rose petal jam

Gardens, books and biccies!

Oh look, she doesn't blog for ages and then does two at once! Well that's pregnancy for you, boundless energy one day, none the next so I am making hay whilst the sun shines :-)

We have been having a lot of fun recently and I just thought I would share some pictures I took last weekend on our jaunt to the Alnwick Garden.

This rather dramatic shot is of the central feature known as the cascade. The Alnwick Garden is the brainchild of the current Duchess of Northumberland who, with rather a lot of help I think! has created a beautiful garden and visitor attraction in part of the grounds of Alnwick Castle. It has lots to see and do in a very compact site so perfect for an popular with families and older people. There is a water sculpture garden, a poison garden (you can have a tour and find out all about some deadly plants) and a stunnu rose garden, sadly not yet in bloom but oh my! when it is it's one of the most glorious places in England.

They have also planted the world's largest cherry blossom tree orchard and that will be in bloom very soon.

If you want to find out more, have a look at their website it is a great place to visit if you are in the area. 

Another brilliant place in Alnwick is Barter Books

I apologise for nicking this photo from their website as I totally forgot to take a photo as I entered or left that day.

Barter Books is one of the largest second hand book shops in the country with literally thousands of books for sale.

As you can see, it's a rather magical and lovely place, where you can while away a lot of time browsing books and just enjoying the restful, friendly atmosphere.

and when you need a little fortification and a browse through your purchases...

you can sit in the station waiting room with a cup of tea and a biccie

I adore this room and the colour of the tiles. It's fab. Everyone whispers too, like in libraries in the good old days.

There is another seating area near the front of the shop with a fire and an help yourself tea and biccie bit with an honesty box.

To find out more about this fascinating place and how it came about go to their website and find out amongst other things how it was they who brought back this rather famous poster into the public domain.

Which is currently the motto for my hectic and rapidly changing life! Dominic even bought me a mug with this printed on whilst we were there!

Spring sunshine!

After a saturday of lashing rain and gale force winds, we in the north were treated to a perfect spring day today. you know one of those, good to be alive, blue sky, daffodils dancing, breezy, sunshiny days that just pop up out of nowhere?

So where better to go than to Busy Bee Studio for their spring open day!

Do you know my friend Helen who runs Busy Bee? No? Well she is gorgeous :-)

Busy Bee is many things, it's an online shop, it is a place that opens periodically for selling events and for all manner of craft workshops and most importantly it is a shabby chic haven and indeed a state of mind :-)

Excuse the photo quality but the damn sun wouldn't stop shining! This is a small selection of the things Helen had on display and for sale today.

The doorway in the background leads into her 'cowshed' which is where she runs her intimate workshops and also has even more gorgeous things for sale. If you'd like to see more, have a look at her website here and make sure to go on the virtual tours on the website as they show how heavenly the setting for the studio is - you will DIE when you see her swing...

She also writes a blog which is very funny and she will introduce you to her donkeys Bumble and Dylan who I didn't manage to snap as they were about a quarter of a mile away at the end of the field. But they are amazingly cute. She also has cats, dogs (including the inimitable Winston), geese, hens and lord knows what else.

But if you ever need a gift or a treat and you love shabby chic and all things countryfied Helen's your girl.

As it was such a nice day, a small portion of the garden was open to nosey parkers/ visitors! We decided to have a look. We came upon this sign...

and decided to head for the daffodil walk...

It was all so beautiful. If we didn't like Helen and her gorgeous husband John so much we would be very jealous indeed!

Of course it would have been rude not to make the odd purchase...

What do you think? I am going to fix it to the inside of our front door for the next few weeks. I love wreaths. If I were PM I would make them compulsory on everyone's door!

I also bought a couple of items for the baby which I will show you soon... the colour will give away the flavour of the baby :-)

Hope that you all had fun in the sun this weekend!

I am back!

hello!

I am sorry I've been away so long, yikes, it has been well over a month. I see from my stats that people are still coming to read which is lovely and I hope that I haven't disappointed with the lack of posts!

But I have a good excuse. The fact is, I have been right off my food. So disinterested in the stuff which usually rules my life I found I had nothing to say! Nothing to blog about!

What could have caused such a strange turn of events I hear you say?

What could it be?

Well, does this give you a clue?

Yes! I have a bun in the oven :-) which is amazing. Wonderful. Heart skippingly fantastic. A very much longed for and anticipated event in our lives. But on the food front, oh boy have I been sick! And the little one steals all my vitamins and energy and often words so that, dear reader, is the reason for my absence.

I feel much better now, apart from the draining tiredness, but Yay! The appetite is back and I have stopped feeling sick and so faddy about what I want to eat. I am not ashamed to say that I have eaten Birds Eye Potato waffles on more than one occasion in the last few weeks! Baked beans, mashed potato and broccoli have also featured heavily. Bacon, lamb, curry, or anything rich tasting were firmly off the menu. Poor Dominic has been deprived! Thank goodness its all back to normal. Well except for the gazillion things the government tell you you can't eat, all of which I love, raw oysters, blue cheese (most nice cheese in fact), rare steak, dippy eggs, pate... sigh... the list goes on!

So, do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl?

Hmmm...

Well you'll have to wait for the next post ha ha ha!

However, I want to announce something else, I think my blog is going to take a little departure from being just about food. That will of course still be very heavily featured, and I promise this will not turn into a pregnancy blog :-) but I have thought for a while about the blogs I love, like Lucy's at Attic24, Cherry Menlove's the two Janes at Posy and Yarnstorm, Alicia at Posy Gets Cosy. They write about a wider range of topics and I have so much to say about nature, home making, life's simple pleasures really that I feel restricted by writing about one of my passions, however overriding the passion is at times!

But for you foodies, I will leave you with a photo of something I cooked, photographed and never blogged about :-)

Maybe I'll share the recipe soon too.

see you soon!