Bon Voyage

Hi there, this will be my last blog before my holiday. Tomorrow we fly to Portugal for a week. We are staying in a friends gorgeous villa and I will post some piccys on our return.

On Saturday I went to a local fete and found a couple of goodies. The mirror was £2 and I will eventually paint it white. I love the colour of the vase and seem to remember something similar on my Nanna's mantlepiece...that was 50p. The crocheted cloth is in perfect condition, though needs a bit of a wash, at 20p and six pretty napkins in lovely creamy linen....3op! Not a bad haul all in all.

I have also been tagged by Sian so here goes:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

Well I had just found out that I was expecting my darling Isabel.

2. 5 things on my to do list?

Finish my packing for tomorrow.

Finish my fairy doll.

Find an NHS dentist, (mine had gone private and J recently paid £115 for a filing)!!! Can't sustain that on 2 part time wages.

Spring clean the house, it is like a midden at the moment.

Start making a shopping list as I am spending far too much money and usually come home without the most important things like loo roll and dog food.

3. Snacks I enjoy?

Well basically, if it is edible, I like it!

4. Things I would do if I were a millionaire?

Buy a Louis Vuitton Handbag.

Buy a Chloe handbag.

Buy a Prada Handbag

Buy a Gucci handbag...the list is endless. Would probably buy shares in a chocolate factory and buy up greenbelt sites to stop developers building on them.

5. Places I have lived?

I was born in Germany, then came back to UK and lived in Wiltshire, had a spell in the Outer Hebrides and then settled in Kent.

I am now going to tag these lucky ladies and hope that they haven't already had the pleasure. If you are not sure how it works, read the rules on Sian s blog.

Natalie - summer by the sea.

Marja - home from the heart.

Stephanie - my sweet fairy.

Colleen - frostings and sparkles.

Sal - sals snippets.

Well bloggers, it's a tough job flying to Portugal and lazing around the pool for a week, eating, drinking, more eating, reading. more eating, etc etc. Someone has to do it though, so will see you all when I get back. Bye for now. Devina XX

Homeward Bound

I thought I might share with you my journey home from work. I have a 20 minute drive each day and it is divided into 2 parts really. The motorway bit and then the country bit, which is my favourite. In the morning it is purely about getting there and so I choose the main roads mostly with a junction to junction run on the busy M20. The pleasure is coming home again, past the same junction to junction and then up the hill and onto a single track country lane. I slow down and savour the view, hear the skylarks and calm descends on me.

Around this steep bend I go...and there is the prettiest of lanes, a mass of flowers at the moment, quite breathtaking.

Corn cockles are one of my absolute favourite hedgerow plants, the colour is gorgeous.

Another favourite of mine is the Hawthorn, at this time of year wearing her fabulous spring collection, which will be replaced with a multitude of small glossy red berries in the autumn to help feed the hungry birds.

And so we continue, taking in the bird song and the summer breeze through the open window. This green tunnel is the start of the home straight. Here is gets a bit dodgy as the fields on the left are full of rabbits with no road sense sadly. They literally throw themselves in the path of oncoming cars, who nine times out of ten are not country dwellers and so drive too fast. I counted 3 little bodies today.

Half way down the hill we can see St Anthony's church, our cottage is behind it on the hill.

The perfect end to the day and almost worth going to work for (well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration!) The only thing to mar it is the total disrespect of a few individuals who care nothing for their surroundings!!

WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT??? GRRRRR!!!!!

Dev X

EEEEKKKK!

