Tuesday 23 August 2011

Roald Dahls House

For years  I have been wanting to visit Roald Dahls house , its not far from me and its open on odd days of the week for the NGS Scheme.
I finally made it this year and I was not dissapointed, it was charming, utterly charming and inspiring. It was very elegant but homley and not huge, you could easily imagine yourself living there if you know what I mean....this is the front

Isnt it a beauty,

This is the back of it







This was his writing hut - left as it was.......views out onto sweeping fields.....behind it a little orchard, the garden was long with different " rooms" neat and pretty nothing to over whelming...






This is THE " Danny Champion of the World" Gypsey Caravan.....I adored that book. My Dad gave it to me one christmas and it made the celebration for me with its cosy depiction of woods and pheasants...




Goodbye Gipsy House, Until next year.....






Marvellous Marrakech

I have to put some pics up of a recent trip to Marrakech, I just LOVE this place, my heart skips when I arrive, there is a buzz here, a whooshing of life going on but with a western eliment to it as well so its not too full on....


I love the colours....

The people


I fell in love with this horse.....poking his head out of a charming narrow alley shop full of splendid dusty chandeliers and busts.....


One of our stunning Riad rooms.....look what you get for the same price of a room full of bulky ugly pine in the uk....the ceiling was vaulted and it all felt very James Bond...


Another Riad another beauty....

Particualry love the use of torquoise here...

It really is as exotic as the name suggests, its a feast for all the senses...I have been wanting to go to New York for EVER, since my sister who is 15 years older than me came back when I was very young and said it was the most exciting city she has ever been too....well I have since been there and although I too loved it - for me there was no buzz compared to Marrackech...its a place very dear to me and I look forward to taking my daughter back to expand her senses too when she is a little older....on this trip my husband and I were literally astounded at the attention she received from the waiters and staff whereever we went.

Even in the ultra posh hotel La Momounia, ( Winston Churchills fav hotel) in a dark moody jazz bar, the singer even dedicated a song to our daughter and another little girl - " Isnt she Lolvey " by Stevie Wonder and the bar staff were running round getting them cherries on sticks.... they were grabbing cushions, swinging off bars.....You would not get that in the Ritz here!

Friday 19 August 2011

What Made me Smile Today...

We took our daughter to the Natural History Museum in London, and then to the Science Museum next door, on our way to the fab childs play area called "The Garden", we passed thru a corridor of old retro appliances and I saw this record player and stopped dead.
My sister and her husband brought one of these in the 1980's when it was the latest thing on the market....I think it played both side of the tape and record without having to manually turn it over!
I remembered the amazing music that used to come from it....they were alot older than me, I remembered sitting on her carpet in her sitting room, a crackling fire, her two lovely dogs and views of fields all around....listening to Life on Mars - David Bowie for the first time EVER......and Billy Joel - Piano Man.....then jumping up to dance to Talking Heads - Mr Jones.....put a wiggle in your stride.....
Eventually it came to me, when they up graded and it was of course broken...but I had so much fun fiddling round with it trying to fix it....the joy when soemthing happened and the record turned.....
I have to say I am not a CD fan at all, I still have tapes that still work that are over 20 years old, but CD's that are weeks old, scratched and useless...people say take care of them but being careful and " taking care" of cd's is at odds with music enjoyment - in my mind anyway....now I am onto digital music so that should fare better.....





Few more garden shots.....

A few more Garden shots, I have a special visitor coming over from Australia in September so I am frantically trying to keep the garden going in preparation for her arrival.....
Love this rose by my back door, it has a nice formation and is a sharp pink.


Oh how we evolve, only last year whilst holidaying on Majorca, I saw a resaurant called Agapanthus and really liked the flowers....I couldnt even pronounce the name now we have some of our own, we got these at a bargin price on the last day of the Hampton Court Flower show from the medal wining " Excuse me while I kiss the sky" garden....I love to have plants with a little story....


 These yellow plants have given a real boost to the August Garden, I am not sure what they are, I think they are called Golden Rod.....They have self seeded all the way from the top.....
We have a long, skinny garden.....we have come a long way with it, but still have a long way to go. One thing we have been mulling over this year is whether or not to move this tree, I say " move" of course I mean, chop it down .....
 I didnt lable the sweet pea where i put what this year, these smell beautiful but the stems are much shorter than my others......love them...takes a long time to get them up the arch but now when you walk thru you can smell them....



Cookham: A Village Made in Heaven

A rather rushed one this....a few pics of the place I grew up in Cookham in Berkshire.
Famous for its Stanley Spencer connection, the artisit who lived here and the main body of his work was painted here....

