The one where I nearly pee my pants...

Now, when lady luck shines down on my little patch, she shines brightly.
Not very often do good things happen in this house but they do happen now and again to cheer up our rollercoastering 'plodding along' lives.
I'm often wary that for the good things there's a bad thing lurking round the corner just waiting for it's opportunity to jump out and scare the pants off me..so the good things make me a little nervous..are you with me?

Well, this bank holiday, my sister from up north and her husband came to stay for a long weekend. It's very rare that people stay here, as our house is a tad small but the eldest stinky boy decided a spot of local stinky boys' camping was called for and we, for once, had a spare bed.

My sister and I are very similar even though she's the eldest and I'm the youngest of 4 girls, we have never had a cross word in 41 years...honestly,not ever, so her visits are always the best fun. As I was working on the Saturday all day, we decided on a National trust trip on the Sunday and the Giant Malvern flea fair on the Monday. All exciting stuff.
So on the Sunday after lots of mooching around the garden,sniffing roses and pointing at plants, eating croissants with proper butter in the (still lopsided and unfinished) summerhouse and chatting about my lovely visit to Devon and caravans and the like, we decided on a visit to
Hidcote Manor.Really it was a bit early in the year to appreciate all the beautiful flowers they have there and it was so packed with visitors we even had to wait until someone left to get a space in the car park .
Now big sisters can be a bad influence sometimes, they encourage you to put bids on exciting things you think you'll never in a million years be lucky enough to win. Before we went out for the day,I showed her something on eBay that was only a few miles from us and still at a sensible price. Something my family know I've hankered after for a long time and can bore people rigid over.

" isn't that just typical, pay day is a week away, my truck needs work for its mot and there that is looking at me at the bargain price of £125." I say.

Now the big sis tells me I should put a bid on it as I'll kick myself if the lovely thing goes for that amount and that she will help me out until pay day. There were lots of 'if it's meant to be' moments, the bid was placed and off we went to that beautiful area known as The Cotswolds...
to see pretty, pretty gardens..
Out for a meal (corr we really are splashing out!) and home again, where the said 'eBay thing' was almost forgotten about.....almost.

When I checked, I almost hyperventilated...noooooo it can't be true?

ME?.. the winner?

The owner of a little blue and cream CARAVAN for a mere £132? nooooo...

the VINTAGE one I had seen earlier???

The vintage blue and cream cheeky little 1960's one all ready to be towed behind The Beastie (my old pick-up truck) and only needing a bit of prettifying ???GORDON BENNETT!!!!Yes, when lady luck shines, she definitely shines very brightly!

little birdies

I'm sneaking back in hoping you didn't notice I was gone for so long ..and I'm also doing a little jig today (well a very strange kind of jig as I have just spent 4 long hours weeding between some block paving and now have a very stiff back) I have in my possession freeeeeeeeee tickets to the Malvern Spring gardening show again...Yay!
It's a good beginning to May as April was a pretty dire month to be honest.
It started of nicely with a trip to Woodstock, a 40th birthday present from my 3 sisters and brother last year that I never got to take because of George's accident. Just me and Pete and a swanky boutique hotel in the Cotswolds, posh nosh, pretty shops and gorgeous weather...lovely.We'll ignore the fact I had one of my 3 day migraines and spent the weekend doped up to the eyeballs with painkillers, feeling sick.(They annoyingly seem to pop up whenever I do anything different to my normal routine or travel anywhere for more than an hour)

Those naughty ducks had to go to a new home in the end.I was finding the 3 inches of sloppy mud that covered every available inch of my front garden just too much to bear, the chickens cats and dog were even depressed by it all as well as me. You couldn't walk on the garden and the hen run was swimming in ankle deep sloppy mud.I just wasn't prepared for their arrival really, I wanted to save them from slaughter but didn't really have the right duck house or pond or garden for them.They also ate everything in sight, including what the hens normally eat in a month, they could put away in a week.So Hilda, Stan and Lily have gone to a nice lady with a smallholding to swim on her pond on the one condition they were not for eating. I feel so sad that I let them down.Poor duckies.

Last week I looked after my neighbour's chickens for him whilst he was away for 10 days.
Posh, pedigree chickens in their posh plastic cube Eglu. The first night, the posh, naughty chickens would not go to bed and got in a flap because I really wanted them to go in so no mean foxes would come off the park and eat them.I've never known hens that like being out after dark.We spent a good half hour going round and round the pen, I got in a flap, they got in a flap, one escaped out the larger pen into the garden and another one flew up ,landed badly and broke it's leg. I was MORTIFIED. All this drama on the first day of looking after them. I had to crawl into the smaller Eglu pen to get her out which was not an easy task with a bum like mine to fit through the door.Phone calls to various emergency vets ensued but they didn't 'deal with' chickens and eventually our own vet told me what to do until the morning.
The poor little mite was put to sleep first thing.

