The Makings of a Cottage Garden

Well this is the progress so far, we're having to put the 'bones' of the garden down at the moment .. the fun part (the planting) alas comes later.


Typically the British weather is causing rain to stop play frequently but Rome wasn't built in a day as they say and neither it seems are postage stamp sized cottage gardens.

Fforde Perfect

Alan told me before we went to Hay that we had to be quite punctual on leaving because he had booked a special birthday surprise for me. He said that he had booked tickets for us to attend a talk given by an author about their latest book. He wouldn't tell me who it was, only that it was a he and that I had read and enjoyed his books (that turned out to be an understatement!) I knew it was to be held at a church in Abingdon and I promised him I wouldn't google it which I didn't though I hardly know how I managed it now.

I have to admit that my mind was boggling and I slightly dreaded it. I was pretty sure that Alan knew the authors I liked and disliked but what if he had got into a muddle or had mixed my views up with someone else's .. someone on the TV for instance (this happens more than you would think), would I have to smile and look thrilled when I was faced with .... well, I'll leave it blank .. it would be rude otherwise.

We did cut it a bit fine on leaving because we had to have once last look/browse around Hay which resulted in more book buying but we got home in plenty of time to change, head off to Abingdon and even have a drink before it was time to find the church. Alan told me who it was before we got there, I think he wanted to be the one to tell me rather than it dawn on me when I was faced with a trestle table full of Thursday Next's. Imagine my delight! I absolutely adore Jasper's writing and to be able to spend an evening listening to him was just brilliant. Despite the terrible venue (not the church .. that was lovely but almost on cue they began digging up the road outside .. at one point it sounded like we'd be bulldozed to oblivion) he was amazing, so welcoming and friendly and very very funny.

Although he did give us a bit of background history about Thursday and read us a short extract from 'One of Our Thursday's is Missing' as well as talking about 'Shades of Grey' (the sequel is not due until the year after next :-( )and 'The Last Dragonslayer', he prefers to answer questions from the audience feeling that it produces a more random and informative talk and provides everyone (not to mention Jasper himself) with a different experience should they attend more than one event. I wasn't brave enough to ask him anything (well, not until I was before him having my book signed) but there were plenty of people who were, in fact we overun slightly, and it was so interesting listening to him talk, not only about his books, but about writing in general.

Some of the snippets I picked up were ... that he is a Bronte reader rather than an Austen one (believing that families are always one or the other ... if only ... apart from Enid's books I can only remember a liberal amount of Catherine Cookson and Zane Grey in our house!) He thinks Jane's heroines are a little bit prissy.... having said that he hates 'Wuthering Heights' with a passion and was glad to get the opportunity to lampoon the characters in 'The Well of Lost Plots'. When asked if some characters were too sacred for him to use in his books, he said that he really reveres Jane Eyre and although of course she appears in his first book, his respect for her was such that he couldn't write extensive dialogue for her .. it sounded wrong and unnecessary. The book/characters he most admires are Scout and Jem in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

I had such a great time, and it was a wonderful birthday treat. I can't wait to read the book now but I still have 'First Among Sequels' on my TBR's.

Hay-on-Wye

I'm just back from a glorious few days in the town of books .. Hay on Wye on the Welsh/English border. It's an absolute book lovers paradise, there are about thirty seven bookshops and anywhere they can squeeze in a bookshelf they do.

I took my list of books with me and though I didn't stick to it religiously, it helped me to focus because to be honest you could just go mad in a place like Hay. Alan took my list and went off searching for the books I wanted ... I tried to rely on memory to help me out (not always successfully.) The bookshops are often housed in buildings that are ancient (one is in a ruined castle) and there are tottering piles of books everywhere. You find yourself halfway up a rickety staircase .. craning your neck sideways to look at the book lined walls .. there's no room for superstition, you get passed on the stairs a hundred times. Nearly all the books are filed alphabetically (by author) so that makes life a lot easier but sometimes they're just mish mashed together and you have to work a bit harder. Every day we went back to the hotel Alan photographed my book haul so far (see pics) .. day one looks a bit pathetic but we only reached Hay at half past two in the afternoon and had to book in etc so I thought I'd done pretty well to find anything. I bought some more before I left for home so the pics aren't quite up to date but almost. The little card that's in some of the photographs is an early birthday card for me from Alan, he looked especially for one with books on (he's spoiled me so much, I'm beginning to get suspicious.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

The hotel was lovely, there were bookcases everywhere .. even in the loo and you were free to borrow any of the books to read (which I did .. I bought fifty odd books over three days and took my own reading books with me and was still delving into theirs ... other people's books always look more exciting than your own.)

