Haring around

Hello lovelies. A Blessed Imbolc to those of you who follow the path.

I thought I'd show you some of the hares around my home for no other reason than I don't think I've shown you before and I've just learnt how to make pretty pic collages on Instagram!!

The big running hare is one of my favourite possessions. It makes me smile every time I look at it. It's by Jim Shaw and is part of the Heartwood Creek collection.

I have very limited  space to display trinkets here at Peapods  which drives me bonkers.   I don't do minimalist very well. We have some lovely 'stuff' and  I like  to have that stuff around me.    It just makes me very selective about any purchases.  I have to LOVE something very much  and visualise a place for it before I even contemplate buying.  Our home is quirky more than show home but it works for us.

Hope your weekend was perfect.

Love love. Xx

New Year - New Kitchen!

Hello Bloglies!

Thank you for visiting me.  Isn't the weather bloomin' awful?  I'm enjoying my period of enforced hibernation and rejoicing in the fact that I don't really have to leave the house unless I really need to!

We've been in a state of flux here at Peapods over the last couple of days.  Towards the end of last year, the Council promised us a new kitchen but warned us that there could be a two year waiting list for the work to be carried out.  The old kitchen was barely serviceable with cupboard doors hanging on by one hinge, the work tops scratched and marked and the tiling looking decidedly jaded.   We had resigned ourselves to waiting their timescale, however just before Christmas I got a call saying that they would begin work on the 6 January!  The weekend was spent madly decluttering and dividing stuff in to keep/charity/throw away piles as you do.  The workmen arrived on Monday morning and proceeded to gut the kitchen - honestly the noise they made you'd have thought that the Tasmanian Devil had been let loose with a wrecking ball! They were extremely quick at removing the old units and tiles.

In just a couple of hours this had happened:-

and a little while later the old warped floorboards had been taken up too.

The base units were put in soon afterwards and by the end of Monday we had work tops too.   They finished the majority of the work on Tuesday, just leaving a couple of jobs for the electrician today.  

So here's the finished kitchen - we still have to paint and replace the light shades, and get a new blind for the kitchen window.  We also need to sell our fridge and get a new, smaller one so that we can move it into the old pantry cum storage/junk room (now clutter free!).  This will give us a lot more much needed room in the kitchen and will allow us to utilise the table.  To date the chairs matching the table have lived in the shed for around 8 months due to lack of space! 

Ahh look - there's my new soup maker steaming away next to the microwave!   I mentioned this in my last post I think.  I'm so pleased with it.  It's this one:-

I'm sure the traditionalists will be throwing their hands up in horror at the very thought of such a gadget - but believe me it is SO handy, particularly for those of us who work full time or have busy lifestyles. As you can see, it is no bigger than a large jug kettle and takes up hardly any room. I simply add roughly chopped veg of my choice and some stock and seasoning, press a button and 21 minutes (for smooth soup - 28 minutes if you like your soup chunky!) later the soup is cooked and blended to perfection without any need for transferring hot liquids between receptacles or retrieving the liquidiser from the back of the cupboard.  It makes enough for four people (well four - six meals for me at least!). It cooks and blends so quickly you could do it in the morning before work and decant some into a flask for lunch.  I shall continue to sing it's praises for a very long time I reckon and am currently experimenting with recipes.  I began with a mixture of sweet potatoes, carrots and onions.  Today I did pea and mint - which is my favourite!  450g of frozen peas, hot veg stock, an onion and a packet of fresh mint - or 20g if you are lucky enough to have it in your herb garden.  Yumski! And as I'm such a domestic goddess (cough) I made some soda bread to go with it.  I dunno how I do it for the money! A very frugal, filling and nourishing meal. 

Velvety smooth, and a delicate shade of froggy green!

Thank you for all the health enquiries and recommendations over the  past few weeks.  I very much appreciate them as always.  I saw my consultant last Saturday and explained my discomfort to him after meals.  He now wants to do an endoscopy to see whether I have anything else underlying which may be the cause of my pain.  I'm having to wait for his appointment to be sent through, however as I shall go via BUPA again he reassures me that this should follow in around 2 - 3 weeks.  

