Garden: clearing part 1

We have a front and back garden, for this year I'm going to concentrate on the front garden as it's got less to do to it and is easier done. Firstly it need some severe pruning to get things under control, and we're taking a few of the trees down to let more light in.
In all that lovely weather we had I went out with loppers and started taking things down/out in one corner, there were a couple of shrubs in one corner growing through an orange blossom tree, and strangling it, not to mention cutting out the light to the garden.

Before:

(see? There's a tree and 2 shrubs there!)

After:

Excuse the big pile of crap on the ground, that be the shrubs! Why is it when you garden the amount of rubbish looks 4 times bigger than it did as a plant?! I know it doesnt look much different, but I'm rubbish at taking photos.

As always happens when I start something like thise, the same evening I got out all my gardening books and started planning. Lists have been written, and a VERY rudimentary plan made. We have a pond in the middle of the garden which cant really move so I'm working around that mainly, and the idea of trying to get plants into the garden that really wont work up here in the wet. Oh well, a girl can dream...of plants...

It's only a small area of the garden done but it feels really good to have done something positive, at the moment on the house it's pretty much all up to James, as it's plumbing and heating before anything else, so I'm feeling a bit useless.

Bookcase: Paul torday

I'm just going to say to go read anything by this man. You'll probably know him best because he's the author of 'Salmon fishing in the Yemen'. That book is soon to come out as a film - something I'm excited and worried about in equal measure, since they seem to be billing it at as a romantic comedy, which I don't remember being the central theme of the book.

(image)

Anyway. Back to the books. I read 'Salmon Fishing...' a couple of years ago, it's one that I picked up from a charity shop on the basis of the name and cover (do you do that too?) and loved it. I need to reread it soon so I'm not going to refer to it too much as its hazy in my head now but I was left with an almost spiritual, uplifting feeling from the book, while it still had a healthy dose of dry humour.

Recently I noticed in my local waterstones that he had a new book out, so just after Christmas I treated myself to two more - 'the girl on the landing' and 'more than you can say'. The latter I think I read in 24 hours - these aren't complex taxing reads but they are very enjoyable and interesting.

(image)

I took two more on holiday with me, one a short story which is the only one I wouldn't search out to read again, but was interesting nonetheless, and 'The hopeless life of Charlie summers'.

One of the points I love most about these books is that the characters are often in some small way linked, yet you aren't reading a series. Someone who may be a small incidental character only appearing in one chapter of one book may be the main character in a later book. I've only just realised - from watching press clips about the 'salmon fishing...' film - that one of the characters from that reappears in a later book too. Yet unlike a series like 'the no1 ladies detective agency' (purely as an example-I have nothing in particular against that series) you aren't reading about the same characters in different situations over and over again. And each book covers different topics, for example gambling or mental illness, but at their heart, for me anyway, they are studies of the foibles, faults and traits of the human character. most of all they are fun, and very enjoyable to read. Im just waiting now for his newest to come out in paperback, as the cover designs seem to be following a theme which the hardback one isnt following!

A break in France

For the last 9 days we've been here again, in our friends house in France.


A thoroughly relaxing break of sleeping, scrabble, coffee, patisserie and sunshine.


And lizard watching (yes, in march! It was freakishly warm). And napping, and more scrabble.



Now we're back, it's back to work, and the house, and to blogging hopefully! I have loads of posts in my head, it's just getting them published.
(while I was away Imagine it published a blog post that I had managed to write for them-they blog about moments, big or small, and I wrote about the first time working back on my loom. It's here, if you want to see)

(apologies for the quality of pictures, all on my phone)

Eat: salmon and cucumber dill salad/goats cheese & onion bruschetta

I've done quite a bit of cooking trying out recipes I've saved over the last few weeks. I go through phases of being stuck in a rut where all I can think of is pasta, to being really adventurous and trying out tons of new recipes. A few weeks ago I had a week like that, and since most of them were good, I thought I'd share them. we did eat them all before i'd taken photos, so its a pictureless post.
I found this salmon recipe on pinterest, it's so easy! It's not really so much a recipe for salmon as a dressing you could put with any fish, possibly even meats. It's very summery, it wasn't really the right time of year for it but i know if I don't try things out straight away I'll forget about them.
We roasted some new potatoes in olive oil and rosemary to go with this, our only complaint was that the dressing was possibly slightly runny, but that could be easily amended by adjusting the quantities of the wet ingredients. I'm a bit slapdash with quantities unless it's baking, so it's probably my fault! I also couldn't find fresh dill when I was shopping, so used chives instead. It would be a lovely side dressing for a BBQ, or as it is here for a summer meal.
While I was shopping for the ingredients for the dressing above, I saw goats cheese, and wanted it. So I decided to make bruschettas with goats cheese and caramelised onions for a starter (I really went all out that night!). I don't know about any of you, but I've never been able to make really nice caramelised onions, just sort of burger onions. So I googled it and found this I really only used this recipe for the onions part, I just toasted some French stick under the grill, smooshed the goats cheese (minus rind) on the top, and then put the caramelised onions over. They were scrummy.
That may have been completely unnecessary, I may be the only numpty in the world who doesn't know how to make good caramelised onions, but hey. You live and learn! More recipes coming soon.

