Wednesday 31 August 2011

The Month of August

Settling in to our new home. The days took on a gentle rhythm. Warmth leaving for work. A gradual awakening, a potter downstairs, watering the gardening, admiring the lovely roses. Maybe picking one and putting a single stem in a jar. A clean of a room, an unpack of a box, a little bit of a garden, the joy of being able to hang washing out outside. A wander into our new town center to explore and do a few chores. An internet browse - of blogs and gorgeous home ideas and possibilities. Waiting in for a delivery or someone to check on something be it aerial or internet or new bed delivery. BBQ suppers because we had no cooker.
Cleaning and a little more cleaning and imagining the women who'd have cleaned in this house of the years.... Feeling the need to have a scrubbing brush.
Visits from both sets of parents, within days of moving in.
Meeting a dear dear friend along the Southbank. I team taught with her as a newly qualified teacher. She is my friend, mentor and Early Years Guru.
Delightful bubbles in Selfridges and then along to Aubaine for supper. This included the purchasing of a fantastic denim tunic from Gap.
Twin and the blessings came up. They'd made a chocolate cake the shape of the house decorated with jelly sweets. So lovely to have a garden for them to play in.
A delicious day in Regents Park with goddaughter and mum. A picnic, a play on the climbing, alot of chat and a great ice cream to finish the day off.
A guest post over here.
Loving having a garden. Picking roses and hydrangeas to display. All the little glass bottles I've been collecting have a purpose. Enjoying the garden. Enjoying thinking about the plants and flowers and how spending time sitting. Weeding is a novelty and I, at the moment enjoy it. Though currently the blackberry bramble is winning the fight in whether it stays or goes.
Tea with our new neighbour.
Another gorgeous day with a friend in Regents Park.
Putting together said John Lewis deliveries. Or rather supporting Warmth.
Having read alot about da Polpo I finally sampled the delicious food. And my it was lovely. I already want to return there and eat in their two other restaurants. Pudding was courtesy of The Icecreamists.
We celebrated a second wedding anniversary in our locality at Cafe Buenos Aires with views of sunset over Blackheath. By the way the sunsets in south east London are just incredible. And oh my the rain....
Decorating the spare bedroom, the bathroom and house in chaos with a glamorous damp proof course being done. And finally on the 25th a cooker arrived.
A total of nine BBQ's for friends and family over the course of August.

Having a garden, no cooker and all the visitors means we've explored different foods. Lots of salads and our favourite marinades. Missing not having an oven to bake. Still hurrah for refridgerator cakes, Boodles, jelly and no bake cheese cakes. Experimenting with cake pops. I'm not sure about them. I have a sweet tooth and found them a little sickly. What are your thoughts? First cakes baked in the new cooker chocolate and hazlenut and an apple cake with apples harvested from our apple tree!

Books read. Finally I finished Amanda Foreman's Georgiana, tripped delightfully through a small book of Katherine Mansfield's short stories (Something childish but very natural) raced through The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. For book club The Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Reader, I gave up after about 20 pages.) Starting Persuasion early. Reading many home decoration magazines and Decorate and modern vintage styling.
Returning from a blogging holiday and looking forward to seeing you all.

Thursday 4 August 2011

Blogging Holiday

Whoop Whoop hurrah we've moved home. I'm taking August off posting, but still hope to read your blogs, for starting the journey of making our house our home.
@

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Verity and Ken

Dear Verity and Ken,
On this your wedding day,

A poem,

Hinterhof by James Fenton

Stay near to me and I'll stay near to you -
As near as you are dear to me will do,
Near as the rainbow to the rain,
The west wind to the window pane,
As fire to the hearth, as dawn to dew.

Stay true to me and I'll stay true to you -
As true as you are new to me will do,
New as the rainbow in the spray,
Utterly new in everyway,
New in the way that you say is true.

Stay near to me, stay true to me. I'll stay
As near, as true to you as heart could pray.
Heart never hoped that one might be
Half of the things you are to me -
The dawn, the fire, the rainbow and the day.

James Fenton


Flowers and books.


A gluten free pink wedding cake for you.


Just Married bicycles for you and Ken, knowing that Ken likes cycling.




And balloons - well what's a virtual celebration without virtual balloons?





Wishing you both a wonderful day, honeymoon, celebration lunch and marriage.




xrachel