I am lucky enough to live in the countryside and manage to cope with most things that share my environment, the slugs, sloworms, frogs, adders, mice, rats etc. However, there are a couple of things that scare me to death, one is spiders, although I have learnt how to deal with them, (usually a glass over the top, a piece of paper underneath and then out of the window). The second gives me the absolute heeby geebies! July Bugs as we call them (even though they appear at this time of the year) or to call them by their proper name Cockchafers. They are enormous flying beetles, and I mean enourmous! Adults are about an inch and a half long...and they fly erratically. They are nocturnal and are drawn to the light. So any hope of a barbeque after dusk is asking for a visit, and this is exactly what happened a few days ago. I was nearly demented with fright when one actually landed on my front. I had total paralysis for a few seconds and then tore off my apron screaming at the top of my voice. It was most undignified. However, for those of you in the know maybe, just maybe you know how I feel. UUUgh!!!! This is only a small picture but it gives you an idea and is almost to scale. So close your eyes and imagine that on your front if you dare.

This is the lane that I live on and our cottage is to the right of the picture.

These two pictures show my garden gate and the one opposite is the one man person uses to go to work. It is literally three paces away, depending on how big your feet are of course! He manages the garden there. It is idiylic really, out of one and in the other.

It reminds me of The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett.

I leave you with a close up shot of one of my favourite plants, the foxglove. What could be more perfect at this time of year.

Dev XX or should I say Oak Elffilter...look to the right of my blog and check out what your fairy name might be. Go on, you know you want to!

Autumn Mists!

Hi there, well it has been a fuuny sort of day today. Light but persistant rain has fallen for most of the day. The earth smells of that lovely.....well earthy smell! You know that one I mean, sort of fresh and green and fecund. The fields around where I live have been shrouded in mist, and this in turn has muffled most of the usual sounds like the bird song. A silent, damp and slightly chilly world, that not so long ago was Autimn. On my way home from work I picked up a couple of mags. Country Living has to be just about my favourite and this month features a lovely cottage.

On impulse, I also bought a knitting mag and fell in love with this shawl. Not sure that I am clever enough to knit it, but if I did have a go, I would do it in a soft pastel pink.

And finally, to further cheer me up on this dull , silent day, an ebay purchase arrived this morning that is gorgeous to look at and scrummy to smell, being as it is full of lavender.

Dev X

Work in Progress

I thought that I would show you some of the things that I am working on currently. They are all in various stages of completion and some have been taking longer than others. The knitted cushion had me all fired up until I realised that I didn't understand the pattern and I had no one to ask..I ended up just doing it in stocking stitch! The fabric is from a Laura Ashley duvet cover that was looking a bit shabby.

There was quite a bit of material that I salvaged from the duvet and I found a pattern somewhere on how to make pretty pincushions so have cut out a few ...that was several weeks ago now and they are still sat there looking at me!

Then I decided that I wanted to make some fairy dolls from a chart that I originally bought as part of an angel kit..she too has been watching and waiting for me to make her whole bless her!

As well as these few projects I have the urge to paint all the wooden furniture I possess a delicate shade of cream....add it to the list I keep telling myself.

I am TOTALLY useless at finishing things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a spring like note....I heard the first cuckoo of the season today which, for me, confirms that Spring has finally sprung 100%.

Bye for now Dx

4 and 20 Blackbirds!

As I write this post it is 9.00 pm and I can hear the blackbirds singing their evening song.. It is so beautiful and so loud. I refer to it as the bedtime chorus. There is now a refreshing breeze coming through the open windows and doors cancelling out the heat of the day. The smell of the wallflowers is intoxicating. I love this time of day when a stillness returns to the world after the hectic goings on of the day. There is a crescent moon rising and all is well with the world.

I have had my eye on a brooch for a while now. Each time I looked at etsy, there it was looking at me. Then I read Steph's blog and lo and behold, she had one in blue. I ummed and I aahed ,and then before I knew what I was doing, found myself on Etsy and pressing all the right buttons. It came yesterday and I savoured opening the pretty pink ribbon and tissue paper...and there it was. Thank you so much Kim.

What do you think? There was the added bonus of a sweet little lavender bag made from a gorgeous scrap of flowery cotton that scented the whole package.....bliss!

I wore it to work today and it lifted my spirits no end, like a little piece of spring on my shirt to cheer me up whilst sitting at my desk.