A pic of the village taken from the "MOOR"....
 This is one of Two indian Restaurants here, it used to be fantastic but has been over taken by Maliks over the road......walking down this high street at night which is only small was a feast for the senses, as well as being very pretty of course the smells got you.....the amazing smell of the tandori, then further on the sweet aromas from the chinese......then another indian.....

Moody shot of the riverside....
The church, used alot in Stans paitings, I remember it mostly at Christmas for Cristingle, the smell of oranges, the candle light and singing my fav carol at that time - Little Donkey......I dont know why I am thinking of christmas, maybe its because I saw Harrods have already opened up thier grotto??

This is where he lived....
Some pretty cottages by the Moor....

Mysertious house by the river, I used to love this house then a long time ago the rumour was it was purchased by Arabs and no one saw a soul there since.....it seems run down now....
Just round the bend of the river - lies Cliveden. Subject of another post maybe...



What Made me Smile Today

Bella is our little dog, we got her in February, a rescue dog, a wonderful story how she came to us but will post that another time. Here is our darling little Bella on the right, cream....and here she is meeting Bertie a Shiz Zu Cross/Bichon Friese puppy. We do not know what make Bella is - so if anyone has any ideas let us know. We think she is part Lhasa Apso or Shiz Zu maybe cross Bichon Friese or Chinese Fire Crest as she has a very distinctive brown pattern on her skin......

 Berties Owner said She thought Bella would have been very similar toBertie as a pup, this made me smile.....Bella is about two now so obvioulsy we missed out on that joy of her as a puppy, so seeing Bertie was lovley.



Isnt she a beauty? And the sweeeeetest dog as well, so good natured and loving and good...we are very lucky....

Bray or Heston Ville




We live near Bray and I want to eat at The Fat Duck, I try and persaude my husband that it would be eccomical for us to eat there as we would save on hotels - travel etc. People come from all over the world to eat there....its on our door step. When I first wanted to eat there a few years ago the famous tasting menu with the snail porridge was about 120 pounds, now its 180! I have heard, some of the dishes are so evocative of times past, tough business men have been there in very serious meetings and broken down, remebering childhood holidays and the like...and its fun!



This is a poor picture of the place will post a better one soon, of course heston also owns the Hinds Head next door and The Crown as well, but there is another famous michelen starred place here in Bray, The Waterside, a totally different vibe of course to The Fat Duck, classic, another place I keep asking my husband to take me.......



The Waterside of the Roux brothers fame, classic French....






And this is the view of the River ....The River Thames that is.....







For  a small village, Bray packs a gastronomic punch...








Saturday 13 August 2011

Colourful Cupcakes - The Cake Journey

The Age of the Cake Enlightenment is upon me. Sadly anything to do with Maths and numbers literally repels my brain. Looking at traditional scales like a ruler rendered me incapacitated to bake or attempt to try. As the mother of a three year old I started to think maybe I should re visit this strange phobia and try again.





One day fate stepped in and whilst shopping  two revaltations came to me, the first was digital scales, eliminating the need to crunch any sort of numbers, and the second was a beautiful cook book by Fiona Cairns. ET VOILA....I am having the time of my life now I have broken thru this barrier I had in my brain, longingly looking at other mums bringing in creations for their childrens birthdays and thinking I couldnt do it....I just wish I had started a whole lot earlier and saved alot of money...


Operation Cottage Garden:Sweet Pea Virgin

Operation Cottage Garden - As a total novice where do I start?
Four years ago I was a sweet pea virgin.The name sounds lovely and romantic but I had no idea what they were, my Dad suggested I get some, so I did. This was the start of project " cottage garden".
Year one: I brought a few pots from the garden center. I put them in the wrong place, didnt support them properly, but learnt a little more about them. 
Year Two: This time put a support around them and waited eagerly for them to grow. I waited, and I waited. Kicking around the shed I happened across the pot I brought them in,  the label said  -" Dwarf variety"!
Year Three: I told my husband that I must be drowning in sweet pea this year and I sowed my own, checking the seed packets for height, scent, colour and longeviety. Every kitchen worksurface was taken up by tray upon tray of budding sweet peas.












































Year Four: Have a much better understanding of them, loads more of them and I realised I can cut them and bring them in to enjoy them. I have five sweet pea " sites" and shall be increasing that - year five.
Cutting my own flowers and arranging displays has brought me un expected and deep pleasure. Infact I felt a little OTT about the amount of pleasure I experienced, until The Delicous Monty Don admitted  to the same on Gardners World.
Is it odd that I have a small crush on Monty...