Thursday, June 16, 2011

Dirt under my fingernails

Well that must mean that I've been in the garden...as small as that is. It's hard gardening in a rental as we don't want to spend heaps of money...but at the same time, when the rest of England is looking stunning with a showy array of flowers in everybody's garden...well...suffice to say...I gave in and hit the nursery yesterday!


We have this funny little triangle shaped court yard, outside the dining room and I've tried to make it interesting with a variety of containers, most of which I bought with me from Australia...but a few, like the gal bath here, I have acquired locally.


Lavender is always a  favourite for me and I think it looks great in an enamel bucket like this one or even in gal....and I can bring it inside for a 'holiday' every now and then.



Fruit crates are handy and a very cheap way to display pots of plants...


With the walls of the court yard rendered and painted white, the green foliage and red flowers just 'pop'!


Just can't resist the colour...



I found these red metal golf thingies recently at a very interesting vintage shed...


These ribbed gal tubs are old washing dollies and prove very handy as tables or containers...





For some height I bought these weeping pussy willows, last year, and over winter I string those little Ikea fairy lights...the ones with the battery packs...through the bare sticks for a bit of atmosphere.

Now all I need is a little French vintage bistro setting...


Monday, June 13, 2011

The Royal Mail

I was just rushing out the door on Saturday,
when the postie handed me a parcel and quipped...
'here's something from the folks downunder'...
as he walked off chuckling at his Aussie humour, I dashed inside to rip it open...



It was a gift from my good friend and vintage shopping buddy in Melbourne...
so I knew it would be good...


The larger parcel was decorated with a vintage paper doyley,
complete with little red seal...


And as much as I wanted to just enjoy the 'wrappings'...
I also wanted to discover the contents...


and of course...I wasn't disappointed...


Inside was a vintage wooden "Victory" jig-saw puzzle, 
depicting a young Queen Elizabeth during her "Trooping of the Colour" parade


as well as a souvenir pennant celebrating a Royal Visit in 1954...
possibly to Australia...


but wait...there's more... 
a cute little box decorated with french script and
my friend's latest obsession, antique lace...


contained a vintage Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle...


in it's original box....
but don't go away...there's more...


also floating around in the postpak was this lavender sachet
made from french newspaper, stitched with red cotton...
so clever...


and finally she enclosed some favourite magazines including
Australian Country Style, American Country Living 
and a publication from the Yarra Valley with a great article
about one of our favourite interior decorators Justin Bishop.

I then had to take off for the day...
and I was just dying to flick through my mags 
and play with my lovely gifts...


Thank you Caroline!


Thursday, June 9, 2011

Peonies for Alice

I'm back...and guess what...I've got more Peonies 
because they are bloomin gorgeous! 


My Dad had one Peony bush back home...
and he nursed it for something like 8 years
until it finally flowered...
every year we would be ushered outside to admire
the one and only Peony on the bush.


I used to pretend to be enthusiastic about this
particular flower...
after all it was a bright citrusy yellow colour...
not really my cup of tea.


It wasn't till I moved to England
and really experienced their true magnificence
that I could really appreciate the Peony.


Now I can't get enough of them...


To Alice, back home in chilly Melbourne..
hope you're feeling better.

I'm off for a walk to photograph all the other
'bloomin marvellous' flowers in our village.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Be back soon...

Well girls...I've been a bit stupid...got what I thought was a virus on my computer (the big clunker upstairs that has all my photos on it...which I basically blog on)...lots of boxes blinking and flashing at me...a scan presenting '31 viruses detected'...so what do I do...I buy the security software to kill all the bugs....

Nobody told me that you don't buy software off the internet...all I could think was 'I'm going to lose my blog...some body's going to get my details...

The very authentic looking Windows XP Total Security 2011 that I purchased with my now cancelled debit card WAS THE VIRUS!!

So now I have no debit card...can't go shopping...and no proper blogging with photos till we get somebody in...cause of course this happened over a bank holiday didn't it!!

We also experienced something similar on my son's Macbook (which I'm using now)...apparently Mac isn't suppose to be able to be penetrated, however, the month of May has seen a spate of these invasions...so BEWARE. Luckily a quick trip to the 'Genius Desk' at the Apple shop fixed it...(a young man with his eyes shut fixed the problem in a second).

So I'm not only out £50 for the transaction (which I approved) for the fake software, but I have to have a tech weenie come in and install a firewall and fix the bugs...something he will also probably do with his eyes shut and will cost £100!!


Wishing I'm in Paris right now!

Friday, May 27, 2011

A friday flower for a birthday girl


This is for my sis...Jan...you know
the one that's scared of nature and sheep...



It's a bright red geranium in a crusty old gal bucket...
a bit like her really...

Happy Birthday Jan!
xxx

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Faffing about

I'm a bit bored with our little rental house at the moment...
so what's a girl to do...let's see...


she could change a few things around...



stack up some cases...


pop a plant on top...


umm..not sure about that...


rearrange some new cushions...


yes...liking that cushion on the old chair...


bring out the plate stand from Anthropologie that I've been hiding...


re-style the dresser...


find somewhere to put the Masons china...


yep..that's working for me...


still playing...


and finally decided that the hydrangea looked like the
Leaning Tower of Pisa perched on top of those cases...
so it was banished to the window sill instead.


Robx

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Doorways to Paris


Among the hundreds of photos I have of our trip to Paris, 
I have rummaged around and found these...
just doorways...














Robx

Linking up with Sarah's Good Life Wednesday


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