I really hope that Steph doesn't think that I am copying here, what with the brooch and all, but I found this bag in one of my favourite shops recently (The Merchant Chandler) and I couldn't resist it ...in fact, I defy anyone to resist it, and at a mere £1.99, it certainly had my name on it in big capital letters.

Nite to all. Dev X

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Well as you can see from these pictures, taken on this lovely spring day, mine is growing very well thank you very much!!

Dev X

Daft Doves

We have a population of around 32 doves who share our garden with us. They are all descended from a couple of babies that we hand reared 10 years ago and who, fortunately, were a male and female. Not sure which generation the current ones are, but we have seen many come and go over the years.

We have been fortunate that interlopers have come and gone and done their business so to speak, which has diluted the pure white stock, but overall, they remain largely white and beautiful. I love the sound they make and watching them strutting around the garden, the males all puffed up with importance, and the females playing hard to get.

There is a very definite pecking order, with the 6 most dominant pairs occupying the bijou residence that is the dovecote. However, space is limited and the need to breed is strong, and we now find some rather silly birds this year nesting in the most inappropriate places!

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Our garden shed has a gap under the door and a pair are nesting happily on a pile of twigs in an old potting tray!

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This is the female sitting on a nest in a bunker in the garden that man person, J, is constructing as part of a garden rebuild. (dont ask..!). Needless to say, work has come to a standstill in this area for now.

I will take some photos of the chicks when they hatch.

Dev X

Kiitti, kiitti,or thank you, thank you

According to a google search this is one of the ways of saying thank you in Finnish..why I hear you ask? Well my giveaway, arrived today, what can I say! It is fabby dabby...take a look.

Check out the pretty diamante centrepiece. I love it, but I have a fight on my hands because "I" loves it too and she wants it on her dressing table! I guess we will have to share, her this week and me next.

My sincerest thanks go to Marja for pulling my name out of the hat. I cant remember the last time I won anything and being new to blogging, this was such a nice thing to happen to me...getting a bit maudlin here. Sniff, Sniff. I don't know how to insert a link yet, so look in my favourite blogs for Home From the Heart and there she is.

My lucky find yesterday was this ring which I got from New Look for £4. I really wanted a pink one of course, and I have seen similar in Monsoon, but not in my price range. If anyone else knows where I can get one in pink that costs somewhere in the region of this one then please let me know.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and Bank Holiday on Monday, fingers crossed for lovely weather.

Dev X

Patchwork Quilt

Thought I would show you a picture of my daughters patchwork quilt that I made her last year...well I say that, I finished it last year after about 2 years in the making!

I decided to keep it simple and make it in 6 inch squares, every other one being plain pink cotton. I then did a trawl on the internet for fabric as well as begging, stealing and borrowing off what friends I have that craft. I made paper templates much the same as the ones you see in the hexagon designs, the reason being that I wanted to hand sew it all. The only part that is machined is the actually quilting itself. I had to borrow a friends machine for that as I need a special foot for mine and they are incredibly expensive. A lot of the fabric I got from America.

On a completely seperate note, I am looking for advice. I have got an old wooden mirror that I am going to paint white. I then want to "distress" it but I am not sure what that actually means. Do you just paint it and then rub some off again, do you use sand paper...? Please help!

Puppy dog's tales!

Oh my, what a carry on this afternoon when I got home from the office..my darling daughter greeted me with tear stained cheeks and the look of one who has suffered greatly...why I hear you ask? Well she went to see the hens as usual after school and our cockerel, Marmaduke, crept up behind her and pecked her legs. Apparently her screams could be heard all over the village!

The villain of the piece!!!

Later on her day went from bad to much, much worse when Hamish dared to eat her lollipop whilst she was answering the phone, for me, being in the bath as I was...so of course it was all my fault and so on and so on..get the picture!

Villain number two!

He is actually the gentlest of creatures and sadly a bit battle scarred and moth eaten now. But we love him to pieces. He will be 13 in a couple of weeks and we have had him from a pup of 8 weeks.

Dev X