roses are red, and pink and white and yellow

let me introduce you to my new rose, Golden Fanfare.



for the first year, the pink climber New Dawn is flowering beautifully, typical really.



this is Madame Alfred Carriere, I shall be buying a new one of these.



this bee is having a lovely time in one of the really blowsy blooms



this is my Gran's rose Satchmo, it will be getting dug up soon, and potted up ready for the move, I hope it survives, I know it's the wrong time of year.....



and this little sweetie was a supermarket minature that Miss K insisted we bought last summer and it flowered and flowered, and when it was still alive months later I potted it up in bigger container, and now it is flowering away happily.

when the roses are blooming so beautifully it's hard to stay grumpy for long xox

a vote

I am feeling VERY grumpy.........

we were really looking forward to having a couple of pet chickens in our new house, and when we viewed we asked if there were any restrictions about keeping poultry, and no-one had ever heard of any.

today we get a huge pile of papers from the solicitors, and there in black and white, in restriction 4 is a prohibition to keep poultry.

humbug........ J says we should just keep them anyway, and plead ignorance.

did I mention that I am VERY grumpy

I have been told by extremely patient hubby that we can not buy the house if it is going to be such a disaster, but I feel that might make me out to be a bit petulant...........

so in order to distract me from said grumpiness I have been trying to do more clearing out, without smashing things into boxes with gusto which is how I'm feeling....

which is where you come in

I need a vote on these blue bathroom vases, which have lived happily on the bathroom window here for many years. Thing is I can't decide if I love them enough to pack them. so what do I do.

I call upon you to decide their fate.

"who goes, you decide", as the big brother presenters would say, or they used to, I only watched it once. too weird for me........

exhibit a : hyacinth vase, quite fun to watch the roots grow, but then not that useful the rest of the year...

exhibit b: this one has never to my knowledge actually had flowers in.......

exhibit c: hubby thinks this one looks like a sample bottle, and it isn't a great shape for actually putting anything in.....

I am wondering why I've even kept them for so long, except they do look quite pretty when the sun shines through..........

or shall I just start afresh, maybe with a vase with chickens on...........

the p word

usually I am a goddess of the last minute, and leave getting ready for anything to the last possible date, and then burn myself out in a mad panic.
this time I have decided (ok Mr Driftwood has politely suggested using a different strategy) that we will be organized, and start packing non essentials now.



so we aquired a stash of supplies



that now looks like this...

Alice sent me a very helpful link explaining about packing, and the importance of labelling, so I asked the children to decorate their boxes so we knew whose they were.



I am not sure they quite understood the concept, but no doubt it will make the removal van driver smile.

the photo says it all. no. 2

mmmmm. delicious.

thanks for all the birthday wishes, I had a lovely day, with LOTS of cake!

lists and more lists

things I should have done today, and haven't;
-dropped off a prescription at the doctors
-bought some gluten free pasta, we had spaghetti bolognaise last night, except I had a jacket potato - it just wasn't the same.....
-paid a cheque into the bank
-posted 3 important letters
-find an important document to go in one of the important letters
-filled in school application forms
-packing

things I have done today;
- got rained on, a lot.........
- saw the new exhibit at the Quilt Museum, just lovely.
- tripped over boxes (waiting to be packed) that are sitting on the stairs
-bought some strawberries, cherries and raspberrys
- and some lemon curd.

what I'm going to do next;
decide whether to make chocolate and raspberry roulade, or meringue roulade with lemon curd and strawberries.

well it's important to get birthday cake decisions right, especially as I also forgot to go to M&S..........

a post in which I have a confession to make

dear readers I have a confession.

last weekend it was Mr Driftwood's birthday.
there is a long tradition of birthday cake making in the driftwood family.



I have let the side down.

I bought hubby's cakes from M&S.

still if it's good enough for these ladies of the WI............

happpiness is a coverlet

I remade our bed this week, and changed our winter quilt for this delightful coverlet.
It was made by the neighbour of my gran, my mum says she never ever knew her first name, and she was always called Mrs ....



Each tiny square is handsewn, and it is such a thrill to have it on the bed. I have coveted it for years, it's graced the spare bed at mum and dad's house for as long as I can remember, and last week my mum turned up with it, and said I could have it. Totally out of the blue, no reason, or occasion, just because she knew I liked it. I could have cried (there's been a lot of that recently, house stress.........)



there is a centre of squares, and then rows and rows of matching squares, cut out of all types of fabrics, I'm sure this check is an old mens shirt.

then follows a section of random squares, and then a pink and blue checkerboard design, and then at the top and bottom a pink and green and yellow pattern, and it's simply backed on a seersucker print, which folds at the sides to make a binding.

If you look closely you find mismatches in the pattern, which adds to the whole charm of it,

I don't know how old it is, but it's showing signs of wear and tear, I feel a few hours of delicate darning coming up, really it's too old and precious to use, but I can't bear the thought of it being on a shelf,

so a mending I must go.

how does your garden grow?

remember when we got carried away with our pruning, and ended up with a vegetable patch instead of a flower bed, well now we have baby raddishes



teeny tiny alpine strawberries in flower



fluffy carrots




and baby lettuces in urgent need of thinning out, my assistants were a bit over keen with the amount of seeds.

I think it will be a few more weeks before anything is really big enough to eat, and once or twice I've seen a cat fast asleep on top of the netting, but I'm looking forward to my homegrown salad very much xox

easy pavlova

warm sunny weekends need summery desserts. ok so this is a favourite winter dessert too but don't tell anyone.....

Easy pavlova
heat oven to 180 C
whisk 4 eggs whites till frothy



whisk in 25o g caster sugar, till it goes silken, and you can make little peaks



fold in 1tsp of white wine vinegar and 2 tsp of cornflour and spread on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

turn oven down to 150C, and cook for 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes depending on your oven, it needs to be still quite pale. leave to cool in oven (that's why it needs to be slightly underdone)

heap piles of fruit and cream on once cool

and then forget to photograph it before it's all gone. - ok so that bit isn't part of the recipe - or the plan......