Indecisive

lobster and swan

I'm intrigued. What do you do with your magazines when you've read them? I read mainly interiors ones, and textile/craft ones too, but I am a hoarder. I can't bear to throw them out. Or even rip the occasional page. I feel like one day I will need a library of inspiration, and that will come from these magazines.

Since I came to college I have had subscriptions to/bought religiously: crafts/vogue/Elle decoration/selvedge/country living/Mollie makes (the last 3 I still get) and I occasionally buy homes and gardens or another interiors magazine that takes my eye.

lobster and swan

But I can't bear to throw them away, so they all still sit on shelves around the house, taking up irritating amounts of room.
I've been debating the idea of scrapbooks? Normally I'm precious about cutting them up too, but im starting to think that keeping the pictures and articles which I find inspiring in one place might be better than a stack of old magazines, in which I have no hope of finding that amazing picture I know one contains.

lobster and swan

I kept a scrapbook when we were planning this house, to save samples and swatches, and pictures I loved, but I was a bit precious about how the pages look. I sectioned it off by room, so I could show James my ideas. But I think I need to try very pointedly do the opposite now, not consciously choose images to sit together, but see what combinations come up from sticking images in as I find them.

Any ideas? What do you do, do your magazines go in recycling when you're finished, or do you have a library of past editions hidden away somewhere?!


All images from lobster and swan - links under images - who is excellent at scrapbooking. she also has cute cats.

Bookcase: We need to talk about Kevin

image from amazon

I'm well aware I'm behind the times by talking about this now, even though the films just out the book is a good few years old, and could be described as a modern classic already, but I've only just read it and it's SO.DAMN.GOOD.

I found the first half hard to get into, I'd read a sentence or paragraph and have to go back over it because it was just so wordy, I hadn't taken anything in. But then as Kevin starts to come into himself as a character I was more and more gripped. I found the language became simpler too. It's not easy to read by any stretch of the imagination, the subject is obviously awful, but it was so cleverly written I found myself crowbarring time into my day to read it.

You know what the main crime in the book is from the beginning, so you are constantly leading towards 'Thursday' and yet there are still surprises in it. There were several incidents (maybe I'm just dense-it's eminently possible) that I just wasn't expecting, and floored me when I was reading it. And her ability by the end of the book to make you feel sympathy for Kevin is very clever. Just consider not reading it if you are that time in life where you're thinking about having children!

(Im never sure whether I should carry on writing these bookcase posts - I shied away from writing one from the blook club meeting I went to, since some ladies there were much more eloquent than me, but I like reading, and want to share what I like so I hope you dont mind if I carry on!)

Have any of you seen the film? what did you think? it never came to our cinema, so Im going to invest at the end of the month when the DVD is released!

Pinspiration: christmas decoration storage

image from re-nest via pinterest

(I re-pinned it but the link wasnt direct to the blogpost - apologies)

I saw this ages ago, but had to wait to do it until now.

Its worked quite well, it would work better if you don't, like me, collect random odd shaped christmas decorations, but have perfectly matching baubles instead. hence my pictures make it look like a junk shop stored on an apple crate, but I've still kept them like that. I've then stored them in a box to keep them safe.we get our eggs delivered on a large sheet once a month, so I've been saving those rather than boxes, and I got some more, and the larger apple sheets from our market, who would normally just recycle them at the end of the day.

the eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed some glass cat heads in the photos above, heres a closer one with two of them in - a set of 6 of these were my secret santa present from Lisa-Marie, along with some christmassy truffles! Thank you very much Lisa, and sorry it took so long to write about them!

(apologies for the appalling quality of photos, it was night, on an iphone.)

if you'd like to see what else I'm pinning, you can find me here