This is one of a few examples of cut lettering which live in my garden.

Unlike the other pieces, which are drawn and cut by hand, this one was drawn by hand but machine cut. It is one of the pieces which I will be selling on notonthehighstreet.com...eventually!

I've had quite a few pieces in my garden over the winter and they seem to have made the baron winter garden even more so...in a captivating sort of way. As things have starting sprouting, and now fully in bloom, the pieces have added a different dynamic to the flower beds which gives me so much pleasure. My life is so busy at the moment that there is little time just to 'be' but when I do I like to sit on the bench next to this piece and watch the sun go down.

In and Out of the Dusty Bluebells

 

We love going to the Arboretum in Westonbirt. We especially love going with Alex who knows what everything is and is also mildly obsessed with lichen...which I think is fantastic!
She also does silly things with plants which the two little ones thought was great. We made little mouse ears with Magnolia petals and bound the childrens legs with Sticky Jack, we found flowers which looked like fairy cups and probably reseeded all the dandelions for next year. The Little Ones made houses under dripping Hollies and 'hid' behind sticks, delighting in our complete inablity to find them!!

It was quiet and sunny and so beautiful. Under the trees were carpets of bluebells and billowing cow parsley. We saw little blue butterflies and were deafened by birdsong.

My friend Sarah joined us, feeling a bit harrassed, and left us feeling full of the joys of spring. What a lovely day!

A Beautiful Birthday

The Big girl has had a fantastic birthday and I can't tell you how glad I am. Last year she had a tummy bug on her birthday and spent the whole of christmas in bed with suspected swine flu. It was a bit touch and go yesterday when she came home from school with a head ache...was it going to develop into anything? Could it be the curse of red letter days that had blighted her two most favourite occasions? After a glass of water and a packet of calpol she was feeling much better. She woke up early this morning with a spring in her step, delighted in her pressies, big (a bike), and small (some 'moshi monster' stickers) and skipped off to school in a birthday bubble of happiness!

The Little Girl and I made this cake for her which contains a rather delish filling: 25g icing sugar, sieved, mixed with a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 250g mascapone, 250g squashed raspberries..yum! We made a topping with icing sugar, orange juice and pink colouring and scattered with raspberries and daisy wafers. Big Girl was delighted! We sat in the garden with best friend Rose, Granny and Grampy and scofted a big slice each.

On another note, the abundance of wildlife in our garden has been both a source of delight and horror over that last few weeks. Today a kestral flew into our chicken run and got stuck so flapped around for about an hour. Despite the bird's obvious distress, is was amazing to see it up close and personal like that. Grampy managed to shoo it out and it went on it's way only slightly ruffled.

We've also taken great pleasure in the nesting blackbirds in the trees around our house. They have been teaching their fledglings the ways of the world this week and have been using our garden as their playground. They've become so tame that one even landed on the Big Girl's leg! We also have barn owls, hedgehogs, masses of goldfinches, long tailed tits, swifts and swallows, tree creapers, mining bees, lesser spotted woodpeckers, bumble bees, butterflies and buzzards...to mention a few.

The 'horror' part occured yesterday with an unwelcome visitor. I went to open the chicken run and found our bantams dead...along with our big orpington cockeral. This time not a fox but a suspected mink or stoat attack. It was really quite horrible and so sad. The worst thing is that I would love to get some more hens (ex battery hens preferabley) but I cannot take then on with the risk of subjecting them to even more trama. I would want their time with us to be full of the happiness they deserve but how on earth can I stop a mink? They can squeeze through tiny little holes... can any thing be 'mink proofed'? I think I will have to consult my oracle and fellow Girl Guide Leader, Ann, who knows all about stuff like this. Maybe we could trap the stoat/mink and release somewhere else? I'll keep you posted...

The Royal Wedding

 

The last few weeks have been so busy that it was quite a treat not to celebrate the royal wedding by having a big do/street party/getting dressed up. Instead we stayed in our pyjamas, on the sofa with duvets. We ate scones and drank tea for our wedding breakfast as we watched the events unfold. The boy was really only interested in the protective weaponary carried by the soldiers and armed police and wondered how many of the vehicles were bulletproof. The little girl was most put out that the focus of everyone's attention was the TV and not her, so got progressively more disruptive throughout the proceedings! The big girl LOVED every minute of it. She was mesmorised by The Dress, fascinated by the ceremony, pomp and history. Mr Wild Ink and I were bombarded with questions of which we took the answers for granted. These included 'Who was Lady Diana?' 'Is William the Prince of Wales?' 'Are all weddings this long?' 'Was your wedding like this, Mummy and Daddy?' 'How much money does the Queen have?'...etc. It was lovely to be together for such an historical event which we will all remember.

