finding the plot

As well as the bird watching, we've had a pretty jam-packed weekend. On Saturday we popped to a local town to do some shopping and have lunch. There were many charity shops to nose round and I picked up my favourite Pyrex find yet- a mere pound!

It's been given pride of place inside my 1950s oak G-plan cabinet (itself a charity shop purchase) with all my favourite finds.

On Saturday night I went on a very rare night out with some girlfriends, complete with a Joan Holloway inspired up-do. I loved my hair so much that I might just become one of those slightly odd people who dress in a time-warp all the time, although I think I would have to get up at 4am  every day if I were to keep it up.

Being out late on the town was much better fun than I expected-  I really ought to stop being such an old woman and go out more than once a year.

Then, this morning I popped in to see my dad, who had been busy preserving the seasonal Seville oranges in the form of delicious shredded marmalade. Luckily he'd put a generous jar aside for us, mmmmmm...

But today's most exciting activity of all was that we were shown round our new allotment- yes we finally got our very own patch!

Look how lucky we are- lots of it's even been dug over already!

I'm really pleased that there is a shed, even if it is a little, erm, 'rustic'. I'm sure we'll be able to smarten it up a little bit, although at the moment it is full of hay!

What on earth could the previous allotmenteer possibly have wanted with all these bales- rather too much to mulch strawberries with, isn't it?!

It's so wonderful to think that it is really ours for who knows how many years to come- the first thing I'm going to plant is a little apple tree. I might even organise a little planting ceremony!

Hope you all had lovely weekends- even if it went far too quickly like ours. x

rockin' robin

Today, as planned, we took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

The best view of our garden is from the bathroom window so we threw out some bread, made ourselves comfortable and waited eagerly for the birds to arrive.

Flora was in charge of recording the birds we saw. Our most frequent visitors were house sparrows, which didn't surprise me, as we have noticed before that they seem to come and go from under the eaves of the house next door.

Our favourite bird was a really large robin who popped by to cheekily steel some bread from the roof of the outhouse- he had the reddest breast I've ever seen! Can you spot him?

Then, because I'd been bitten by the birdwatching bug, we dug out some birdsong records which we picked up at a carboot sale last year and listened to a man with a classic 1960s BBC accent identifying the different calls.

How did everyone else get on with their birdwatch- any surprises?

Flora was a bit disappointed that we never saw a peacock!





why i love pyrex

"through the darkest blocks, over kitchen stoves, over Pyrex pots, my name shall be passed down to generations"  Jay Z, Forever Young

Today my working day involved a lot of sitting about waiting to go into court, so I had the rare luxury of a bit of time for general pondering. I found myself reflecting on last night's blog post about my latest addition to my Pyrex collection and why it is that the hairs on my arms stand up on end, every time I imagine the beautiful milky translucency of the glassware I love.

I think maybe it might seem a little bit creepy that the vintage items I pick up in the local charity shops have probably got there following the house clearance of a deceased grandmother. For me, however, this is part of its charm- not that I have dead people's cookware, but the feeling that this very pot or casserole dish has fed generations of grateful ordinary folk for decades.

I love to imagine said grandmother as a newlywed, adorned in a floral pinny, lovingly preparing her husband's favourite shepherds pie in one of my baking dishes, eagerly awaiting his arrival home from work. 

Or I imagine my gravy boat joining the same family for Sunday roast every week over 50 years, watching the family multiply through the generations and periodically adding more chairs round their dining table.

image credit: je m'appelle isabel

Talk to anyone about patterned Pyrex cookware and it will always evoke a recollection of a beloved grandparent or fond childhood memory. Everyone, no matter their background or style of upbringing, has a story about Pyrex, whether it be their mother's roast potatoes or their naani's dhal. This makes it so accessible and wonderfully nostalgic.

So I say what's not to love- it's pretty, nostalgic, cheap, indestructible and goes lovingly hand in hand with the ever-so-important social rituals of sharing food with the people we love.

Bring on the Pyrex!



JAJ January

Only 5 more days of the longest January ever left to go, thank goodness! 

In the meantime I've found a further remedy to the January blues- charity shop foraging. 

This week I found these beautiful vintage tumblers, 99p for the pair... 

