Collections

Yvette at The Charm House is having a a 'What I collect' party so I thought I would show you two of my collections.

The first is my collection of trios. I do not collect any particular manufacturer I just collect the ones I like the look of. The only problem is that they already take up two shelves on my hutch so if I buy anymore I will have to reorganise a few things to fit them in. I don't really have a favourite but I do love the Royal Albert Bluebird and Roses (top row, third from the left) and the Royal Standard 'Carousel' (top row, second from the right). You can click on the pictures to make them larger if you would like to have a closer look. None of them cost very much but then again I didn't want them to or I would be frightened to use them. I broke the cake plate for the Royal Albert 'White Dogwood' on the first day in our new Guernsey home and I haven't got around to replacing it yet, although I am sure Ebay will provide me with one.

Another of my collections is Shorter and Son 'Waterlily' pattern. This collection started with the medium sized jug in the bottom picture. My Mum has a jug just like this one and I have always loved it. Mum gave me some money for Christmas a few years ago so I spoilt myself and bought one like hers. She told me I should have just asked her for her jug, as she would have been happy to give it to me, but how could I ask as she still has it on display herself and so obviously loves it as much as I do.

As you can see my collection has grown somewhat over the last few years. The UK is collector's heaven with so many things available in charity shops and on Ebay for such reasonable prices. Collecting china in Australia can be quite an expensive hobby as there is a much smaller pool to choose from with alot of people competing for those items that are available.

So there you have it, two of my collections. I'll keep the rest for another day. Well a girl can't reveal all her secrets at once, where's the mystery in that.

Training has begun.

I started my training for the Itex walk this morning. The Itex walk is a walk on the 6th of June which goes all the way around the Island, all 40 miles of it; that's 64.36 kilometers. Just having written this I'm beginning to feel achy already. I walked for 45 minutes down the coast and then 45 minutes back home. I'll have to drive it in the car to see how far that was; it felt like a long way.

By the time I got home three of the toes on my right foot were numb and the balls of both my feet felt as if they had been whacked with a large stick several times. They should have recovered for more training early next week. I'm a little scared now though as a friend's husband did the walk last year and it took him thirteen and a half hours. He is ALOT fitter than me. I believe he wore two pairs of socks and coated his feet in Vaseline before he set off. I somehow think I'm going to need more socks!

Fabulous Sunday

Our Sunday was a busy one; not busy in a bad way, it was actually very relaxing and lots of fun for everyone. The Sun shone, it was t-shirt weather all day, everyone was happy. I gardened for several hours, my husband pottered and read the newspaper and our children bounced non-stop on the trampoline for two hours! How they managed I'll never understand. That much bouncing equates to one of those dreadful exhibition/carnival rides which makes you feel particularly unwell but you can't get off because you have to get you money's worth. The kids definitely got their money's worth.



This afternoon we went for a drive around St Pierre du Bois (St Peter in the Wood, as opposed to St Peter Port, the capital of Guernsey). We drove down a Ruette Tranquille and found the most gorgeous display of gorse I have ever seen. They had trimmed the hedges so instead of all the flowers growing in various point up the branches they were all clustered together on the outside of the bush. The smell was fantastic. Gorse has a sweet but very spicy smell. I can not compare it to anything I have smelt in Australia. So all my Australian friends, you will just have to come over here and visit me to smell the gorse...among other things.

This photo was just cute so I had to pop it in; not too bad for a little kodak happy snap camera.

The muscari have finally put in an appearance on our garden wall. Unfortunately they are coming into their full glory as the daffodils are fading. I was hoping they would all be in flower together.

I suppose I shouldn't complain as I'll deadhead the daffodils this week and then you will be able to see the muscari much more clearly. They will hopefully look nice for quite a few weeks and then I will have to consider which annuals I'll plant to replace them.

I was at my favourite garden shop, Le Friquet, today and it is truly a spectacular display of colour. It made me wish I had an unlimited budget. Oh the fun you could have. As it was I spent £20 more than I was going to and had to walk away from several 'must have plants' for the cottage garden. I'll ask them if I can take some photos so you can enjoy it as well; even if you're not a gardener once you have seen their displays you may become one.

So far in the cottage garden I have planted:

* Rose 'Deep Secret' -red

* Camilla 'Silver Anniversary' - although I may move it as I am worried about the sea wind burning the flowers - white

* Pansy 'Coconut...' something or other, I can't find the tag - blue and white

* Bellis Daisy 'Pompom Red'

* Cinneraria - silver foliage

* Dahlia Pompon 'Nescio' - red pompom type. These are the first dahlias I've ever grown. I've always been a bit scared to grow them as they always seem to be something 'serious' gardeners grow; you know the type who compete in the 'Who got the Best Flower' competitions.

* Crocosmia Montbretia 'Lucifer' - red. I've seen these in people's gardens around the Island and all I can say is 'WOW'. I can't wait until these flower.

* Lupinus 'Gallery Series Blue' - blue

* Leucanthemum 'Siver Princess' - white daisy

* Rosmarinus officinalis - common rosemary

* Delphinium 'Black Knight' - very dark blue

The cottage garden will be all in red, white and blue. I'll post some pictures when I have finished planting it out.

