September Days...

Golden Days...



Birthday blooms...



Days on the Downs...



Seeing red days ...



Pretty pink days...



High Summer Days...



Purple Days...



Green Days...



Violet Days...



Multi coloured Days...



Perfect days for sitting on the garden bench and rereading the perfect September book...

A Cuckoo In The Nest...

Thank you for all your lovely birthday wishes and for coming to my party in your very pretty red shoes, sharing my cake and behaving properly during the party games! I had a great day, even the rain didn't stop play. I just wanted to show you this fab birthday card that Mr Roses gave me. All made out of card, isn't it beautiful? I had been wondering what he was up to in the kitchen in the wee small hours and now I know. Thank you M, I love it, it's very tweet (oh dear, the jokes don't get any better).
Talking of cuckoos... have you seen this?



What IS she up to? Flowers in her hair indeedy! Not very subtle Dottie dear, as if I'd forget your birthday! Yes please go over to my bestest Michele and wish her a superlicious day. Send her a virtual hug from me and a bunch of the finest roses around. Wish her wonderful things for the coming year, happy, happy days, lots of giggles and many more adventures.



As for you Dottie, I'll be over in the stockroom in just a mo with the finest custard creams I can find. Bestest birthday wishes.
Mxxxx

In A Party Mood

Would you like to come to a party? There are jam sandwiches, cups of tea and what's that in the middle of the table I wonder? Oh yes if you look closely... it's a birthday cake. Who's birthday is it I wonder? Could it be the little girl with bunches? The little girl with plaits and stripy ribbon in her hair? No. Well maybe, the little boy with a bib? He looks very hopeful, just can't wait to get his hands on the cake if you ask me.



Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's my birthday and I'd like you to come along to my tea party. Pull up a chair, grab a plate and let's pass the cake and biccies. Would you like some tea? I fancy a cuppa. Will you help me blow out my candles (not sure there's enough puff left in me these days...) Just a couple of stipulations, you have all got to have the most marvellous of times, no cheating at Pass the Parcel and promise me you'll all be wearing little red shoes like the little boy in the poster - Oh dear I'm sounding a bit of a bossy boots, but it's birthday girl's perogative. Most of all my dearies enjoy the party - happy days.
xxx

One Step at a time...

Way back at the beginning of the holidays, I promised Big Sister that we would spruce up her bedroom. Similarly, she promised to finish the three very large art projects she had been set for the summer... Well the enthusiasm and earnestness of those first few weeks soon dwindled and the sketchbooks lay untouched in a corner of her room alongside the pot of paint and wallpaper.



Halfway through the holidays after some mutual nagging, Big Sister found her paintbrushes and I found mine. She had a very definite idea of what she wanted in her room and would have happily completed the whole thing herself had it not been for Mr Roses constant reminder "Make sure the lines are straight" ringing in our ears.



It took no time for her to slap on another coat of fresh white paint to three walls of her room, unfortunately it took us a little longer to arrange the patches of wallpaper that she had collected on the wall... In retrospect this was a good thing as sticking them all up temporarily might not have looked that aesthetically pleasing, but allowed time for her to think about the way they looked - not to mention the daily activity of picking up the bits of paper that had been blown down from the wall when the window was open (we girls like our exercise you know!)..
Finally, just before the end of the holidays, after a day or so of me perched precariously on the bedroom stool, wallpaper paste in one hand, a look of utter concentration on my face and the ipod blaring, the job was done.



Big Sister is very pleased with it as am I. Even Mr Roses likes it, only not so much when he gets too close and starts muttering about us not using a spirit level...
Set against the three white walls, the patchwork chimney breast really works. It needs the calmness of the rest of the room (what calmness, there's a daily whirlwind of clothes and make up going on here) to balance it. I'm glad she chose some of the darker papers too, particularly the black ones as they tend to "ground" the others as it did look a bit "floaty" before they were added.



Yes. I'm falling in love with the darker papers imagining a room full of them. Perhaps it's because they resemble the colour of my broken toe at the moment. All sorts of gloriously vivid colours going on at the end of my foot at the moment (why am I such a walking disaster area at the moment, surely I can be trusted to put some washing away without fracturing a part of my body!).
Living on a hill has made hobbling around a tad more difficult than I anticipated and I have spent this morning contemplating driving my car without touching the brake pedal to spare the pain. Have reached the conclusion that this might entail more than just a broken toe...



Enforced incarceration has resulted in much reading of some vintage magazines I obtained a few weeks ago... I purloined a couple of these for my own use and framed this gorgeous advert to put in Big Sisters room as it suits her patchwork wall so beautifully. i have put some of the others in the Emporium (in the Boudoir of course) and the rest I shall spend today perusing on the sofa. They are fascinating, little gems of social history, the advertising is fantastic and for a moment or two I shall imagine myself wafting around in a tightly waisted dress, preparing the odd casserole or two. applying my rouge... until I glance in the mirror and see the dodgy pair of red towelling socks on the end of my feet and remember I won't be wafting anywhere...



Oh, and the art projects did get done - an hour or so before they needed to be handed in, why waste three months when it can all be crammed in on a school night?!

There and Back

One of my favourite old card games that we have is an old edition of "There and Back". The cards, resembling the size of railway tickets, and images are wonderful. Conjuring up railway journeys and holidays to various towns, seaside resorts and cities. We spent a lot of time these holidays travelling by train (perhaps my favourite way to travel in this country), days out exploring the new and revisiting the old.



Many happy memories gleaned from simple pursuits.
Days revisiting favourite old towns. A favourite train ride away...



Mapp and Lucia days, pretending that Rye was once again the imaginary Tilling of the stories (oh so easy to do).



Climibing church towers, turning green with dizziness, quickly admiring the beautiful view before quickly, very quickly, clambering down the stairs to terra firma.



But taking in time to spot the pink house from above



And admiring it face to face (this would be my house here I think!).



Days spent walking through enchanted forests..



Entering through gigantic doorways...



Spying magical cobwebs...



Admiring Romany caravans...



Having the distinct feeling you were being watched ...



Viewing the sky through fern patterned eyes...



Sitting on a bench and turning around to see this most handsome creature...



Composing myself and feeling blessed to have him walk round in front of me to say hello...



Pretending, yet again, to be Mrs Bennett, in front of the house filmed in Pride and Prejudice.



Days on the river,,,



Dabbling your toes...



Sunning your arms...



Wanting to take the plunge...



Loving the way the river mirrors the sky...



Seemingly never ending days on the beach. Rockpooling...



Finding beauty and treasure in the close up...



Imagining and daydreaming on the horizon...

Days enjoying things that have been enjoyed by families for decades past ...



Days that make your skin tingle, your freckles appear, your appetite double and your smile permanent...
And now with the summer over, the railway station I shall be visiting most often is Stopathome, but it's been a good journey...