It is such a lovely place and we had a great time there, we're tempted to go back when the festival is on but the hotelier warned us that it gets really busy. I'm saving up my pennies to return though .. it's a great place to hunt for books.

Homage to Paddington

Apparently the British are no longer a nation of marmalade eaters!! There has been a steady decline in sales over the past few years, not because we're busy making it ourselves but because we've acquired a love for chocolate spread and peanut butter!! Now, I like both of those two in moderation but not for breakfast, it's unthinkable.

We should all take a leaf out of Paddington Bear's book. He's 53 this year and doesn't look a day older than when he first came hot trotting it here from darkest Peru and the reason of course is all down to his diet of marmalade sandwiches.

The combination of reading this sad news and seeing the rather terrifying knobbly Seville oranges for sale in the supermarkets decided me on making some marmalade. It's not very difficult, but you do need a fair amount of patience (something I'm unfortunately short of) and a good memory (don't lick your fingers after squeezing the oranges .. they're mouth puckeringly bitter.) As usual, and similarly with jam, setting point can be a bit elusive, I must have tested for a set at least five times and in the end I thought that'll do and it was fine.

It took longer than expected, there's at least a couple of hours to while away whilst waiting for the peel to soften (a great excuse to get lost in a good book) and then there's that interminable wait for a set but all of that is forgotten when you come down to breakfast and are greeted, on the coldest of mornings, by the sight of hot buttery toast coated with this jewel like preserve .. it really does help brighten a dull day.

Christmas in a Nutshell

Happy Christmas! As always the season was full of madness and mayhem. We went to my mum and dad's for our annual pre-Christmas dinner and it was as noisy, chaotic and marvellous as ever. There are fifteen of us now so it's getting more and more difficult to squeeze us all in .. mum managed it though. This was the view taken from my mobile phone, as you can see everyone is far too busy with their dinner to bother to turn and smile which is just as it should be. We had a treasure hunt for the children after lunch, just for chocolate but then, what else do you want to hunt for at Christmas .. they all enjoyed it.

The weather stayed cold and snowy throughout the Christmas holidays, it was our first white Christmas in a long while (though strictly speaking it can't be called that because snow has to actually have fallen on the day and it didn't .. well, not here anyway!) I did my best to watch all of my favourite Christmas films .. 'The Grinch', 'Scrooge' (Albert Finney), 'Prancer', 'Nightmare before Christmas', 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' and 'The Polar Express'. Somehow, we didn't manage to see 'The Snowman' .. I don't know what went wrong or how we overlooked it but it happened. It's the first time since it came out that we haven't seen it on Christmas Day.

I received lots of books which was great, some of which I asked for and some which are complete surprises. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into them. I'm not good at keeping to resolutions but I really must make more of an effort to read from my bookshelves in 2011 but it leaves me in a bit of a quandary because I want to support my local libraries too .. it would be a disaster if any of them closed down and they will if they don't get enough support. I guess I will just have to try and do both.

It has to be said that the main thing I get for Christmas is always indigestion! There is nothing like a few days of turkey, christmas pudding, crackers, cheese, crisps, cake, mince pies and chocolate to make you feel more than a little dyspeptic. It's just not the right time of year to eat healthily. January will soon be upon us and that's the time to be abstemious as far as calories are concerned. In the meantime we will eat, drink and be merry .. after all, there's always Alka-Seltzer!

My attempt at Rocky Road.

Our quieter but none the less calorific Christmas dinner at home.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It's not often, in the South of England, that we get a white Christmas so it was particularly nice to wake up this morning to a very white world. We ran about snapping pictures and pulling scarves and hats on but the reality of it was that five minutes outside was all it took for us to long for the warmth of the wood burning stove and a hot cup of chocolate. Sadly we seem to have got to the age where we worry about broken bones and frostbite rather than how quickly we can build a snowman (when did that happen?) We did put our best foot forward and head to the shops because, after all, it is the last Saturday before Christmas but I can't say it was a very enjoyable experience and we abandoned it about an hour in.

