Seed Packets and Sun Showers

I am delighted to find that I am enjoying winter...

really loving it, in fact.

And so are these bright & happy birds, come rain or shine.

Wonderfully simple, nourishing food makes you feel so good.

With heavy rain outside, I spent a morning this week making baked custards, chicken liver pate & pomegranate & rosewater jellies. They all last so well in the fridge & taste amazing. I have a pot of chicken broth simmering most days too. It is such a marvellous & healing food no wonder that it's also known as Jewish penicillin. I used to think that the nick name was just a wild hyperbole, but now I know better. This stuff heals so many things, builds your immune system & nourishes deeply.

We had so much fun at a vintage sale called Faberdashery one recent Friday evening. Rob came too & he loved it. Lots & lots of stalls in the St John's Hall, all nicely crammed in & cosy. I bought this gorgeous piece of vintage floral cotton from a sweet mother & daughter. With a good soak it has washed up beautifully.

The little dolly wardrobe just had to come home with me too.

A little bit startling to find this pair tucked on a shelf inside!
I listed them on Trade Me:
"Well I say that they are Scottish dolls but really, they're stowaways, if the truth be told.
They travelled home with me hidden in the top of shelf of a dolly wardrobe that I bought quite recently.
Imagine my surprise when I opened up the door & discovered them tucked in there.
I don't think I fancy bedding them in with the pretty dolls but someone else might quite like them...for your own reasons!

Our lad with the bag pipes has had a scuffle somewhere along the line & has suffered a dislocated shoulder injury.
Well hello, he plays the bagpipes! (...just joking)
The wee lass really does have quite pleasant eyes when she's upright & not legless!
They're an odd couple, yet quirky & endearing..& very vintage.
Some rather interesting detail between them.
I bet they have some tales to tell."
And just like that...they were sold. They are heading off to their new home tomorrow.

But it was Rob who found The Smoother & it's little red traveling case.

He thinks it should live in Lucy.

The little ironing board I came across in The Dog Shop a week or so ago.

And the blue highchair was sent from Christchurch wrapped in a heavy curtain.

I am always so inspired by the clever transformations that go on over at Thread Bear Cottage so when I saw the rather plain brown tray I knew immediately that I could manage a wee make over of my own.

 With a test pot & a small piece of Cath Kidston oil cloth a prettier tray emerged.

I collected quite a lot of seed from my garden over summer & have been happily selling it on Trade Me, which is so nice as some things like my blue woodruff, are really hard to come by & it's good to be able to share it. I was a bit stumped for a while as to how to present the seeds, but then I found a great template here.

And then one day I came home & Rob had had a lovely time making seed packets.
Wasn't that nice. They're getting better & better as he goes along.

I loved this picture in a Country Living magazine..just lifts my spirits with it's profusion of colour.

Since my red wheelbarrow developed a hole in one corner I figured it would drain fine so I planted it up with polys & pansies & parked it in the sunshine.

And did I tell you I bought 20 bales of peavine straw to bed down the garden(s!)

I love the low winter sun.

With sun showers on Tuesday.

And rainbows too.

Perfect for a birthday.

A boy who now climbs mountains & not just out of highchairs.

He traveled by bus way down south in May. With just his bike for company he traveled hundreds & hundred of miles, then he walked & biked & ran...

& marvelled

at all the wonders that he saw.

He also leaned out in a very scary fashion over the edge of the Clay Cliffs to take a picture to record his intrepid journey. A journey traveled with great courage & determination in celebration of life...his, all 25 years.

My youngest son inspires me to live well, to be my best me.

This week I plan to fill my world with all the beauty I can find & stretch myself a little further in the challenges to believe that life really is good & wonderful.

Thank you so much for popping in.

Have a lovely week my friends.

Much love to you,

 Catherine x0x0x