random saturday moments

found these 2 french looking bowls. can you ever have too much crockery? my mum has kept my sister's and my first baby shoes. funny to see the difference in characters even then. wonder who those prissy, tidy little red mary-janes belong to? my mum found this wicker sofa in the street, dragged it home by herself and we managed to get it home safely in the trailer. the same trailer that moved us, the cat and most of our most treasured belongings across the channel.

nursery rhymes

I am always slightly bewildered at children's nursery rhymes and fairytales.....some are bizarre, some creepy and others downright ghoulish, and that goes for dutch and english rhymes and tales! anyway, great illustrations on some nice paper though

a dog, a gauloise and a new blouse

I passed this window with the gauloise smoking dog, knew it was going to shape up to be a fun evening and found this old lace blouse at a tiny charity shop by the station fifteen minutes later

what a day

imagine your skirt getting caught in the bicycle chain, chain breaking, having to walk for miles and then......it starts raining. my mood has just about recovered enough to realise that my friend and gardening partner will be off to blighty for three whole weeks! all the more courgettes for me I guess?

holiday memory

we left and it was winter. my mum is in fact holding my little red corduroy fake fur lined jacket in the picture. we had done some pre-hols shopping and had bought, amongst other things, lilac soap especially for the holiday. it is still my favourite smell........ my dad always got me whatever I wanted, so this holiday it was a pair of gold sandals. he then gave away my mum's fishing tackle and all the money he could spare to a poor family he met on the beach.

Sophie Calle

save a tree

last week I was tempted, mainly through mind numbing boredom at a train station, to buy a vogue. why oh why oh why? almost immediately whilst reading it I felt myself getting more and more irritated; article upon article about "famous" people promoting "famous" brands at "famous" parties........ when instead there are people like these or this, to name but a few, that deserve a place on these pages far more in my opinion. after flicking through several times, I did find one thing that made the purchase worth while. this lovely little photograph of Sophie Calle and her holiday memory. the picture tells a sad, short, lovely childhood memory. as for the magazine; it is available at the vicarage for free collection for a few more days, before it hits the recycling bin.......

veggies and other allotment stuff

blackberries so gorgeous next to the dark hollyhock...these however will need a bucket of sugar at least to make palatable! ugh! sour!! the kitchen anyone fancy a courgette? anne in a blue mood anne's espadrilles when you start growing veggies people warn you about "gluts". in those cold, early sowing days the idea that anything might even germinate or grow seems so near to a miracle, that the word "glut" seems preposterous. now after some several weeks of courgettes,this hardy vegetarian is at a loss for a new recipe with COURGETTE. still it beats supermarket crap in plastic! today we even harvested our first pumpkin!! it was a lovely afternoon......I guess you can see for yourself

a parcel from NY

yesterday I received a parcel from NY. when I opened it I found; a saucy diving lady an amazing teatowel, which will not be used for dishes, but hung on the kitchen wall instead incredible chocolate, already chomped at archie art and although I really loved my parcel, it left me wishing that you guys lived around the corner

straight lines

if you need a book on how to draw stick people then this is the one

for supper

we set off for the garden at around eight with some food and wine and some woollies as temperatures are finally returning to what we can remember as being normal for europe a quick picture of some gorgeous lace-like prickly things of which I can not for the life of me remember the name...is it chelone? snacks and wine before supper what ends an evening better than telling each other scary "blair witch" stories in the dark? but quietly praying that a hideous face would not suddenly appear in front of the window.............

cocky's collage

all quiet on the canal front

a few bits

how could I resist a handy basket, an attractive paperback and a sixties air india tin?

pinocchio

my new pen for white lies

a new chair for the vicar

my new chair arrived yesterday at work and as I am very impatient, I decided to schlepp it home on the train and then bus that same evening, rather than sensibly waiting for andrew to collect it with the smurf car on sunday. however I was quite pleased as there were no seats available in the train (funny that), so I could sit quite smugly on my chair in the gangway of the train. today, I am chuffed with the chair, but not with my wrenched neck...

monday monday

after a busy monday of ironing length upon length of fabric in a tropical heat, I finally cycled home and opened the gate I knew I had to water the garden saw that archie had the hump and could hear that andrew was practising scales but then I spied a parcel on the kitchen table! I opened the gorgeous parcel and realised...... random acts of true kindness really do exist