Just Discovered

Vintage TV - on Freesat.... it's brilliant for folding the ironing too (snort - I never fold anything) it's great for sorting the washing into heaps....that's more like it.

The cats are loving this hot spell; I find if I don't move I can enjoy it too...ha ha ha Unrelated photo of Dandelion (one of next door's) being uber cute. N.B. I am having a few technical difficulties - it's been such a long time since I've tinkered with the layout I have become a beginner again ..........for some reason it won't let me start a new paragraph..grh....

Decorative Living Fair

Despite the dreadful weather my neighbour and I ventured over the boarder to Kent to visit this years Decorative Living Fair. It’s a kind of small scale Country Living fair but the focus is more on vintage, although saying that there was jewellery, gardenalia etc. To my great delight I met the lovely Viv of Hens Teeth who had travelled south to do the fair. I was very restrained and hardly bought anything - as fabric and notions don’t count do they?

Is it really May?

Ha ha - it's May and quite honestly it still feels like March. This morning while I was visiting a local charity shop my Liberty radar went off big time. As I am sure most of you Liberty fabric lovers will know old lady clothes -or posh old lady clothes are often made in Liberty fabrics and you can often get a lot of fabric out of an old lady dress or skirt - Poppy and Honesty is the name of the design -I checked on the Liberty fabric archive... One of the reason my blogging has fallen by the wayside is my new computer; I shan't bore you with the technicalities but it's do to with getting photos uploaded onto here...so until I resolve the problem...todays photo is of last years auriculas. This years show which has yet to be photographed is surprisingly good considering I have thought them to be on the verge of death... Other news is a pair of herring gulls have decided to nest on a neighbours roof....and before any of you go all Spring Watch on me they are very noisy and I am not at all happy about it.

Is it really February?

I can hardly believe it will be March soon - time passes very fast.

This is a photo of my Granny and I probably taken in the mid to late 1960's...

And this is a photo of my Gran taken I think in 1918/1919 not long before she married
I am currently looking at my family tree and have stumbled across some very fascinating ancestors. It's a subject that is deeply interesting to yourself but probably very dull for those around you but thankfully Stella and Baby Mother are looking into their family histories too so we're like a little club.

Let me introduce you

We have recently welcomed two lovely pussy cats to our home..

I am Boudicca

and you can call me The Dowager
They are both in their twilight years but still have their kittenish moments....

Thank you so much to those of you who sent me such kind words about Harry.

Harry

25th May 1997 - 12th November 2011

Remember remember

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

Bonfire or Guy Fawkes night…not much revelry or celebration in the Gigibird household….a noise sensitive dog put paid to that 14 years ago….Harry is deaf now but the enforced quietness has become a habit I don’t care to change….I’ve always hated fireworks –
I can remember my brother always making a Guy with his friends and begging with it about town which was common place back in the 60’s and 70’s (and before of course)…. I know my parents didn’t approve but that was yester year. Penny for the Guy?

My name is Harry not Guy.

West Dean Apple Fair

Yesterday Nigel and I visited the annual West Dean Apple Fair as we are hoping to add a couple of apple trees to our bijoux patch.

Choosing an apple tree is a surprisingly complicated business as there are hundreds of varieties, sizes, desert, culinary.…and so I thought we should consult the experts to get it right.

After some tasting and questioning we have chosen Fiesta for our desert and Arthur Turner for a cooker both on M26 root.

We also consulted an ‘Apple Doctor’ with some mystery apples from a neighbour’s garden - I was so impressed with how swiftly with 2 questions he identified them to be Lane’s Prince Albert…a well behaved cooker.
There were lots of non apple related stalls to keep all happy and we returned home with artisan breads and cheeses as well as some apples grown in West Dean itself.

Bee HQ

Even with hardly any rain my garden seems to have gone crazy with the bees loving the lambs ears and cat mint.

Poppies have self seeded along the wall which looks like the garden is trying to burst out of it's small confines.

In the Clouds

I went up here today

Spinnaker Tower Portsmouth
I almost walked on the glass floor

Can you spot HMS Victory?

Later I ate what seemed like a fluffy green cloud.

Come into the Garden

Have you noticed anything else in the front?

Thought I should capture the clematis Montana before it’s over – probably tomorrow.

New to me a very smart cat house.
Some of you may remember I have an occasional stray cat visitor who was dividing his time between me and his Mummy no.1 who lives in a near by road. Last winter she upgraded his sleeping quarters to what is essentially a luxury wooden chalet and very kindly gave me his old house.

