Let's take a walk

and burn off some of those calories from all the
feasting and chocolate eating of Mother's Day yesterday!

For those who celebrated Mother's Day yesterday,
I hope you had a lovely day and got thoroughly spoilt by your loved ones!

We had a houseful here for Sunday lunch

and to make sure that I too could enjoy the day without too much work,
I kept the food simple and made it the day before.


I made several lasagnes (both meat and vegetarian) and a fresh raspberry bakewell tart, asked my family to bring other desserts, and so all I had to do yesterday was the salads and baked potatoes.

Ok, let's go then.
And let's take my new pedometer with us and see how far we go.

Better put your wellies on as it'll be a bit muddy after yesterdays rain.


Ready?





Down the lane then

 

and over the stile at the end of the lane and through the gates


 

 into the track that leads down to the fishing lakes


 

lovely views but its a bit nippy still this early


 

no sheep in this field today but you can see where they've been!


 

now over another stile and along the narrow path past the fishing ponds


 

no geese there at the moment, but it's a favourite spot of theirs and we hear them take off at dusk as they head over our house to where ever they settle for the night





up the track past the corner where the pigs were last year

and down into the woods

it's going to be a lovely day

 

past the stream on the right

 

then up to the crossroads - which way shall we go this morning?


 

Let's go right past the bracken

 

 

as its the quickest way to Logan's favourite part of the walk




the orchards!

 

Logan loves it here - the long wet grass, the scent of rabbits .....


 

I love it because of the views and the openness - can you spot the church in the distance?
It's a bit misty but you can just see it.

 

the beautiful neat rows of apple trees


 

the buds are starting  to appear

and on some trees the remains of last years crop is rotting on the branches

round the orchard then

a huge bonfire that's been here for months - wonder when they'll light it?

round the top between orchards, along Brambly Hedge where the little woodland creatures live

who lives in a house like this?

Detached

semi-detached

and apartments

the penthouse suite

and now down the other side of the orchard we go

lots of moss under the trees

the trees to the side of the orchard are full of catkins

then back into the woods, still thickly carpeted with the dead leaves of autumn

but signs of life are peeking through - there will be a sea of bluebells in a few weeks time

back through the woods along a different path this time

past lots of green broom that will soon be covered in yellow flowers

bramble leaves red in the morning sunlight

a busy bee

back to the crossroads in the woods - and Logan has decided which way we are going back

up the steep hill, puff puff!

Come on slow coach, Logan's look says it all!

Phew, nearly there, I can see the gate ahead

Nearly home now

back along the lane

here we are

mind we don't step on the pretty little scillas coming up through the gravel in the drive

Well, we did just under two miles this morning.

Not bad eh?

And surely I must have walked off some of that chocolate trifle?

Enjoy your day!

Edited Tuesday to add:
On the subject of walking, I meant to mention that Annette over at My Rose Valley is encouraging people to walk their way to a healthier fitter life with her "Come Walk With Me" mission!

It is a great idea of Annette's and she has put a lot of time and effort into giving advice, guidelines and lots of encouragement! It is not a competition but a way of getting into good regular personal walking habits.


Do pop over to her blog and see for yourself, and get walking! 


Walking is free! 
It's easy to just get out there wherever you live whether it be town, city or countryside 
You can walk whatever the weather
You can do it whenever you can fit it into your schedule wherever you are (lunchtime at work?)
You can walk for as little (even 5 mins brisk walk is good!) or as much as you can manage timewise
You feel so good afterwards, both physically and mentally !
And the more you do, the better you'll feel 


Go take a walk!

Refurb Project

 

Hello everyone, hope you all had a good weekend!

Thanks for all your comments on my last few posts - you might be pleased to know this is another rare cushion-free post!


 

The weather here was glorious for both days at the weekend, so we spent the best part of the weekend  in the garden tackling some of the many jobs that need doing.



We also picked up a dresser top that I won on eBay for £27 last week - that is a good price for around here, where any dresser or dresser top usually has lots of local bidders - I was up against three other bidders for this and as I was prepared to pay more than what it went for I came out on top for once.

 I have bid for and lost so many dressers and dresser tops in the last year, only finally winning a kitchen dresser a few months ago which is still awaiting  its makeover!

But now that Annie Sloan has a new pale dusky pink out, I have a few ideas for that one .

(NOT the whole thing in pink, heaven forbid! My husband would not be happy with that, but he won't mind the insides pink, like I have already painted the insides of the kitchen wall display cupboards!)


 

Anyway, I won this dresser top - it was in a barn when we collected it, covered in thick dust, cobwebs and grease - not very appetising - but it is quite a good quality one.

After a thorough clean up it was put in place on the old Ikea dresser base we have had for ages, which I had already painted in Annie Sloan's Country Grey a while ago, although it hasn't yet been waxed.

The photos make the greys of both top and bottom appear similar, whereas in fact they are not and both dresser top and bottom will need to be re-painted.

And even though it looks as if the grey goes well in the dining room, with the oil cloth, in real life the top looks too gloomy and dark for the room as it has poor natural light except in late afternoon, so it needs something a bit lighter. The base looks an ideal colour at the moment, but I know it will go darker when waxed, and be too dark for the whole dresser.


 

The dresser top is supposedly in a Farrow and Ball grey, but it is a dark dreary grey which I dislike and will change once I have made up my mind what colour to change it to.



I knew what colour I wanted to paint the back boards, and yesterday I gave it a couple of coats of Duck Egg blue ( Homebase's own brand as I already had a pot) and I am so pleased with the result.


 

The true colour is more like that in the above photo, as some of my photos make it look more blue than it is, and the room is quite dark hence not very good photos.

 

The above photo shows the difference in greys - see how much lighter the dresser base is


 

 

 

 

 

 

So, the question is, what colour for the rest of the dresser?

I'm thinking a lighter, less beigey grey, more like the one of my hall table in the first photo, which goes well with white walls and is a light and elegant, but not gloomy, grey.

I love the colour combination of duck egg with pale grey, and I have a couple of little jugs that I love in that colour way, but the current dresser top colour is too much of a muddy beigey grey - see the photo above for a more true colour.

Or I could go for an off-white as it's a quite a dark room? White always looks good.

Decision, decisions!

Perhaps you can help me here - what do you think?

Spring cushions

 

I finished these spring cushions last week for the sitting room, and just saw the photos on Picasa and realised that I hadn't shared them with you - and I would hate that you should miss some!


 

The cushion above is made from  vintage Laura Ashley and trimmed with a blue vintage trim


 

The other side I made a few weeks ago when I was making lots of other patchwork cushions.


 

This one above used up some last pieces of fabric that had been made up into other cushions on my sofa - the reverse is below


 

 

The scalloped cushion above is made from a gorgeous 70s blue and white floral pillowcase, and the reverse (below) is more of the vintage Laura Ashley

 

 

 

 

 

Some more fabric arrived today - a lovely large orange floral vintage sheet from the 70s

 

and 2 metres of bright pink linen, plenty for lots of cushions for my shop.


 

 

 

So lots more sewing to come, but this time not for me but for those empty shop shelves.

All the new cushions I've been making for the last few months for our home have been helping me decide what styles I want to make for my online shop, and have enabled me to try out different ideas and techniques.

 

Sorry to have bombarded you with cushions yet again, you lovely patient people!

I promise I shall have something different to show you next time, not a cushion in sight, as I got lucky on eBay today!

I won a piece of furniture for a very good price, something that I have been keeping an eye out for many months, so I'm pretty chuffed!


All will be revealed next post!