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Long Barn and almost a scrap

11 Jun in Brush Cottage | Comments (2)

Last night, my friend Colleen invited me to an Alresford Chamber of Commerce evening which was held at Long Barn. Alresford is one of my favorite places to go if ever I am in need of something that little bit different – it has a high street full of interesting little shops filled to the brim with wantable stuff. However, in the spirit of Faux Fuchsia, I am Embracing Thrift and so am giving Alresford a wide berth at the moment. By 6pm all the shops were closed and it was safe for me to head to Long Barn, which is a beautiful barn, on the outskirts of the town.

The owners started their lavender growing and distilling business from some fields near Owslebury and then bought the land in Alresford and have developed it into a very attractive outlet for their range of lavender based products and other related items as well as plants and general garden paraphernalia.

From the moment I walked in, I knew that it would be difficult to keep my purse firmly in my bag…..and then …. they were offering a 10% discount on everything bought during the evening…. I ended up getting the perfect Fathers day gift, some chocolate brownies and a little bud vase. We were almost out the door, when we spotted a very nice slate table mat, just the right size and for such a great price – too good to pass up really – so there we were …… both saying ” No you have it” and just when Colleen throught I was going to say ” No I absolutely insist that you have it” I said instead ” Well thanks Col, what a kind and giving friend you are” and quickly, in one swift move, handed the sales lady the slate and my debit card….

I have to add though, that Colleen did not come away empty handed as she did take delivery of a bespoke and completely unique Twinkleberry Wood and Pearl Cluster Ring……

Sex and The City Shoes….

02 Jun in Brush Cottage | Comments (0)

I’m off to see Sex and The City 2 tonight …. I’m wearing my new Lola Cruz shoes…..

Hmmmm … it’s not going to be long before these long, gangly legs and baby feet start “borrowing” things from my wardrobe……

Gloire De Dijon

23 May in Brush Cottage | Comments (0)

I came across a blog called Found, Now Home very recently and yesterday’s post, which I have just read, reminded me of the first rose that has just bloomed in my garden.

This rose is special – when we lived in South Africa, many years ago now, I used to collect old roses. They were not easy to come across – they were not as popular as they are now and David Austin’s amazing work at re-introducing them had not yet taken off.

In order to obtain one of these rare and elusive plants, you had to sniff out a special, once a year sale which few people knew about or skulk around with some secateurs at the ready – should you come across one of these lost and forgotten gems in an unlikely corner. Gwen Fagan was instrumental in establishing a collection at Boschendal and this is where most of my plants came from.

By the time we left South Africa I had crammed about 50 old roses into a postage stamp sized garden – it was my pride and joy. But there was one rose that always eluded me – I looked everywhere always hoping to find one and never did – Gloire De Dijon.

Then, on a visit to Mottisfont Abbey, the Home of the National Trust’s Heritage rose collection – I saw one for sale – there right in front of me – FOR SALE!! I could not believe my eyes and snatched it up immediately.

I planted it, loved it, watered it, fed it, talked to it but it did not thrive and my heart sank – perhaps this was just not a rose I was destined to see bloom in my garden.

In a last ditch rescue attempt – I dug it out last autumn and moved it to another spot – not very carefully, and not even the ideal recommended positioning for it, but would you believe… it grew.

These roses only flower once a year and so I waited anxiously for the first leaves and then masses of buds and then….. my first rose flower of the year opened yesterday.

It was the centrepiece of my dinner party table last night – and I could barely tear my eyes away!

Apple trees and Lounging go hand in hand

18 May in Brush Cottage | Comments (0)

Brush Cottage has 2 ancient apple trees. They epitomise the passing of the seasons for me – but none more so than at this time of the year. Perhaps this is why they creep into my blog year after year. I love the gnarled old branches in winter and the beautiful blossoms that burst out in spring – that grow into little apples before our eyes and turn red.

My bedroom window is a riot of blossoms right now and the view never fails to delight me – but I happened to glance out of my window this afternoon and was enchanted by this sight

Tessa had found a nice, quiet, warm spot to cuddle up with a book and all around her are beautiful blossom petals – magical!

An Unhappy Poppy

13 May in Brush Cottage | Comments (2)

We had Poppy spayed on Tuesday …. yesterday I had to take her back to the vet for a little pain relief top up and today …. still no improvement …. an unhappy poppet…. how long will it take until she feels a little bit better..?

