wait to see what goodies they have!

We then wandered on to Chloe Antiques, whose rustic French/distressed chateau look is always really pretty. I do love being one of the first people in and seeing the beautifully set up stall before they are ravaged by desperate shoppers!

We continued wandering around the fair browsing a few more stalls and worked our way back to the little potager that had been set up near the entrance. It was enchanting; I loved the little painted bench and I could almost live in that greenhouse!

By mid-day we had had enough and were shopped out, so we retreated to a nearby bakery/cafe for a nice sit-down and a cup of tea! Who would have thought that country living in London could be so exhausting!