Stay safe and warm, particularly if you are being affected by Mother Nature's current bad mood.

Love and Light 

xxx

Come into the garden, Maud ...

Ooh look at you - first past the garden gate.  Is your name Maud?  Eh?  Eh?

If your name's not Maud, you're not coming in.

Oh go on then.........  come with me and have a nosey around me garrrrrding (as they say in Birmingham).   (Disclaimer:  I'm not from Birmingham.  And I don't say garrrrrrding.   Just saying).

We've been doing lots of revamping of the garden recently and I'm really pleased with how beautifully its coming together.

Now then, I have donned a straw hat and a rosebud sprigged lawn tea-dress, white cotton gloves and am carrying a trug in case you would like a couple of cuttings.   **flounces off**

**flounces back to don sou'wester, gum boots and a brolly - and you can carry yer own trug!**

This post is photo heavy - not sure whether I should apologise for that or not - but in any event, click on them to enlarge if you would like to see them in better detail.

So this is the bottom border, newly restored and planted up.  As I want the garden to be relatively low maintenance now in view of our work patterns and my crook back, I have stocked the borders with shrubs which will provide some all year round colour and will bush out nicely.  I have chosen peris (forest flame), a white variegated Euonymous and Photinia red robin for this part of the garden.  There is also a big clump of zebra grass already established in there from a few years back and provides some tall structure together with my gorgeous dicentra which never fails me every year.  It had a bit of a hard prune back (thanks non-gardening man!) and I was worried that it wouldn't come back but it has.  Smaller than usual but beautiful all the same.

A little further up the columbines are running riot as usual - I love the different colours.  I've given up trying to move them now!

The japanese maple was rescued from under the hedge which explains its contorted form.  I thought I had lost this but it has suddenly put on lots of leaves so I'm hopeful that it will like its new home.   The terracotta pot next to it contains a new pink lavender which I bought last week - and it is the strongest smelling lavender I have come across.... just gorgeous!  The flowers are very delicate - I just hope that I can keep it! I'm not very successful with lavender plants for some reason.

Lots of clusters of pots line the edges of the newly paved area which used to be the lawn. (Remember the never ending sea of black plastic last year because of the continual rain?!)

  The heuchera is "autumn leaves" - one of the prettiest I've seen and the leaves light up beautifully when the sun shines on them.  I have a thing for heucheras! I have "plum pudding" and "chocolate ruffles" too elsewhere.  There are many, many types - I wish I had room for all of them!   This new addition is already sending up flower spikes now so I'm looking forward to seeing what colour they are.  

A pot of pretty pink cosmos with their frondy ferny leaves...

The picture above shows the area still under construction.  There will be a fence across the bottom of the patio which will screen it off from the rest of the garden and will enable us to have a 'secret garden' away from the dog(!).  We have the arch and the gate already constructed and it only remains for the weather to stop bliddy well weathering so that the fence panels can be hung and everything completed. 

I'd like the top borders to look a little 'woodlandy' and so there is a fern unfurling in an old Belfast sink (it was too dim to pick it up properly though) and some bark mulch spread across the soil.  (I adore the smell of bark mulch - just thought I'd share that with you!!).  There is a new purple lavender, and two pretty little peris (mountain flame) which have been planted this week.   

The Buddleja (Dark Knight) is growing apace and hopefully will attract lots of butterflies.  In the back ground there is another heuchera!! 

I don't know where this little chap came from but it is yet another colour columbine self seeded from somewhere - The colour has bleached a little here - it is actually very dark - like a Cadbury's purple.

I haven't take an aerial photograph as yet (as not only do we still have a bit of construction work in progress, but also an aerial photograph involves such derring do as me hanging out of the bedroom window by my toes to bring you a suitable full length picture.  Of the garden dear, not me.  Do keep up!)  Hopefully at some point soon I shall be able to show the big picture!

In other news - our new barbecue arrived today.  It is the size of a zeppelin. You do realise that this will signify the end of any good weather.   I do apologise.

Hope you've enjoyed your trip around the garden.  See you soon!

 
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