Slow summer days

Rustic heart on our front door

Our back yard; the pots are starting to look really pretty.

Current WIP.  These are hexies that I printed ever so slightly too small, by accident.  Not sure what they will become.

Pretty Tilda fabric.

Lizzie photobombing.  Again.

I am having a quiet summer and loving it.  The days are long and hot.  I am working, sewing, watching a little TV, reading and swimming.

Man, I *love* going off for a swim when it's hot outside.  I have started to meet an old friend at the pool on a Friday evening and I'm really enjoying our dates.  We meet straight after work and swim half a mile alongside each other then have a good gossip in the spa before we each head home.  K is getting married in September and it is so nice to hear her wedding news.  I didn't enjoy planning my wedding at all and wish, now, that we'd gone for a smaller affair.  Don't get me wrong, my wedding day was the happiest day of my life, but I did not enjoy being the centre of attention.  I've changed since we got married.  I care less about what I ought to do and more about what I want to do.  I think if we got married again I'd hold a bunch of wildflowers in the local church with just my close family and friends.  I'd wear a pale pink dress and we'd all spend the rest of the day squashed into in the garden at home with lots of fairy lights and amazing food.  Anyhoo.

I am keeping a low profile socially.  I'm lucky to have a lot of really lovely friends but I went through a phase of over-booking my social diary then cancelling and letting people down, which would ultimately make them (and me) feel bad.  So I've scrubbed the diary clear and I'm letting things happen spontaneously where possible, which makes me feel much more calm and, oddly, in control.

My book stash is severely depleted; I am tearing through it.  Really enjoyed Tracey Chevalier 'The Last Runaway' and followed it up with 'Falling Angels' which I also liked.  I've then read the latest Peter James' 'Want You Dead' (another excellent read) and have this afternoon finished Mo Hayder's 'Wolf' (which is a decent read but a bit slow and not as scary as I'd hoped).

J has been with us this weekend.  I fetched him on Friday afternoon and we spent a lovely hour or so on the swing seat in the shade, catching up.  His school prom was a couple of weeks ago and he showed me the photos of him and his friends.  He seems to have a really cool group of friends; fun and cheeky but with enough nouse to work hard at school and get good grades.

We went into London last night to have dinner and see Derren Brown live.  It was stifling in the theatre but it was such a good show.  Made a change to do something different and it was really nice wandering through the busy streets of London on a hot summer night, sipping cold drinks and discussing the show.

But I've kept my best news 'til last.  My sister gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl last night.  She went into hospital at 6:30pm and the baby had been born by 9:30pm.  She did it all with just gas and air, lost a lot of blood and I understand it was *quite* painful, but they came home this afternoon and all is well.  I am going to see them after work tomorrow.  I cannot wait.  I adore my niece and to be given another… well, I couldn't have had better news this weekend.  Happy days!

Have a good week, lovely people.

Nicki

x

Let's finish with a little grumble, since I'm constantly hot and therefore a little bit ratty:

• My make-up is flatly refusing to stay put in this weather.  My eyebrows melt off my face within an hour and hayfever gives me leaky eyes, ruining my eyeliner.  I look, frankly, rank.

• Every day is a bad hair day.  My locks are well overdue a cut and colour so I am spending the summer resembling an aging rock star with long, greasy, dark roots and dry ends. 

• I am still smarting from my doctor telling me that he will no longer prescribe the contraceptive pill for me after Christmas.  Feels like it is only a matter of time before he suggests a hip replacement and heart pills.  I am NOT old dammit! 

The Great British Holiday

I can't tell you how busy I've been today.  It was my first day back at work after a week's holiday and there was so much to catch up on.  I was working from home, which I'm grateful for, but as I sit here in my stained sweatshirt (coconut yogurt, hastily wolfed down in my 'lunch break' and too busy to change) with mad lady hair (no time to blowdry after my shower this morning - frizz city) it feels like I may have dreamt my holiday last week.

We did have the most dreamy time... (What a link! Sorry).  My parents bought a static caravan on the Norfolk coast a couple of years ago and we love it.  It is just kept for our family to use, we don't rent it out, so everything we could possibly need is kept there.  We have rules about maintaining a supply of 'essentials' at the caravan so there is always a cold bottle of wine to enjoy with our fish and chips when we first arrive!  

The dog went on her own little holiday last week, to stay with my MIL, so we had some freedom to go out exploring without worrying about getting back for the dog.  It was truly lovely. 

The weather wasn't great but it stayed warm and fine and we did get out and about.  As you will know, the Queen likes to get away to Norfolk every now and then too, so we popped over to Her Majesty's little holiday home a couple of times for tea and scones.  Unfortunately she wasn't in when we dropped by but we did get to have a poke around the house and grounds.  

I loved looking around the house.  I wish I could have taken some photos indoors but, understandably, cameras were not permitted.  The tour guides had fascinating little stories to tell both about the royal family's history but also about mundane little things like which chair the Queen favours for watching television (ha! I wonder if she likes Casualty on a Saturday night too?).  We had our fair share of cream teas last week but I can confirm that the cream teas at the Queen's house were the best.  So good we went back a second time, just for the tea room.  (Jeans are a little snug today.)