Thoughts now turn to travelling and the trip we have to make tomorrow to the Sussex coast for the big family Christmas dinner, oh dear! It will be lovely to be there, it will be lovely to see all the family and absolutely heavenly to tuck into Mum's legendary Christmas dinner but oh heck .. the journey, which normally takes about two and a half hours, is going to be a trial. Still, it does look beautiful and perhaps it might just completely thaw out overnight who knows.

Tis the Season

It's very hard to keep merry at this time of the year, the queues are long, tempers frayed and the shops seem to be full of things you don't want and empty of things you do.

What a pleasure it was then to take some time out to wander around Cirencester one evening and enjoy carols, a lantern procession and a Germanesque Christmas market. By the time we got there most of the shops were closed (although the stalls at the market were open) so a lot of the hustle and bustle had gone and people were meandering about happily.

It has to be said that it didn't quite compete with the Cologne Christmas market that we visited a few years back, this one is on a much smaller scale, but there are still lots of stalls selling lovely handcrafted goods, decorations and great food. There is mulled wine, Gloucester old spot sausages and the densest, most chocolatey brownies that I've ever tasted (these were probably the reason we walked home in record quick time.)


The lanterns were gorgeous too, every conceivable Christmas shape made out of willow and coloured tissue paper. Algie thinks he will make one next year and take part ... I'm guessing it might take the form of a giant toblerone.

A lovely evening despite a catastrophic start at Costa .. we ordered a Caramel Latte which I hated. It was supposed to be a Crème Brûlée Latte but to be honest the menu is so extensive that I was lucky to end up with any kind of coffee at all. Still it helped keep the chill off.

Algie forgot to charge up his camera so that explains the pretty poor photo's, these were the best of a bad bunch which was a shame because the lanterns were glorious.

On the Move

Well, many apologies for the lack of book reviews over the past few months. We have, after two years of trying, sold our house and moved to Cirencester (hurrah!!)

The move didn't go that smoothly (do they ever?) Firstly we had to be homeless for three weeks which involved caravan living and imposing on mum and dad and then when we did eventually move in we were faced with the hammer house of horrors. The place was filthy with an overgrown garden and half eaten food in the cupboards. The old owners had flea ridden cats and our poor two cats have gone through hell ever since. Despite treatment we are practically having to fumigate the house .. nightmare!

The house is a Victorian terrace, with victorian plumbing and electrics (it's not, it just seems like it) and there's so much to do that we've been constantly cleaning and swabbing down. My precious books have nearly all been put in the basement which is probably the safest place for them but I'm so behind with my reading that I'm getting quite grouchy about it.

I did read quite a few books during my sojourn in the caravan etc and so will post my shortened reviews.

Why do houses always look so much better on paper than they do in actuality? I wasn't expecting a Harrods hamper welcome but all they left was their dirt, food and hair in the plugholes (uggghh.) No note or anything, it's just not cricket!

Shilton Gardens Open

It was a much sunnier day today and so we decided to visit Shilton village as their gardens were open to the public. Shilton is only a couple of miles up the road from us and being only a few miles from Burford is quite Cotswolds in feel. There is honey coloured stone everywhere and lots of dry stone walls and streams.

I love visiting these ordinary gardens even more than the public one's (although there wasn't much that was ordinary about these gardens), there's nothing like permissible nosiness. I only wish they could have 'National Bookshelf Schemes' where you could just wander in people's houses and rummage amongst their books, with their blessing of course.

Not everyone opens their garden, but you usually get a map and in any case there is a sign on each gate if the garden is open. If you live in the area, it's always a good way of finding out what grows well in the soil or what plant's look good together. As usual I came home with more plant ideas to put on the wishlist (opium and oriental poppies for a start.) Most of the gardens were enormous, I could fit mine fifty times over in them. There were lot's of orchards, knot gardens and veggie patches that were straight out of 'Country Life', as well as some inspired borders. One garden had a teddy bears picnic going on in their orchard.


Although we stopped for tea and cake yesterday, and really that should have been our quota exceeded for at least another week, we felt we had to make another refreshment stop. Firstly it was so hot outside that we needed a rest and some sustenance, and secondly they had gone to so much effort, proper tea in bone china cups and lot's of homemade cakes, that we felt it would be rude not to partake. There were gorgeous little touches like bunting and garden flower posies on each table.