There's also been the drama of my lovely mother in law who has spent 4 long weeks in hospital, very poorly indeed. All very worrying stuff.
No I wasnt keen on April, not at all.

So, on to the Birdies...
To distract myself from all these traumas, this month I've been finding pretty things to spend my hard earned block-paving weeding pennies on. Pretty little birdy type things (believe me after 4 hours on your hands and knees weeding with cramp in your hands, you need to treat yourself to something nice once in a while)The brass ones above cost me a couple of quid, ready to be sprayed 'Dottie Angel ' style. I cant decide on the colour though at the moment, so I'll just spray them with primer until I feel some inspiration.
I really love Daniella's online store, Acorn and Will, where I mooched about for ages and purchased some delightful vintage 1950's birdy brooches and that gorgeous cushion that was on the cover of Homes and Antiques.(I'd been hankering after that one for ages but knew it would go in a flash when it appeared in H&A) I did get a bit carried away with the birdy brooches, but who wouldn't when it comes to all those delicious vintage colours to choose from?
This gorgeous necklace was from White Stuff, (a dangerous place to visit unless you have very deep pockets!) well it was from Pete actually, for my birthday back in April. As well as the silver birds,It has beads in my my two most favourite colours, that lovely vintage green and a soft turquoisy blue.
I LOVE it. And so do most people who come into the shop where I work for 2 days a week when I wear it!

This mug was a pressie from the youngest stinky boy's girlfriend, I have a few of these now..thanks to Waitrose and at only £2 I dont feel guilty in purchasing yet more mugs.(like shoes and bags...ummm, and cushions, a girl can never have enough mugs) It's those lovely vintagey looking swallows that make them slightly nicer than ordinary.


And then there are the real birdies, the little Blue Tits chose the sensible bird house and not the caravan in the end.My goodness they have been busy in and out all day, pinching moss from the pots and feathers from the hens to make it home sweet home, I just hope the five sets of beady eyes (well 4 and a half as 19 year old skinny Winnie is now rather blind) that watch them daily going about their business are really just watching with interest and not secretly planning some birdy-like feast. I've told them they are all pensioners now and should know better.

The summer house is on hold at the moment as it has decided to sink to the right and the base needs to be sorted out....Great.But!.. my wall is finished and the trellis is not far off either, Ooooh I think I feel a gardening post coming on next time...although Pete and I are off to Exmouth in Devon next weekend, so it may be a while .
DEVON!!!! How exciting..proper seaside with real sand!!!

x

Cool caravans

Ok, ignore the bit where I said I would be able to blog more often! I've become a professional 'moper'. Moping around with just the hound and the cats for company eating cereal and biscuits...mmmm soooo healthy. I'm a tad lost without that husband of mine,even though we don't say loads to each other really, it's just nice when he's around, there to tell me to stop eating those biscuits and to have something more sensible for tea and I miss mucking about and being utterly silly with him, something that doesn't quite wash with the stinky boys (who are far too wrapped up with girlies to care what the dog looks like in a human outfit or the hilarious cringy 1970s trololol man on Youtube.
So, everything gets put on hold until the weekend..including the summerhouse, the wall, the decorating, the sewing projects..I could go on but that's quite enough about boring old me...
I've been ploughing through my book shelves and I thought you might like to have a peep at this book about a particularly favourite subject of mine...Vintage caravans.
'My cool caravan' has oodles of pictures of them from the 1930s to the 1980s and only a smidging of text..a brief description, a bit of background as to where it came from and it's owner and then some style notes on the other page (my kind of book!) The interiors, which are really inspiring, range from kitsch to retro to being completely original and their owners tend to match their quirky styled holiday homes on wheels perfectly.
It features British caravans, Dutch ones, a VW, a converted horsebox, a boat and a child-sized one that once belonged to the Royals.There is also a whole section dedicated to those fantastic gleaming silver palaces from the States.Even 'Constance' is in there in all her gorgeous retro glory.
This is one of my favourites..They tow it behind a 1940 dodge pick-up. How incredibly COOL.

If I had one criticism.. and there is only one little one, it's that some of the photos are a little bit dark, the rest of it more than makes up for that though.
I've added it to my 'bookshelf' in the sidebar as it's on a good offer at the moment if you're interested...160 pages of pure eye candy to dream and drool over.

