✴ happy monday

At Borough Market on saturday. Ashamed to say I have never, ever been before.

Delighted to say that I will most definitely be going again!

It was packed. But just so lovely to be amongst crowds who just have such a thrill for food and freshly grown produce. Everything is just so delectably delicious. The smells of baked goods, freshly squeezed juice, bubbling pans and sizzling grills of cooked delights! Ahhh....bliss. 

I am always drawn to the pretty and unusual at these sorts of markets and find myself needing to buy items that you just can't find in the tesco 24 hour garage....globe artichoke, ostrich fillet, elderflower and gooseberry jam, spelt bread, ludicrously long cinnamon sticks.......

All the traders are just so very friendly and helpful there too, from the man who helped me choose a selection of flavoured turkish delight {my one weakness...!} to the lovely chap who gave me a demonstration of how to brew the perfect pot of darjeeling tea!

Have a delectable week. x

✴ happy monday {on a tuesday}

Did you have a lovely Easter? Ours was very quiet but delightful nonetheless. 

There was much pottering to be had, a bit of stitching, a fair amount of baking, a grand egg hunt {or two} and an aching excess of weed pulling and seed planting. I am aching...! What a workout!

I planted celeriac, tomato plants, radish, spring onions, cucumber, lettuce {lollo rosso and iceberg} and an abundance of salad leaves.

I harvested {yay!!} a bountiful bouquet of swiss chard that was planted last year and hasn't been tended to, weed controlled or even thought about since last harvested and is still growing strong having survived  winter and deep, deep snow... It was delicious {washed, chopped, sauteed with olive oil, chopped garlic, lemon juice, toasted pine nuts and a knob of butter! Easy as!}. I also took the first cuttings from the pea shoots planted a couple of weeks ago {easy, easy, easy....how to here} and added them to a salad, and I'm eyeing up my flourishing rhubarb and reckoning it maybe time to cut...having waited so patiently and resisted cutting in it's first year {Oh, the torment}.

And the best thing....knowing we get to do it all again next weekend with another 4 day lie in!!! {well, not so with a toddler, but you know what I mean!}.

Happy 3 day week all! x 

✴ happy monday

Goodness, I haven't been here for a whole week. I hate when time runs away like that. Especially when you look back and wonder what on earth you managed to achieve.

It's been a tough week with a little tearaway monster in tow. 11 years too early for the teenage chatback and stroppy tantrums so I assume we are not quite finished with our teeth growing and am blaming the wide awake nights and hissyfits on sore gums and irritation.

Not just a toddlers wild ways I have been trying to tame, but with the recent sunny weather the overgrown jungle garden has been crying out for some pruning and a stern talking to.

Last year I eagerly planted some ranunculus bulbs....a year later there has been not even the merest hint of a bloom. At the same time I planted some anemone bulbs and a year later...the same sorry tale..or so I thought. 

However the other day I spotted in amongst the weeds, a couple of beautiful purple/pink anemone. 

How utterly thrilled I was. Delighted pride and joy in the small miracles of gardening, the pleasures, the pains, of successes and failures, the thrill of new discoveries and that life will always find a way....and then bewilderment, and subsequent devastation that those two brave little flowers had somehow found themselves unearthed by small toddler hands and were being thrust in my direction, roots attached and stems bent, 

"Here you go, mummy".

It's so very difficult to get cross with the gift giver {flower thief} when she smiles so sweetly!

Happy week and roll on those bank holidays!! x

✴ happy monday

It always makes me chuckle, that no matter what kind of paint brushes, rollers, stamps, sponges and other fancy schmancy painting tools we have....there is nothing quite like swirling your finger in a dollop of paint and daubing it on the paper!  

It takes literally seconds for the paint to come out that little keen toddler fingers {hands...elbows...toes...} get completely covered and, as we all know it's a short hop, skip and a jump before everything else within toddler reach gets covered too. 

And so, with warmer weather we are doing our painting outdoors. And how lovely it is too...

"I like painting..." the little voice says..."I like hands..."..."I like cats..."

Watch this space, it's only a matter of time before I find a grumpy purple cat {or two} on my doorstep...

Happy, colourful week! x

✴ happy monday

I'm so loving these lighter evenings. And todays sunshine and blustery winds meant that for the first time this year I was able to hang the washing out on the line. Hooray! I do love washing on a line.

Did you have a lovely weekend? I did. I had a day to myself to potter on saturday and a sunday in Windsor by the river, and a lovely dinner, which I didn't have to cook, or clean up after. Brilliant!

I made earrings and necklaces and brooches galore. I made fat quarter skirts {for a small person} and played around with pretty fabrics for dresses {for a big person}. I spun around in circles with Miss Ella in a giant teacup and I watched my beloved Boardwalk Empire, with a lovely glass{es} of red.

I didn't do any paperwork or serious businessy stuff or tidy the house. I'm still very behind with getting in touch with people and am late with some birthdays. 

Oh well, I'm only human...!

Have a good week. x

✴ happy monday

Cough , be gone, I will have no more of thee...

