Medieval Fayre

Hello everyone. Okay, so I know I haven't been around blog land for a while but now I am feeling inspired to get started again.

Thank you to everyone who has left messages and emails to see how I was. It was very thoughtful of you all. I have been kind of lurking for a while so thought it was about time I started posting again. I have missed all my bloggy friends out there so it will be nice to get in touch again.

On Sunday we decided to brave the freezing temperatures and drive down to Ludlow in South Shropshire for their medieval Christmas fayre.

There were lots of medieval type things to try including archery!

Plenty of arrows available for those who are not so good at hitting the target.

All the stall holders and people involved with the fayre dress up. These knights at the gate to the castle were pretty impressive.

There are a lot of nice food shops in Ludlow and this one is very typical with its produce on show outside the windows.

This autumn has apparently been what's called a 'mast' year. There has been an unbelievable amount of fruit and nuts in the hedgerows. This is a good thing for the wildlife with all the cold weather we are having now as we dont usually get snow as early as November. The holly tree in my garden looks very festive with its dusting of snow.

That's all for now. I'm off to try and do some catching up and have a look at what everyone else has been up to!

Susie

A Taste of Somerset

The weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse since I returned from my break in Somerset. After being starved of rain for two months, the garden is now looking a bit on the soggy side! My flowers are suffering. The good thing is we had lots of sunshine in Somerset. There were so many places I wanted to see that we had to limit ourselves in the time we had. Here’s just a taster of some of things we did.

First stop was Glastonbury, no not the festival, the town! I think every single shop in Glastonbury is a spiritual, hippy trippy type place. That’s fine if you are out of fairy dust or joss sticks but where the heck do people in this town buy their groceries!! It is a very pretty town with its Abbey and we had a nice lunch in a cafe called Hundred Monkeys We also stopped off at the tor just outside the town and climbed to the top.

The views from the top were worth the climb!

Wells was next on the list. It has an amazing cathedral. All I could think about when looking around this cathedral was the baby eating bishop of Bath and Wells from the Black Adder series!

The cloisters in Wells Cathedral.

This is where all the priests used to live and not surprisingly it is called Vicars' Close!!

Next stop, Bath. It is a town I have always wanted to visit and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

The Roman Baths are really interesting to look around and we had a look around No 1 The Crescent which is now a museum.

Roman Baths

With all that sightseeing it was nice to chill out on the beach in the evening.

Finally, here’s some mischief makers, Tiger and Lily, my new kittens. We’ve had them two weeks now and they settled in almost immediately. They are into and onto everything! There’s not an ornament left in sight!

As you can see, I have a problem with blogging now as they think it is great fun to sit on my laptop!

Enjoy your weekend.

Susie

Catch Up!

How are you all? It's been a while since I visited blog land I know and I have loads and loads of catching up to do! I've missed everyone and I'm going to have look at what you've all be up to. I've been kinda busy, enjoying the good summer we've finally had here in England, the tennis, the World Cup football and working on the house and garden.

Where do I start?

Well, the good weather has enabled us to start major work on the house, replacing all the windows. The middle window here has been knocked out to make way for a front door and porch.

Before fixing the porch Andy thought it would be a good idea to put the new window in above.

Here's the new window from the inside. It was relatively easy to fit and just slotted in to position. We didnt even have to take the curtains down!!
Next, a little old original window was re-fitted and this will be inside the porch to give a bit more light in the living room.

Here's the little window from the inside. The original, original windows with their leaded lights were tiny. It is hard to imagine how dark it must have been inside the house with windows this size.

The timber frame for the porch was then fitted and this will gradually be clad in the brick that took ages and ages for us to find to match the house but eventually we managed to get some from a reclamation yard. Only four more windows to replace now and then the front of the house will be finished. Hooray!!

Rufus has enjoyed the sunshine, playing in the paddling pool but as you can see, the hose goes everywhere except in the actual pool!

The kittens are really growing and one has even been re-homed already. We have found homes for them all and I'm having two and will pick them up on return from my holiday next week.

Aren't they cuties!

Finally, I couldn't go without showing you some of the garden. The roses, peonies and in fact, everything else has done really well this year despite the lack of rain.

I'm off my hols next week to Somerset. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. See you later!

Susie X

Summer Days

First things first. Congratulations to Mami the winner of my giveaway. Your prize will be winging its way over to Japan very soon. I hope you like it!

Over at my parent’s house, look what we found in the barn! Five gorgeous little kitties!

There are two ginger, two tabby and one tortoiseshell.

Here’s mum. She doesn’t have a name. She is a stray who took it upon herself to visit every day during our horrible winter and of course, my mother took pity on her and started feeding her. She is still very nervous and won’t come in the house and it is difficult to get near her. She has made her home in one of the outbuildings at my parent’s house and that is where she had her kittens. She is gradually gaining our trust and becoming more confident and if you approach her carefully, will now let you stroke her. She is a really good mother and is doing well with her kittens and is very proud of them, purring away when you go to look at them. The kittens get cuter by the day and are just beginning to open their eyes. So far, we have found homes for four of them including mine!

My mum in her greenhouse getting all the geraniums ready to put out in the garden.

It has been a bit of a scorcher this weekend and about time too and with all the warm weather everthing is now beginning to flower in the garden.

This clematis is taking over the hedge that borders the garden but it does look very pretty.

You may remember, last year I bought some alium bulbs at Tatton Park Flower Show and here they are now just out in the flower border.

BBQ time. Making the most of the good weather, on Saturday I went to a BBQ at my brother's place.

Rufus was looking pretty cool in his shades!!

Getting the fire going.

How long does it take to put a two year old's swing together. Most of the afternoon in this case! Time for a cool off in the paddling pool I think!

Hope you all enjoy your your week and the sunshine.

Susie