Guilty feeling are running rife….

The Garden Furniture Dilemma

10 May in Brush Cottage | Comments (3)

For quite a long time now I have been looking for some garden furniture … I realise that I might only use this furniture for a couple of weekends in a year, but still, it’s something I would very much like to have. We have a garden that borders on open fields and grass, that if it is left unmown – looks very much like a paddock. I dream of English romantic country gardens – and me, roaming around in my Hush pyjamas, picking scented roses…. yup.

What I really wanted are those pretty little wrought iron tables and chairs – all curly and delicate – but they are all so small! I could barely eat a meal at one of those tables, let alone the 3 of us!

My very, very good friend Jane arrived a couple of weeks ago – with an old set of wooden furniture for me – 6 chairs and a perfect oval table. Exactly the size I was after and the chairs even fold away – which is great as I only have outside storage in a stable. I like “old”, I like “used”and I like “vintage” – so this solution suited me perfectly!

The thing is – they have been stained that really ugly dark, muddy brown – so my plan was to strip off as much of the varnish as I could and paint them – a very washed down cream colour, but you know how those clever, handy people do it – so that you can see the wood through the paint – how hard can that be?

I imagined a lovely warm afternoon – some light sanding, a couple of hours and I’d be done! I gave up waiting for the sunny afternoon and got stuck in on Sunday – bundled up to the hilt in a futile attempt to keep out that arctic wind that was howling it’s way through Upham.

Poppy of course, thought that this was the perfect opportunity to force me to play with her – by making off with my gloves and other paraphernalia as often as she could …. and yes that grass is so long that I am worried she might not find her way to the house……..

So, after lots of horrible chemical stripper and 5 hours of solid labour for both David and myself….one chair has been stripped……..

But now, here’s the thing – It has quite a nice colour, a bit like really old fashioned school furniture – and I do quite like it – so I’m undecided – do I go ahead and paint it or do whatever it is you are suposed to do with wooden garden furniture that is exposed to the English “summer” – I don’t actually know what that is … oil or varnish or something …. If I paint it – what paint do I use…. will the paint just peel off in a couple of weeks? This is a massive , time consuming undertaking – I do really like this furniture … what should I do? Help me out here!

A "Poppy" Catch up

26 Apr in Brush Cottage | Comments (1)

Poppy, our little Cairn Terrier was due to be stripped this month. It seems that a lot of terriers have coats that are treated in this way and most of the people I know who have Border Terriers just do it themselves. Cairn’s are a little trickier as their coats are much longer and you can easily lose their shape if you don’t know what you are doing. The breeders recommend doing it once or twice a year. The guy who I go to in Ringwood told me that he does it once a year in spring, which means that the coat is short for the summer but grows in for winter.

Her loveliness had a really great winter coat – It needed brushing every day though, otherwise she did tend to look scruffy and mud, well yes, mud can be a bit of a problem…. fortunately the little petal doesn’t even like getting her paws wet, so we do manage to avoid it most of the time.

So off we went on Saturday morning – Poppy to her personal hairdresser, Tessa and I to mooch around a garden centre for a couple of hours … and eat cake! ( or as my daughter puts it..”Murder a slice of cake!”)

This is what Pops looked like before the trip:

Poppy-Before

And when we picked her up, she had shrunk in size… and was much more of a wheaten colour, soft and fluffy and reminded me so much of when she was a puppy!

poppy-after

I came home with a whole bagful of soft fur, which I have strewn out on my lawn – the blue and coal tits are taking it for their nests – so sweet to watch them!

London

19 Apr in Brush Cottage, Links | Comments (1)

I love London – From the moment I get there I feel as though there are a million exciting things that I am missing out on. Having said that – I do feel as though I have the best of both worlds – our home is in a very picturesque, typically English village – with a real sense of community and we are very lucky to live here. It’s also only an hour on the train to Waterloo. Added to that are a very hospitable sister and brother in law – who never mind us invading for the odd weekend….

We spent this weekend in London – and with perfect weather, it couldn’t have been a nicer place to be! Tessa brought a friend along – the lovely little Miss F.

T&F

We took the girls to the amazing exhibition at Kensington Palace – The Enchanted Palace – It’s a collaboration of some amazing designers and actors who have transformed some of the rooms to tell the story of some of the woman who have lived there and it’s very, very well done – truly an enchantment!