There really are few things you can do on a sunny Sunday afternoon that are nicer than this. I saw so many beautiful gardens and sat on so many gorgeous benches thinking how lovely it must be to live in such tranquil surroundings (it cost's nothing to dream, mentally I had myself curled up with a book in practically everyone's orchard). One of the things I saw, that was markedly different from the last time I looked around these gardens, was an increase in wild gardens and meadows, so that was encouraging. Lot's of bird feeders, tables and nesting boxes too.




A perfect sunny Sunday in the country, we came back green with envy as we always do, but inspired also. A garden doesn't have to be big to be beautiful after all.

Waterperry Gardens - Oxford

It was a little colder than expected today, but as we had already decided to go to Waterperry Gardens, we weren't going to let a small thing like the British weather put us off. There's an excellent teashop there anyhow so it's better to go when it's cooler, you can kid yourself then that you're only stopping off to warm up, when you know it's actually the date and walnut that's beckoning. In the event it wasn't the date and walnut, it was the lime and coconut - a combination I hadn't tried before, but like all their cakes it was yummy. Algie had some Bakewell tart and that was equally scrumptious. They have around 8 acres of garden featuring some gorgeous herbaceous borders, rose gardens, apple and pear orchards, meadows and a riverside walk. There are lot's of benches and vistas (though after the tea and cake you really should keep on the move), some shops and a nursery. There's also a little amphitheatre where they occasionally put on plays and concerts and an art barn featuring contemporary arts and crafts.

I fell in love with some gorgeous floral pictures by Deborah Poole, I didn't realise at first that they were made of felt. They are quite pricey but perhaps, if I'm very good I may, one of these fine days, find myself owning one. I certainly made big eyes at them anyway.

Most of the photo's we took were of the plant's, we hope to be moving soon and so are looking for inspiration for our new pocket sized garden. We can never hope to make it as grand as this, but maybe we can do something 'in the style of'. Anyhow, verbascums, roses, geraniums, alliums, salvias, astrantias and iris's all feature on the wishlist now. Algie has suddenly acquired a fondness for white flowers, there was some beautiful white love-in-a-mist which they have used at Waterperry to fill in the gaps so I must try and track those down. I'm also really fond of those little sink gardens with houseleeks in, they fascinate me. I've got some already in a little terracotta bowl but I'd love to have a bigger collection, I saw a feature once whereby someone had lifted a few paving slabs and filled the gap with houseleeks, I quite fancy doing that too.

Anyway it was a beautiful, if a bit cold, day. Hopefully we can go again when it's warmer and take a picnic, it really is worth repeated visits just to see how the borders change with the seasons.

Waterperry Gardens

Full of the Joys

What a beautiful weekend! There has been hardly a cloud in the sky, and the sun has shone endlessly.

I settled myself on a sun lounger yesterday morning hoping to get some reading done, but was so distracted by the wildlife, and befuddled by the heat, that I only managed a few limp pages.

Having said that, I'm not a natural sun worshipper, it's laughable the way that I load myself up with all the outdoor paraphernalia .. sunglasses, lotion, drink, book, towel etc, as if I'm going to be out in the garden all day. Then it's all I can do to sit still for an hour without feeling damp, dishevelled, headachey and guilty .. surely I should be indoors scrubbing pots or sluicing something down.

The lambs are not in my garden worse luck, or even nearby. I saw them as we were on our way to Witney to get some shopping. They seemed to get us confused with Mr and Mrs Farmer, they definitely expected food which made us feel a bit guilty. We only had a few mints with us and I didn't think they'd appreciate the irony so we didn't offer them. They are surprisingly loud though, especially the grown-ups, absolutely deafening.

The gorgeous weather won't last of course, but I'm proud that I've managed to make the most of this unexpected heatwave. The inside of my house looks like a tip, I've got suntan lotion on my clothes and the tip of my nose is scarlet .. perfect!

Happy Birthday Puss Cat's

Where does the time go?. It only seems like five minutes ago that we went to a local farm and bought two kittens home that were for sale.

Despite being as different as chalk and cheese, they are brother and sister. Oscar is the ginger male, he rules the roost in all respects, he's the boss and no questions asked. Molly is his black and white sister, she's gentle and sweet tempered.


They absolutely drove us mad for the first six months of their lives, wreaking havoc and ruining (amongst other things) a leather sofa, several houseplant's and the carpet. Curtains and Christmas tree's were climbed and food was no longer able to be left on the worktop to cool (this lesson was learnt the hard way) but for all that they are, and always have been, incredibly good natured and excellent company.