Yesterday, I managed to drag my weary and still slightly poorly body out to the Country Living Spring Fair. Never to let a dose of illness prevent a day of shopping! The little one and the mr headed off to London Zoo after dropping me in Islington. It was a perfectly balmy day, the first official day of Spring now that we have given up an hour {a precious hour to someone with little sleep...} but it was worth it for a beautiful fresh day and lovely light evening. Wasn't it warm?

I trudged through the crowds and managed to keep my consumptive coughing to a minimum thanks to a big bag of wine gums. And bought some lovely lovelies. 

Hankies {no surprise there...} and tea towels from Thornback and Peel, pretty little girl dresses from Bread and Jam, wooden toys from Croglin Designs, and a vintage jug from Garden Brocante, plus some cakey bits and fabricy bits.

The best bit was bumping into an old friend from the north! Fancy seeing you here, Mrs A...Such a lovely surprise! 

Today I'll be mainly playing with the little one in the garden and filling in the census form - have you done yours yet?

✴ happy monday

On a morning wander around the garden with the little lady, watering the new trees recently planted. I noticed that the pear tree seems to have grown significantly already. I was quite pleasantly surprised and started to imagine all sorts of pear based culinary delights I could whip up in the kitchen...I know, waaaay too early to be thinking of a bountiful pear crop! Of course, I may have imagined any sort of growth spurt, I've had so much cough medicine in the last few days I could very well be hallucinating...

No matter, there is so much of spring about the day today, glorious sunshine, blue skies and blossoms fluttering on the breeze. I have onion sets to be planted but that will have to wait until there is more of a perky bounce to my step.

Meanwhile, back on the new desk {yay!} I've taken delivery of several recently ordered supplies. It's always so exciting to open packets of pretty bits of this and that and leads to creative making dreaming and possibilities. I'm just a bit in love with tiny resin flowers, especially these little roses. 

So pretty and kitsch. 

Have a Happy Monday. x

✴ happy monday

Warmer days...woodland walks with the wee one...wellies stuck in mud puddles...cherry blossoms on the trees...sunday lunch with friends...supplies shopping on etsy...Boardwalk Empire...stitching yoyo's from colourful silks...winning prizes...digging out old forgotten treasures...pineapple cake....

So many delightful distractions from the horrors and tragedies of the news. 

With constant reminders of how lucky we are. 

My sympathies and thoughts to those affected and those who grieve. 

Have a positively distracting start to the week all. x

✴ happy monday

Oh! What joy, to be able to get out into the garden. The feeling of spring is finally upon us and the bitterly cold freeze has at last turned to an amiable chill, and lets face it, as stalwarts to the cold and the rain as we are, here in blighty, a little chill isn't going to put us off getting outdoors after a long miserable winter.

I have now the task of fixing up the garden, which remains in a bit of a hapless state. The vegetable plots need weeding and soil turning ready for some onion, garlic and shallot plantings.

I have new things to plant too. Trees and plants of the edible kind.

So far, me and the little one have planted an apple tree {cox's orange pippin} and a pear tree {conference} and a little quince bush is waiting for me to decide on the perfect place to plant it. I have a big list of other lovelies I'd like to plant but more on that later.

What's going on in your little plot/ acreage/ windowsill? 

Happy monday. x

✴ happy monday

This monday morning feels a bit like someone has forgotten to turn the lights on. It's so dark and gloomy, cold and drizzly. Bbbrrr......Just when you think spring isn't far away, it's beginning to feel a lot like winter!

This week, I have lots of things I want to get done. Stitchery things, tidy sorty things and better living ways to achieve.

With all the unfinished projects on the go {as always} I can't help but reach for the cosyness of crochet and a pile of grannies started long ago have been lovingly stroked, counted, laid out, counted again and pondered and perused... before finding their way back into the sewing basket and with the pile of things to do.

I have decided I need to have early nights {again..}. I need to drink less tea {gasp...} I'm reaching instead for one of the many boxes of herbal tea in the cupboard {left over from many visits from Aunty Lulu} I'm not really a fan of herbal tea. I like the idea of it and I admit to be a little bit obsessed with the pretty packaging that you just don't get with a packet of builders. But I'm going to make an effort with it.

It seems so much more elegant and grown up to drink an exotic and calming blend of tea.

This afternoon I'll be mainly chasing around after the only girl in football class and watching with bewilderment as she turns from a shy and wary little lady to an unruly and disobedient little monster....ahh...

But until then, where's that calming tea....

Happy monday.

✴ happy monday

I think to call this a happy monday may be a bit of an overstatement. With a bad nights sleep thanks to a wide awake toddler, a croaky and disappearing voice and a desperately gloomy dark day, this is not a great start to a hopefully happy and productive week! 

My friend gave me this lovely bunch of narcissus flowers at the weekend. So beautifully delicate and heavenly scented they are, sitting innocently and unassuming on the mantlepiece. I keep catching wafts of their perfumed loveliness as I walk past and it is indeed lifting my spirits and sending a message that spring is just around the corner.

I wish you all a happy monday. x