We took a walk past the Albert Memorial – a favorite spot of mine – so poignant and romantic.

Albert-Memorial

Yesterday, we took advantage of the perfect weather to visit Kew Gardens – The Magnolia’s are in flower right now, and they are a favorite of mine, a sight to behold.

Magnolia

Kew have some amazing artwork/sculpture too:

Kew-Sculpture

There were also trees to climb (although that might be frowned upon!)

Trees-to-climb

But I have to be truthful here – our real reason for heading in this direction was to visit a Pizza restaurant…… not jut any old Pizza restaurant, oh no, this one is special…..run by real Italians – wearing proper funny hats…..

Italian-Chef

And who serve homemade lemonade in these pretty bottles…..

lemonade

Who make salads, laced with delicious honey and mustard dressing…

salad

But we came for the Pizza…. the sourdough Pizza….. the authentic Pizza, cooked in a traditional woodburning oven , imported from Italy, that takes longer than a week to heat to the optimimum temperature…..

oven

And it was worth it! A trip to Chiswick just to eat at Franco Manca is worth it!

Pizza

Chickpea and Feta Salad

13 Apr in Brush Cottage, Links | Comments (1)

Many years ago David and I used to be vegetarian. It’s a lifestyle choice that I still admire and aspire to, but for a number of reasons (one of them being a completely carniverous daughter) we are now meat eaters. Some of the things I learned to love while vegetarian were chickpeas, beans and lentils. My daughter refuses to eat lentils (I think it’s just on principle….) but fortunately she does like beans and chickpeas and so when I came across this recipe for chickpea and feta salad I thought I might give it a try.

I made it about half an hour ago and it is sitting in my kitchen as I write this, and I can’t wait to eat it….! It’s delicious! I did not use canned chickpeas – as I find them bland, so it’s a bit of a long haul, soaking them and cooking them till soft. I also only have tiny tops of my mint starting to sprout , so I haven’t used the full quantity of mint that the recipe recommends, but it still tastes great……… oh yes, and I threw in some lettuce, just because…. and now I am off to gobble and watch The Great British Menu.

What are you having for supper?

chickpea-and-feta-salad

About this whole "baking" thing…….

07 Apr in Brush Cottage | Comments (3)

So, here’s the thing….. I feel a little inadequate…… a little below the par….. a little less than perfect…. the thing is…. I do not feel like a domestic goddess!!

I can cook a decent meal, I can manage something “idiot proof”, I can bake bread and I can make ice cream…….I cannot, however, bake something where there is no room to manoever……..like fairy cakes.

Those of you that follow me on Twitter will know that Easter for me, among other things, means fairy cakes – and this year I was quite determined to outdo my last attempt (which was pretty feeble).

books Now, let me tell you, I do have enough cookery books. I follow some awesome foodie blogs, in the hope that some of their wonderfulness might just rub off on me – I even subject myself to some cookery television (although I have to admit that this might be for the visual feast rather than for the baking tips…..)

I do know all the “must’s” – make sure everything is at room temperature…., cream the butter and sugar, only use vanilla extract and the freshest self raising flour……. all to no avail!

The very lovely Helen Hutton (who is clearly a Domestic Goddess) took time out from tending her chicken pox ridden (5!?) children – to send me a secret “foolproof” recipe for fairy cakes and a whole plethora of tips. I was feeling confident, able, and ready to take on those elusive sponge wonders.

I creamed those ingredients to within an inch of their lives……

creamed

preparation I’m not sure, but |I think this was the part where I let myself down… Helen told me that once I have filled my paper cases I was to get them into the oven as soon as possible…. It was at this stage that I was flumoxing around the kitchen looking for my other tray – I had prepared 12 paper cases and the mixture did fill more than that, so I was caught napping here.

Anyhow, eventually, there we were – and ready for the oven.

ready-to-go

After the allotted baking time, we were looking good!

looking-good

I had always used icing sugar and water for the icing – this time I thought I might try something more exotic ( for me that is…) – Butter cream!

The results were not so pretty……

so-not-pretty

I gave up on the piping idea and simply lashed it all on – the end result was disappointing, it looked messy and amateurish. It was not the sophisticated look I was after….

end result

Sophie Dahl says that to bake well, one must stick to the recipe completely and it’s all about practice. I don’t know if I have the patience for this….. I must tell you, it’s quite a tricky thing - this fairy cake baking

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