Oh and Donna, should you happen to pass by and you didn't know already, your listed top of the list at the back in the sourcebook section!

I never got my long hankered after vintage caravan, but the birdies did;a Christmas pressie last year from my mother in law which I had to wait a whole year for, for it to be back in stock. The blue tits can't decide between the beach-hut or the vintage caravan but they keep checking it out so hopefully they'll go for a bit of kitsch camping in it.
This year we seem to have lots of birds in the garden, they must have realised that the cats are all in double figures now, getting old and lazy and really cant be arsed with all that tweeting and eating nonsense. Long may it last.

28 days later

Oops where on earth did February go?Maude

I was supposed to tell you about my mad sister jumping off a tower in Thailand, stinky boy turning 18, Pete's new job and my poor old Dad falling down a hole..oh yes, it's been all systems go in this neck of the woods so I better get started really..

First off my Dad fell down a boat hatch whilst staying in Thailand and broke his shoulder, got septicemia, very nearly popped his clogs and is now stranded in England with my mum at my other sister's house in Corbridge, now unable to get home as he can't drive back to France..poor old thing. So we were all very concerned about him.(I reckon hes milking it now he's on the mend but don't tell him I told you so) Hopefully I'll be heading up north to see them soon.

Jac, who lives in Thailand and is terrified of heights, zip-wired off the Pataya Tower on the 26th of Feb to raise money for Josie's charity..She did it on the 3rd anniversary of Josies death (I can't believe it's been 3 years..seems like only a week ago) She impressed us further by doing it in high heels and linen trousers (well if you're gonna go for it, go in style )!! Crazy lady! Oh and she's recently published her book called A Dragonfly Tale which you can now buy on Amazon, ooh err!

George has turned 18 this month now that is scary.Does this mean I can no longer call him stinky 'boy'? is he now stinky 'man' stinky 'person' or stinky 'bloke'?
He has been looking like he's done ten rounds with Tyson this week after having some very painful surgery on his lip. It's been almost year since that awful accident and he still has to have more operations. Do you know that b*%!$?* taxi driver, who changed his plea after 3 court appearances, finally pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and only got 6 points and a £110 fine.
I cannot tell you how angry the parents of the victims were. George has got six stitches in his mouth at the moment to repair his lip where his teeth went through it and tore a chunk out of his chin, his nose was slightly torn away from his face, broken and the septum damaged so badly that cartilage from his ear needs to be used to fix it again...the force of them hitting the taxi which was doing a u-turn made him end up in the foot-well of his friend's car, even though he was wearing a seatbelt. He also got dropped from his beloved rugby team.The fearless Flanker was finding it all too difficult with his ongoing injuries.

The elderly taxi driver is free to take paying passengers again.

So anyway, a calmer, wiser George lives in this house now, and an 18 year old ..18!!(sorry I mustn't keep on about it) and what did he want for his birthday? DRIVING LESSONS
Pass the Valium please...

And then there's Pete. Poor old Pete who's had the weight of the world on his shoulders for far too long.
He got his job, the one he really wanted with Eddie Stobart and it all worked out OK in the end. He's away alot and when I finally settle into this new routine of him being away all week and not eating biscuits for dinner because there's only me at home most of the time, you might find I blog more often and actually get round to replying to more than 3 of my messages.So if you see a large Eddie Stobart truck called 'Jenna-Louise' on the motorways, it happens to be my Pete driving her (probably looking rather pleased with himself)
Apparently Mr.Stobarts lorries get quite a lot of female attention, so I hear from their latest recruit anyway....
There's even a huge fan club (Harry's rabbit is named Eddie after the famous green and white trucks)
As for the rest of us well, I haven't finished my Summerhouse yet..there's still lots to be done. Crikey they take some painting! But, it has had a new slate roof and a black and white floor laid..twice in fact.I'm so glad you approved of my idea of a Summerhouse. Me and The Hound sat in it the other day, me in my socks, sat on the floor drinking tea and Hound in his doggy feet just sitting and looking out the windows.It was just lovely, the sun streaming through and no-one being able to see us. I can't wait for it to all be done and finished properly and for the summer to arrive...Then there's the ducks..those lovely cute,cheeky little ducks who lay one beautiful pale blue egg for me each morning.. Lovely Lily looking like she should have a blue bonnet and pink shawl like Miss Jemima puddle duck... hmmm yes..lovely adorable ducks...