The photos are of our bunting, scones etc. Please note the commemorative royal egg reinactment created by the Big Girl for her school easter egg competiton. The original piece had bunting, flags, and a bantam egg bridesmaid!

Not on the High Street

I'm so excited because I applied to sell on notonthehighstreet.com last week. The first email they send you basically tells you not to get excited. Over 90% of applications are rejected and if you haven't heard in two weeks, you haven't made it. I sent them some pictures of my calligraphy stuff and a picture of the above...a 'stone canvas'. It's my 'whistle whistle...' calligraphy (see earlier post), carved in stone then photographed and printed onto canvas. I'm so excited about it because I think it looks really effective...it really gives the illusion that it is stone. So I took loads of pictures, wrote my ideas down in a carefully worded email (which took half a day to write....)


...and I waited...and obsessively checked my email every hour.


And then it came..they said they 'loved my range'...how exciting!!!!

(Thank for the BRILLIANT card, Lally!)

Oreo Brownies and sunshine

We had such a lovely day today. Big Girl had her friend round for a sleep over and spent all morning giggling about some rather rude outfits which were created for the Barbies. Granny and Grampy popped by for a cup of tea. Poor Granny spent much of the morning as Little Girl's horse, remaining 'tethered' to the table whilst Little Girl ate her lunch! No need to report this to the NSPCG as I think that Granny was quite compliant...! The Big Boy spent much of the day raising the height of the tree swing so that it is impossible for any one to get on it. Big Girl then planted strawberries and Little Girl watered all the paving slabs in the greenhouse. Margo and Jerry (the bantams) ate my lovely purple crocuses and Mr Wild Ink fell asleep early as he'd spent much of the day drinking real ale... and the sun shone!
The highlight of day, however, were these brownies which Little Girl and I made. I saw them on Lorraine Pascal's Baking made easy and have been meaning to make them ever since. It's a fantastic recipe as the smooth gooey-ness of the brownies contrasts with the chunks of crunchy, dark Oreo.

Recipe for Lorraine Pascal's Brownies with Oreos
165g Butter
200g Dark Chocolate, broken into little pieces
3 Eggs plus 2 Extra yolks
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
165g Soft Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Plain Flour
1 tbsp Cocoa Powder
A Pinch of Salt
154g Oreo Biscuits, broken in to quarters
Icing Sugar, for dusting
20cm square tin

Preheat Oven to 180 c or Gas Mark 6

1. Melt the butter and add the chocolate, stir until melted.
2. In a large bowl whisk eggs, yolks and vanilla until light and fluffy then add sugar in two additions.
3. Pour the melted chocolate in around the sides of the bowl, add flour, cocoa, salt and a third of the oreos, combine thoroughly.
4. Pour into a greased, lined tin and bake for about 25 mins. If you put a knife in the middle it should still come out a bit gooey (unlike if you're making a sponge cake). Turn out when cool, cut then dust with icing sugar. Enjoy and try not to eat them all in one go!

Blog Love

Saw the gorgeous Annie R today looking as lovely as ever in her beautiful, bright raincoat. She kindly told me how much she has enjoyed reading my blog which made my day! We agreed that reading people's blogs is a bit like nosing in a diary...taking a peak into someone's life and isn't it facinating?

Lucy at Attic 24 has written a lovely post about this on her blog and I urge you to go and have a nose. She writes beautifully and her pictures are so colourful they are sure to brighten even the dullest day. She says that her enjoyment of reading the blogs of others lies in the everyday details, sometimes small or mundane but none the less fasinating. (The above picture is one of hers.)

I realised after reading this that that is why I have enjoyed reading the blogs of people who have similar interests as myself. This is mainly generally creative bods with a happily chaotic family life. I take inspiration from ideas they have or things they've made, I love to hear about what is growing in their garden or a mini crisis which has occurred, a bargain in oxfam, a doodle whilst on the phone. In truth these strangers out there in 'Blogland' have become my virtual friends...but they don't even know me! This does sound pathetic, I know, and I do have lots of real friends...really I do! If you've just got into reading blogs try clicking on the blog links of one you like and it will lead you to others you'll probably find interesting. These will also have links..and so on..but be careful as it is extremely addictive!