Rhubarb & Custard

From this (in February)....

to this (in June).....

Yummy rhubarb crumble!!!

and custard...mmm...that's the idea!!

I came across this gorgeous ad on the back of a 1946 Women's Illustrated magazine - it's good to see that some good old British brands are still with us!!

Rebecca

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We have lots and lots of very, very hungry caterpillars!!

I wish they would go and find some cherry pie and salami and leave my once rain-bejewelled broccoli leaves alone!! Apologies, but Eric Carle's book was a firm favourite with my children and has left a lasting impression! I think that my daughter, who'll be 16 this year, would still list it amongst her favourite books, alongside The Tiger that came to Tea and Jill Murphy's stories about the Large family!! Oh, how we loved sharing those books!

On the opposite side of the garden...

the pretty, light-scented ballerina rose gives its best performance! Every year, despite our best soapy water efforts, it is absolutely riddled with greenfly but always flowers its little heart out! My parents gave the rose to my daughter around 11 years ago to celebrate the opening night of her very first ballet show - I always think what a lovely idea it was and such a perfect example of how to give flowers that last!!

Bye for now,

Rebecca

x

Wow! An award .....

for me...really...I have received this 'One Lovely Blog Award' - thank you so much Helen, I am delighted to accept!! Helen has an Etsy shop called Cattoo, and you can find her here: http://www.justalittlepeek-justalittlepeek.blogspot.com/ - do take a look!

Mmmm...now, I need to choose 15 blogs that I think are lovely and deserve this award...where to begin? Here goes:

Dream Acres

Attic 24

Snapdragon's Garden

Tales from our cottage

Everyday life

Kitschen Pink

This vintage life

Bertie Meadows

Sal's Snippets

Jane and the happy crow

Mrs Bobo Bun

Suzy's Vintage Attic

Little Gem's World

Notes from my days

Oh, Kirby

I love all these blogs for lots of different reasons - please take a look and see what you think!

Right, I must stop looking at lovely blogs and get on with some preparation for the village fete I'm attending on 5th July - I still have stock to make, labelling and pricing to do....oooh, the list goes on... and it always take so much longer than I think it will!!

Back soon,

Rebecca x

Good Books

I simply adore books and could quite happily spend hours in a book shop - a secondhand book shop that is, not somewhere like Waterstones! One of my favourite places is Much Ado Books in Alfriston, which is always on the "Must Visit" list when we travel south to visit my in-laws. Alfriston is gorgeous and the bookshop, well ... I could spend the day there! It has such a lovely atmosphere, places to sit, even bookcases in the garden where chickens roam around, oooh... and lavender shortbread, if you're lucky! There was an article in February's Country Living magazine about the shop and its lovely American owners - you can find out a bit more about it (and the shop!) here http://www.muchadobooks.com/.

Anyway, getting to the point of today's post - Good Books - or should I say Good Buy Books! I am so happy to have stumbled upon this 1949 edition of Dorothy Whipple's Because of the Lockwoods for less than the price of a paperback - just looking at it brings me so much joy (sad, I know!). I've nearly finished reading Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and cannot wait to get started on this one!

I wonder if the lady that lived here in 1949 read Mrs Whipple's novels?

Rebecca x

Bread

Since my breadmaker stopped working a little while ago, I have been buying bread because the thought of making bread by hand just seemed all too much bother. However, the other evening I decided to get down to it and it really didn't take long at all. There was something just so satisfying about it too - all that stress-busting kneading, not to mention the lovely smell as it rose in the kitchen and baked in the oven! Here's the resulting wholemeal loaf with butter at the ready...
After Wednesday evening's storm and heavy rainfall, I had to smile at the cover of the Country Living magazine that dropped through the letterbox this morning ... "The great BRITISH SUMMER" !!


Something lovely to look at while enjoying an egg mayo sandwich (with the remains of the homemade loaf!) in the garden! I spotted Naughty Cat No.1 catching some lunchtime sunshine too!

"Oh, that's spoilt my sunbathing!"

"It's so bright out here!"

Naughty Cat No.2 is not quite such a show off! In fact, she is very shy indeed and, usually, very difficult to photograph, but I caught her..... on the garden table!

Hope the weather holds for the weekend!

Rebecca

x

After the rain...

We had thunderstorms and heavy rain here last night so this morning's sunshine is a very welcome sight! After hanging the washing on the line, I did my usual tour of the garden to see how things are coming along:

My poor, defenceless, little veg plants (mangetout, rocket and radishes) look a little flattened and sorry for themselves,

but I love the way the rain just sits, jewel-like, on the leaves of the broccoli plants - quite stunning, or I think so anyway!!

I am looking forward to these...

Purple basil seedlings have been joined by purple petals this morning!

and Mr Bee goes about his business so all's well!

Hope the sun is shining where you are!

Rebecca

x

Carpe Diem!

Oh, how I love peonies ...

... and honeysuckle!

I am so glad I took every opportunity to work in the garden over the last few days! Today is much, much cooler and slightly grey so I am sewing indoors!

Rebecca

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