Just look at my blinking lawn!!!!! arggggh! pests!and my flowerbeds!!! (what's left of them) (sorry about the pants phone photos..cameras on the blink)

Before I go and disappear to eat my biscuit selection accompanied by a large mug of tea for dinner, and get back to reading 'The Lovely Bones' I thought I'd better just say...

Katie Noelle...dont worry I read it just how you intended it..yikes, boys hey?!!
Yaz sang 'the only way is up', Siobhan....ahh the 80's!
Thankyou so much Deborah for my sunshine award, how lovely I must pop by and accept it properly x
and lastly MRS WOO (that's my shouty voice) its about time you came and saw me for a cuppa and dont call me Fudgeflaps!!!!! (it's all to do with my surname ladies..nothing else, I promise)

Cheerio for now xxMiss Daisy

Breathing

Hello again, sorry about the loooooooong gap between my posts of late, I feel like I can finally breathe again..it's just like we have been holding our breath for one whole month waiting to see what will happen with jobs, the house and all that horrid boring, scary stuff. Then of course there was the snow too, that really threw a spanner in the works...

looks like someone went mad with a foam fire extinguisher!

Pete has just this week, started a job doing something he was doing when we first met 20 years ago and has interviews lined up this month for better ones he'll hopefully be doing in 20 years from now. I can't tell you how many application forms have been filled in and phone calls made.It has been one long nightmare. I've always said it's better to have a couple of strings to your bow so that there's at least another skill to fall back on when you need to...and believe me, as much as he didn't really want to do that job again, he needed to.
Apart from holding my breath and turning blue and my brain trying to escape daily from my head, (and the horrid hospital visits as well) some nice things have been happening too.

I'll let you in on a secret....

My lovely Grannie who passed away last February left me a bit of money and it took nearly a whole year to arrive at my door but boy, was the timing perfect. The mortgage was paid just one day late, the bills were paid and the scary telephone calls I was going to have to make were put off just in the nick of time. It was like she had waited until we really needed it, until we had no more doors to go through and no more answers.She allowed us to breathe again. Big deeeeeep breaths of relief.
I felt sad at the thought of not being able to have something to remember my Grannie by, I have the memories and the photos, but I really would have liked something to look at every day and know that my Grannie had given me the pennies to buy it with. I had known for some time about the money and had months to think of things to spend it on.
I'm not a posh jewelery person, I dont wear a wedding or engagement ring and the necklaces and the rings that I do own are like those huge big chunky ones like Trinny wears (gardeners hands..I'll never be dainty, see) so it got me thinking of other things, a vintage caravan, some some vintage pretties, a trip to the seaside...oooh the possibilities of flittering away pennies on pretty things were almost endless!
Then the shit hit the fan when Pete lost his job and all these fantasies were gone in a flash.

I did however have enough left for one thing and it only came to me whilst staring out the window across the garden whilst wondering how we would ever have got out of this mess if it hadn't been for her thinking of us and the perfect timing that made it all be ok.

summer 2008

The rose arbour at the bottom of the garden had completely got out of hand, huge 15' whips of evil thorny lengths were dangling half way across the neighbours garden and it became so big that it had broken through the roof of the arbour, the fence and the wooden rail that it rested on.It became somewhere we no longer sat under without getting scratched or bits landing on you from above. Beautiful as it was with its little pompoms of pink and white, it was just too big for the space. Such a shame, but this garden is always evolving, so out it came.The poor, now rotten arbour that Pete had built came with it and made some very welcome firewood.


I am now the proud owner of a summerhouse.
Put up by Harry and Pete on the coldest day ever inbetween flurries of yet more snow (I made tea and supervised the doings)

Harry in his mad hat and his Dad's boots

It was something Grannie always had at each house, something we often got told off for mucking about in, or spinning around in the case of the Victorian one at her beautiful Manor House and something she had once bought as a present for my mum too.

It still needs quite a lot more work, we will 'vintagey-fy' it and put proper slate tiles on the roof like we did with the chicken house, paint it green and cream and I have a garage full of spare furniture to decorate it with.The garden will be rejigged, the awkward to cut hedge has gone, the pond will be moved and a trellis-topped (and honeysuckle covered) wall will be built out of old bricks (by Stinky George if he ever stirs from that permanent teenage sleep) but at the moment in the constant rain, it all looks rather awful and very muddy.
I can't wait. Roll on Spring, roll on Summer.
I'll sit there with my cup of tea,with no doubt a few creatures around me listening to radio 2 on my Roberts radio in my vintagey-fied summerhouse with its bunting up and be in utter bliss.

Thankyou Grannie. Thankyou so much.