You can't see it in the photos, but they have the most fabulous gold rims- just like the sort of glasses I remember seeing in my Nana's cupboard as a small child.

and I also picked up some trusty JAJ Pyrex- not one but two oval platters 1.99 for the pair...

and the sugar bowl and milk jug were also 1.99 for both of them...

It's not a design I've seen before, I've no idea what it's called. Not quite as pretty as the classic snowflake design, but I assume it's from the same era.

Do you think there's such a thing as Pyrex addiction- I just can't help purchasing it wherever I find it. Still, it's cheaper that gambling and better for my health than G&Ts I suppose!

play days

I've had a lovely day off today and am in a much better mood. Pearl's tummy still isn't quite right, so we had a cosy day at home. I got on with some housework (five hours of it!) whilst Pearl busied herself with her toys.

It never ceases to amaze me how different my two girls are- Pearl is so much more of a 'girly-girl' than Flora and she will sit patiently for hours playing make-believe. Flora's niche is more the 'haring about with a light-sabre' approach to playing!

This afternoon I managed to capture a glimpse of Pearl playing with her beloved dolls' house...

as well as one of her favourite games- shops...



Pearl loves playing with money- I think she's destined to be rich!

on a chirpier note

I have tomorrow off work (albeit because I need to take my car to be fixed) so let's pray for some sunshine!

and this never fails to put a smile on my face, no matter how many times I see it...

I feel better already!

x

grumpy-nuts alert

 I hate January.

I feel flat, tired, lethargic, demotivated, impatient, ugly, snappy, intolerant, depressed, pessimistic, claustrophobic, gloomy and generally fed up. I crave the feeling of soil under my finger nails and the post-digging sensation of my heart gently thumping in my chest. I think this winter seems to have been particularly long and dingy and not good for the soul whatsoever.

We did manage to get out for a bit of fresh air today and have some fun at the park, which gave me a chance to practice with my new camera. But there was one of those horrid cold winds that makes your ears ache, so we couldn't stay out long.

Even the cat hasn't been going outside at all, she's taken to snuggling up on our bed and only moving for meals...

I'm trying to come up with a list of reasons to be cheerful, but I have to say I'm struggling. Here's what I have so far:



• Going out with my old 6th-form friends for pizza and drinks next Saturday night- good times!
• Not having to pay council tax in February and March.
• We might be getting our own proper allotment in February.
• We are about to book our main Summer camping trip- Cornwall this year and I get to go to the Eden Project.
• We also have numerous other weekend trips in the pipeline, including Poole with the in-laws in May and a weekend with friends at Cotswold Farm Park, home to Countryfile's Adam Henson, who I am ever so slightly in love with. There are also some vague plans, which I need to get on and sort out, to meet up with a few fellow bloggers on a 'crochet camp', which will be very exciting.
• Pearl should be starting pre-school at Easter- my baby is growing up!
• I have the best family in the world (although I don't deserve them sometimes) and we are all healthy and have very few cares or worries in the grand scheme of things.



So, what's keeping you all going in the January gloom? What are your reasons to be cheerful?

the big garden birdwatch

Next weekend we will be taking part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. All you have to do is print out the child-friendly bird identifier sheet, spend an hour watching for birds in your back garden on either Saturday 29th or Sunday 30th January and then submit your results to the RSPB, to help them get an idea of the numbers of wild birds currently in the UK.

We've hung up the bird feeder that Flora made at Rainbows in the hope that the birds will start stopping by in time for next weekend.

Flora has been having a think about which birds we might spot in our garden and drew this lovely picture...

  

Perhaps a peacock might be a little optimistic?

I hope you are all having lovely weekends so far- I'm having a quiet one as Pearl is unwell with a stomach upset, so Steve has taken Flora out to see Narnia at the cinema. Time to dig out the knitting, methinks! x

a man's world

Thankyou for all my birthday wishes yesterday and I'm glad you like my lovely olive trees. I also wanted to say thanks for all your brilliant ideas for my back yard the other day and welcome to my new followers- I promise to catch up with all your own blogs soon.

As promised, I wanted to show you some of my other lovely birthday presents. I got some perfect, thoughtful gifts that had obviously been chosen especially for me. One of my most special gifts was this pair of 1963 Stitchcraft magazines from a dear friend...