A rare glimpse of stray cat aka 'Tommy'
I would like to think now the warmer weather is here he may start visiting me again but if he doesn’t perhaps someone else may take up residence...I am not talking about one of the cats from next door….although they are of course welcome to camp out of the mood takes them.

(Human) Pin Cushion

I just couldn’t resist the allure of this capacious wicker basket this morning while I paid a visit to the village for a blood test appointment ( 3 attempts; I feel like a human pin cushion) …

.not sure how I can hide it before the man of the house returns….I will try and avert his gaze with custard.

Anyway it wasn’t just wicker that took my eye – another Persephone for my collection…and how could I leave the embroidered linen tray cloth when such subtle colours had been used?


All this treasure and I got to enjoy a large cappuccino with Baby mother while we watched the world go by in this glorious weather.

Spring Shoot

Although it is an absolutely gorgeous spring day outside I am happily inside playing with my camera taking photos for the Florence Hope shop update and getting carried away with my props.

Theses little beauties are a recent acquisition ….Very old French linen stamps…..

I am constantly drawn to small objects…I’m happiest making little things…except my dinner – that has to be BIG

In the steps of Cnut

This afternoon I found myself in picture perfect Bosham the alleged site of King Cnut’s encounter with some waves. – by the way that’s Cnut the Great not the other one.

Because of the exquisite location of the village it is a real tourist destination but this afternoon there was hardly anyone about.

Caveat venditor

For the last week or so I have been dipping my toe in to the strange world of selling on Ebay.

Should I do a buy it now on this?

I started with a batch of Baby Mother’s Boden mistakes which made my first experience relatively easy as Boden seems a popular brand and I guess people know what they are getting….but out of the five items I sold I’ve got an non payer which has completely thrown me as I rather naively thought that people would pay as soon as bidding finished because that’s what I have always done….

Do I say I am selling this because my dog won't sit next to me if I'm wearing it?

My neighbour is having a similar experience with one of her buyers….
I am now reluctantly formulating my terms and conditions which has kind of taken the fun out of the selling process…

Do the "bobbles" illustrate the cardigan has some wear?

Laws of Attraction

Last Monday a new pure wool, hessian backed carpet arrived at Gigibird Towers….we’ve waited a long time for carpet and since it’s arrival I’ve implemented a shoes off rule to the upstairs….but this morning I forgot to remove my Crocs I had just worn outside in my muddy water soaked garden….
Thankfully it hoovered up….and in a way I’m glad it was me that was the first one to leave mud on it.

Before
However my neighbour wasn’t so lucky…her new carpet wasn’t 24 hours hours old before it was ‘Christened’ by one of her cats over night… and they didn’t use Holy water

After
The sun has shown it’s face this afternoon so Harry and I went to look at the sea…still very cold but beautiful.

Arundel

This morning my lovely neighbour and I took a trip to Arundel to have a coffee and a mooch around the shops.
I like Arundel in the winter.

Railings love.

Outside the new Florist's shop in Tarrant Street

Inside the new Florist's shop.....isn't he the cutest little dog.

Horay for February

Thank the Lord January is behind us now.These cold, dark damp days are beginning to get to me even though I usually love this time of year.

Come on Spring where are you?

Watch the Birdy

I had a feeling my intention to take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch wasn’t going to go smoothly when the free 58 page bird book in yesterday’s Telegraph was missing….still I now know the identities of all my birds….so when we returned from our food shop I thought it would be a perfect time for me to look out to the garden while I was packing away and cooking dinner to count my little feathered visitors….
Jackson and Dandelion two of my neighbours cats decided to have a set too in the corner of my garden….so I had no birds; finally the cats took their quarrel elsewhere and slowly the birds popped in to see what I had on offer but numbers where lower than usual and the sparrows and starlings didn’t even show

Ready for action?.......

Big Buns and Birds

Morning coffee at the Bluebird Café….it’s one of the few places where dogs are welcome….and they let me and Stella in too

Look at the size of the bun…..we had to share it as a whole one each would have been too piggy although I think Stella was up for it.
This is the little bird that regularly visits my garden.

At first I thought he was a Redwing….but now I think he could either be a Song Thrush or a Mistle Thrush. Whatever he is I feel very honoured of his visits.
If you can tell can you let me know what he is.