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Tuesday 31 August 2010

Holiday Snap Tuesday - 3

Il Borro

This has to be the most beautiful village in Italy and we were lucky to have a lovely holiday there some years ago with our younger son Alex.
It was a village that has been restored by the Ferragamo family (italian fashion designers)after being occupied by the Germans during the 2nd world war.  It was heaven as you can imagine, and had a lovely restaurant artisan shops swimming pool and not too far from the lovely town of Arezzo. I would love to go back but it is a little expensive!!
I am sorry that these are not my photos but my photos were saved on my old computer and it unfortunately died a death and I lost some of my photos. I am once again joining Jeanne in the Tuesday holiday snap!

Monday 30 August 2010

Bright Star, would I were stedfast as though art

Last night I watched this most wonderful film and felt that I just had to tell everyone about it, I can't recommend it enough, especially if you like poetry, beautiful scenery and fabulous costumes!
It is all about the 3 year love affair between Keats and Fanny Brown who was a student of fashion and his neighbour in the then village of Hampstead in London. (I believe they found the two houses close together to film at just outside London)


Look at this most beautiful costume such a vivid pink wouldn't it be so romantic (if unpractical)to wear such clothes today!

This is just a few of the images, there is a lovely one at the beginning of the film showing you rows and rows of white linen on the washing line.
Such a shame he died so young at 25 and was so poor.  I believe you can stay at Keats House with the Landmark Trust in Rome. Nice romantic retreat although she didn't go with him!
Definitely a film to keep watching! Do go and see it if you can or buy the DVD.

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Holiday Snap Tuesday

Well this is a very quick post where I am joining Jeanne in her Tuesday holiday snap.  I simply love Venice, but we don't go in the summer it is either in November or January, when Venice becomes very mystical the first time we arrived and we walked to the hotel from the taxi we walked through St Marks square it was dark and it was lit my small magical lights and the glow from the bars surrounding the square, it was perfect, no tourists just us! I fell in love with it there and then!

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Birthdays are a good excuse to eat cake

My father always says to me that you only have one Birthday and the rest are all anniversaries, I think he took this on board when he didn’t want anyone to know how old he was. Well I have just had a birthday and it was very special, it was made special by having my family with me, my lovely mum and dad and my sister and her husband. The celebrations started by going to a Jazz festival in Christchurch Hampshire, lovely lunch in my sisters garden and then finishing with a picnic on the beach. She made me the most lovely cake and I was woken up with a lovely cupcake with a candle in it!! Sadly my sons weren’t with me but I had lots of lovely pressies from them.

It has been very quite where we live, it is very rural so the seasons are well marked by what is happening on the Farms nearby, Sometimes the tractors work well on to midnight and then you get these lovely peaceful times when all you hear are the calves in the nearby shed, the wind and on Sunday the church bells, it is I know idyllic but can also feel a little cut off from civilasation, I am about 50 miles away from the nearest city so no café culture for me.

I have also noticed in the hedgerow blackberries, and these little calves were very interested in what I was doing near their hedge!!!
so off we went there wasn’t too many but after a lot of scratches and stings (blackberries always seem to be by stinging nettles) I managed to pick enough for my crumble. If I had had longer arms then I might have had enough to make jam the best blackberries are always out of reach. So with apples from the garden
I made my favourite crumble recipe with added oats and almonds plus a little cassis to add some omph to the fruit. I meant to take a photo of the crumble but too late is has all gone, TOH is rubbing his tummy.






Tuesday 3 August 2010

EVERYDAY THINGS ARE THE BEST!!



Does anyone have the same problem as me? I come up to my workroom and then decide to look at my favourite blogs and then one leads to another – and some are so gorgeous that you just keep reading, the next thing you have spent nearly 2 hours on the computer, I get so frustrated that I have wasted so much time – but no I don’t think it was wasted your are all so inspiring that it makes you smile, laugh and cry its just like curling up with a good book! So what have I been doing for the last few days, well I have sewed gardened 
(this is a photo of my lavender it covers my path now and is so beautiful)
 cooked walked visited my boys (sorry not boys now but they will always be my boys!) and of course biked!



There are some things very precious in life and they are your children and last week my son presented me with this lovely bunch of flowers for no reason at all but just to say …………………. I know the photo is a bit blurred but it was the only one I took!!



I then had a project in my garden that has needed doing for so long, we have a very old brick shed (used to be the outside loo I think) it has no door on it, well TOH was going to make one, but it needed something right now and I found this old Ikea curtain that we used to have in our beachhut and I think it has done the trick? What do you think.
 Now I have a thing about angels and we bought this one at the market in Bridport, here are also some other angels that I have doted about the house.

 My favourite has to be the one I have had since a little girl which was given to me by my aunt.

and then these lovely China Wings which I bought in France

And these are such lovely angels that you can buy from http://www.jeannedarcliving.dk
Once again I love to hear from you so please don't stray from my blog but write me a little comment if only to say you have visited, I love reading them.