There were also National Trust properties to visit with beautiful gardens, pretty woodland walks and (again) great tea rooms.

We ate out every day and found a few nice pubs in the area.  This one, the Orange Tree in Thornham, was particularly good.  Great food and wine, pleasant staff and a lovely beer garden.  (We also discovered another pub which had good food but the most appalling service I have ever encountered.  That particular lunch trip was memorable simply because it was so farcical.)

We seemed to sleep a lot too (parents have said 'oooh, you must have needed it', as parents do).  We adopted our usual holiday nap culture and would have an hour's snooze mid-afternoon every day!  Such a pair of old biddies.  

We were sure to fit in a daily stroll along the beach.  I especially liked our evening walks; hand in hand, chatting about nothing in particular and people-watching whilst eating rum and raisin ice cream cones.

Things I didn't get photos of included a fish and chip supper with wine in tin mugs (classy) by the beach.  The chip shop we go to in Wells-next-the-Sea is well-known as the best in the area and the queues always snake right down the road.  We went to Pensthorpe nature reserve where Springwatch is filmed and, of course, there was plenty of time to wander around the local shops.  I bought loads of bits and pieces and would have bought more if there had been room in the car (we took loads of beach gubbins) but I'll do a post on my purchases later in the week.  I think you will appreciate them more than my husband does!  I also went to a lovely vintage fair on the Saturday before we went on holiday where I picked up some other little goodies.

I remembered to take my crochet bag away with me.  (What did I do before crochet?!)  I stuffed my bag with a load of cheap yarn just in case I was gripped by the desire to make something.  The caravan was pretty cold in the evenings and there were no blankets there so I decided to make a giant granny square.  I was hooking at every spare moment:

Addicted, I tell you, addicted!  As you know, I'm making loads of squares for a blanket for my sister and niece but it is taking quite a long time and I just love how quickly this giant granny square grows.  Loving how it drapes across my legs as I'm working on it!   I'm still at it now and it will be finished any day soon ready for us to take next time we go.  I'll show you properly when I've done the edging. 

I'm off now to catch up on all of the blogs I missed when I was away.  I did have access to the internet but was trying to have a proper break away from everything.  I couldn't resist sneakily reading a few, and putting some short comments here and there, but now's my chance to fully indulge myself!   I've found a few new blogs to read, a couple through new followers here (hello!).  Love it.

Nicki 

x 

...and relax...

So we have a few days off work and started our long weekend in the very best way - a lazy brunch in the conservatory.   It was just mushrooms on toast with lots of fresh coffee (and the leftover toast with jam) but it was dee-licious.

As it was his birthday the OH got to choose the day's activites:  that's the way we roll around here.  Usually, on a birthday, we catch a gig or a show and have lunch or dinner somewhere nice.  The poor love was seriously exhausted this week and just wanted to stay home.  We had the most luxurious day -  do you know what we did?  We napped.  Like old people.  We spent the whole day napping, eating and reading.  It was awesome.  It felt seriously decadent snoozing at 3pm on a Friday.

Refreshed from our lazy day yesterday I got loads done today.   Pottered around the house, got lots of washing and ironing done then baked [and we ate] a Victoria sponge birthday cake.  (I can't show you a photo because we were both so desperate for cake that I cut and filled it before it had properly cooled. We ate it warm from the oven.  It might have looked like a wreck but it tasted like heaven, I promise you.)  Mum and sis popped over with my gorgeous little niece (who spent the whole visit badgering me for bananas, milk, raisins and chocolate) and then I nipped out to get some shopping.  I picked up a couple of gorgeous Chanel nail varnishes - a kind of vampish grey/purple and a really clean pale beige/natural colour.  Chanel nail varnish is the biz.

We're off to Stratford-upon-Avon in the morning for a couple of days; it's a freebie and the hotel that we are staying in does the most amazing cream teas.  I've saved my weekly WW points and it won't be pretty.

So I'll leave you with a photo of the birthday boy.  Tell me about it, stud!

He is going to kill me.

Nicki 

x

Geeky Days

Fancied a cream tea today so we used our National Trust annual membership and popped down the road to Canon's Ashby House.  The house and gardens are beautiful and there is vast parkland to wander around - it was the perfect weather for it.  After a nose around the house and a stroll around the grounds we headed to the tea room and had a lovely old-fashioned lunch:  thick cut ham sandwiches with real butter, a pot of tea and scones with clotted cream and jam.  It was such a treat.  They sell my favourite Dandelion & Burdock and now I can't get it out of my head.  I have to find a stockist near me.

Not long now until the wedding!   

I'm getting quite excited and wish I'd bought/made/stolen some bunting to drape around the house.  I was too cool for it a few weeks ago; I should have known I'd revert to type within days of the big day!

Perhaps I'll just settle for a Papa John's pizza with my Dandelion & Burdock this Friday.

Nicki 

x