So it was a big shock to me yesterday when I looked at the calendar and saw that they were thirteen years old!! ... which I guess (though I'm loathe to think it) makes them fairly old in cat terms. Luckily it was a gorgeously sunny day outside and so they were able to indulge in a spot of sunbathing before they were treated to poached chicken for dinner which is their absolute favourite.

It got me thinking about famous literary cat's, I couldn't think of many but these are the one's that came straight to mind ...

1. Dinah - Alice's cat in 'Alice in Wonderland'
2. The Cheshire Cat - 'Alice in Wonderland'
3. Crookshanks - Hermione's cat in 'Harry Potter'
4. Mrs Norris - Argus Filch's cat in 'Harry Potter'
5. Dr Seuss's 'Cat in the Hat'
6. Beatrix Potter's 'Tom Kitten'
7. Figaro - Gepetto's cat in 'Pinnochio' (I'm hoping he was in the book)
8. Jonas - Merricat's cat in 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle'

If we could stretch it to wild cat's (and why not?), then there's also ...

9. Tigger - 'Winnie The Pooh'
10. Bagheera - 'The Jungle Book'
11. Shere Khan - 'The Jungle Book'
12. Aslan - 'The Chronicles of Narnia'
13. Richard Parker - 'Life of Pi'

I remember that there was a cat in 'Coraline' and also one that Cassandra was fond of in 'I Capture the Castle', but their names escape me. And not forgetting of course, the famous 'cat' in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. Perhaps he wasn't in the book, still he was absolutely gorgeous and stole the scene whenever he appeared, not easy to do when your co-star is the utterly gorgeous Audrey Hepburn!

Anyway, Happy 13th Birthday Oscar and Molly, many happy returns!

Booty-licious!

What a great day, the sun was shining and the library had a 'Giant Booksale' on. I only meant to browse, but with fiction books at 10p each or 12 for a £1, it was inevitable that I'd come home loaded.

It was a good job we got there early as people were crowded around the tables like bee's around honey. They didn't have any of the books that I had put on my wishlist but who cares about that when confronted by boxes and boxes of books for 10p, I had every confidence that I'd find something. In the event I found 12 something's and 4 audiobooks (though 2 of those were for my Dad). One of the audiobooks was a Julian Barnes novel so I'm thrilled about that because he's a current favourite. Another book had been recommended to me yesterday (Patrick Rothfuss's 'The Name of the Wind) so I was delighted to find that.

I don't know where I'm going to put all of them, I don't know when I'm going to get time to read them but I'll manage somehow.

All of this booty cost me the grand sum of £3.00!

I still came home with 2 additional loan books though, couldn't resist David Eggers 'The Wild Things' and Gaynor Arnold's 'Girl in a Blue Dress'. They should make book reading an Olympic sport!

Happy Birthday Algie!

It's hubby's birthday today, so I thought I would attempt to make him a cake.

I've been meaning to try out some recipes from the 'Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache' book by Harry Eastwood .. and this seemed like the perfect time.

The concept behind the recipes in this book is that eating cake shouldn't make you feel guilty or regretful, they can be natural and healthy and still delicious.

I didn't write this book because I'm obsessed with healthy food. I wrote it because I adore cake.

So Harry uses grated vegetables in a lot of her cakes to replace butter, ground almonds to provide good crumb and less sugar than would ordinarily be called for. There is butter in the icing of some of the cakes ....

Butter is king of the castle in the flavour department, and many delicious icings in this book are made from it. I'm all for butter when you can taste it.

Anyhow, the front cover cake looked perfect for my chocaholic husband so this was the one I chose. It calls for 200g of grated Butternut Squash, and by the time I had finished grating it (by hand .. it seemed more virtuous and organic that way) I had it everywhere ... up the walls, on the cupboards and in my hair and ears.! I must admit to feeling a bit dubious that this mixture was ever going to turn into a luscious chocolate cake but thankfully I was wrong.

I didn't go mad and opt for the bunch of rosebuds to decorate the top, but I did sugar some rose petals.

It's fantastically light and extremely squidgy, which is exactly how a good chocolate cake should be and you're probably getting one of your five a day with every slice .. perfect.

The 'Red Heartache' cake has beetroot in it, I can't wait to try that.