They are especially precious, because they had belonged to her mother, with whom she had been incredibly close. I know she would have only have given away her things to someone who would appreciate and look after them, so I am extremely privileged.

They truly provide the most extraordinary snap-shot of  the pre-feminist era, where women were expected to look after their appearance for their husbands...

and be perfect and beautiful mothers...

There are some really sweet patterns inside- I adore this little sunsuit, it's cute as a button. But knitted attire for a sandy beach... really??

or how about whipping up a golf sweater for your 'one and only'?

As a die-hard Mad Men fan, this one has to be my favourite advertisement of all- almost impossible to believe it's actually for real!...

Thank goodness we women can knit and sew for pleasure these days, rather than as a duty!

extending an olive branch

Wasn't it a relief to see the sunshine today at last?

It's been such a shame to have a lovely new camera and not be able to use it because the weather has been so wet and dingy, let alone leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark- I've been suffering with a serious bout of seasonal affective disorder! Yesterday was my birthday and the rain poured down all day. Mid January is always a depressing time to have a birthday, what with the inevitable counting of the days to the post-Christmas payday and I'm never especially happy to grow another year older.

So imagine how my spirits were lifted when I came home from work to find I had received a surprise delivery of two beautiful olive trees?

It's as if the Mediterranean has been brought straight into my own back yard!

I do hope they bear lots of delicious fruit this summer.

  

Thanks mum!

I got lots of other lovely birthday presents too- more about that later on in the week xx

spring dreaming

What a wonderful weekend- I managed to lay my hands on the camera I wanted (trusty old John Lewis), walked in the woods in between showers, went out for a meal with Steve on our own for the first time in about ten months and topped it off by watching multiple back to back Mad Men episodes, snuggled up in front of the fire. I feel utterly spoilt!

And it would seem that Spring is on the way. This morning, whilst I was sorting out the recycling, I noticed that the crocuses and tulips that I potted up in November have already started peaking through their cosy compost blankets...

I was almost certain that they wouldn't survive the harsh weather we had- those pots were frozen solid for weeks.

Seeing signs of new life has set me planning great things for our charming, but rather shabby back yard. It currently looks like this...

but I want it to look something like this...



image credit dottie angel  



Any suggestions on how to achieve this miraculous transformation would be greatly appreciated! Pop over to my pinterest board for more of my back yard musings.

I do hope dreary January isn't making everyone too glum and that relaxing weekends were had by all xx

behold the holy grail

Still no laptop (booooo!) as it's still off being repaired. All is not lost, however, as my wonderfully kind friend has leaped to my rescue by lending me her little netbook (hurrah!), which means I'm back online at last.

How has everybody's year been going so far? Mine has already had it's ups and downs- just as I was heading off to bed in the early hours of New Year's Day morning I heard a worrying scratching noise coming from the kitchen ceiling, which to my horror turned out to be a family of mice that had taken up residence in there (thankfully our landlord got them sorted out swiftly). So much for the theory that having a cat keeps the mice away- our rather relaxed feline could not have given a hoot!

More suffering then ensued when my eagerly awaited new camera never turned up- I am never going to buy anything expensive online ever again, no matter how much of a bargain it seems. Thank goodness I paid by Paypal and I've just received a refund, so will be trying to buy the same model in the real shops this weekend.

It's not all doom and gloom though, as we had a call from the Allotment Society yesterday, telling us we are top of the waiting list and they are hopeful that they will have a plot available for us in February. I am so excited because, much as I love Pear Tree Cottage Garden, it does feel very strange digging up someone else's land and I'm always panicking that the children are making too much noise and upsetting the neighbours when we are there, and other little things like that. I would be so much happier up at the proper allotments, picking up tips from fellow allotmenteers and swapping produce. If we are lucky enough to get our own plot this Spring, we will still use Pear Tree Cottage this year as we've worked so hard to get it ready and it will allow us time to really get the allotment set up perfectly.

But the highlight of 2011 so far has to be getting my hands on the most beautiful piece of Pyrex ever beheld- a stunning JAJ snowflake gravy boat, which fills me with joy every time a see it...

 Who would have thought the sight of a gravy boat would be enough to shake off the January blues?