Now I'll go soak in the bath to get rid of all the dirt. Yes, I did go for our afternoon drive covered in dirt from head to toe, but I didn't get out of the car ;)

I do not Iron my Teatowels..often

I could not believe my luck when I went op shopping today. The first of my usual haunts provided me with not one, nor two but three Spode plates. Who said Friday the 13th was unlucky? All for the whopping price of £1.50 each. ('How much for the chopsticks? Ninety-nine cents. What a bargain.' Sorry a little 80s Eddie Murphy humour there.) Please note the Cath kidston teatowel background; ironed three times but still creased...I know I know ironing teatowels, what is the world coming to. I only ironed it for the background for the plates, I DO NOT normally iron my teatowels.


This pattern is called 'Jasmine' and was originally made in 1825. It was reintroduced as part of the Blue Room Collection as one of six Regency Dresser Plates and again in the early 2000s as part of the Signature range.

This pattern is called 'Portland Vase' and was originally made in 1832 being reintroduced as one of the Victorian Dresser Plates in the Blue Room Collection in the late 1990s.

This one is called 'Warwick Vase' and the original engraved plate dates back to 1834. I have been looking at this pattern on Ebay for a while. I am trying to keep the cost down of decorating the hallway with blue and white china, so I have never bid on any as they mostly start from a £4.99 initial bid and then you need to add postage on top of that.

It's strange how things happen sometimes; I had actually walked past the shop where I found these, as I was going to start looking in the shop at the other end of the street but I suddenly decided to turn around and start in this first shop. I'm glad I did. There were people hanging out of the rafters, it was the busiest I've seen it. I walked straight over to the rack where they were and found them straight away at thew bottom of a large pile of plates. I must be 'in tune' with Spode at the minute. They will go nicely on the Blue Wall, which is a little like 'Blue Poles', less expensive but just as talked about ;)

These two plates are also Sarreguemines pottery, the same as my rose bowl I found a few weeks ago. They are marked 'Alphand U&Cie'. I have searched on the Internet but the only sites I have found are in French, so I am guessing that they are from France, which is not surprising with Guernsey's French connections throughout history. If anyone can tell me more I would love to hear from you.

This looks like an engraving of some sort, but it is hard to see exactly without getting it out of the frame. I'm into all things involving English wildlife at the minute so this had to come home with me. It is a rather odd frame as the white you can see around the edges it actually polystyrene foam, one of the more unusual framing techniques I've come across I must admit. Perhaps I shouldn't have said anything, as you do need to look closely to tell, now you all know my polystyrene shame!!

I'm sick of rummaging in the drawer trying to find a toothpick so this little owl came to stay at our house. Now I will never be short of a toothpick again 'hazzar'; I must be getting old or the scorching Guernsey weather (15*C today) has fried my brian to make such a bizarre toothpick related statement.

After I read Cindy's blog about cherubs I thought I might see what I can do with this cherub in my home. I'm trying to do a link to Cindy's blog 'My Romantic Home' but if it doesn't work another link to her blog is in my sidebar for those who are interested. http://romantichome.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-love-cherubs.html (I've seen other people do links and they never look like this? I think I need more practice).

I found one of these little birdies in one shop for £1.00 and the other in another shop for 30p. I think perhaps someone divided an estate between a few of the charity shops in order to spread the donations around. You can't really see in the photo very well (sorry these were hard to photograph) but there is a bird engraved on the side of the one at the back. I think I will use them to hold my earrings in my bedroom.

How much does all this extravagance cost I hear you ask - £10.30, for an hour and a half of thrifting fun and relaxation....What a Bargain!

The Sun has got his hat on and he's coming out today

The sun paid us a visit this weekend. He only stayed until lunchtime both days but there was certainly enough sunshine to get us all out and about. Saturday was spent working on the cottage garden, bouncing on the trampoline and reading the newspaper.





Sunday was a day for starting the vegetable patch planting, walking on the beach and walking in the country lanes. 'Mooching' as my Dad would say.

We went to the southern end of Vazon Bay for our beach walk today. We have walked the northern end quite a few times but only ever driven past its southern reaches.

The most common seashells you find on Guernsey beaches are limpets, periwinkles and snails. I am well versed in the seashells of Guernsey as we have a growing collection of them in various bottles around the house. The snails sound as if they would be something quite common but they are actually very beautiful en masse as they come in a vast range of surprising colours. I will get organised and take a suitably arty photo titled 'The Glamour of the Guernsey Gastropod.'

The rare and exotic Sea Duck.

As you can see Vazon is a rather large bay. The sand is not the 'sugar' sand you get on a lot of Australian beaches but it still makes might fine sandcastles.

As we were coming down the slipway to get onto the beach there was a man with a truck loading up the tray with seaweed, or vraic (pronounced rake) as the Guerns call it. I stopped to ask him what he was going to do with the enormous pile of smelly stuff. Apparently you can place it straight on your garden beds or bury it and it does wonders for the soil, although September is the best time to use it. Now I like our neighbours, and we have a friendly relationship with them, so I think we will go and collect some seaweed in September, just as people are starting to use their gardens less. We will go for the burying option over the direct mulching method to reduce the wafting aroma which would no doubt follow, but we will definitely give it a go.

My daughter's favourite seaweed; it will no doubt have some magical connection to the Mer-people of the English Channel.

Reclaiming the dunes.

After our beach walk we headed into the 'countryside' of Castel parish. I say 'countryside' in inverted commas as nowhere is very far on Guernsey and there are really not many places on the Island where you can not see a house or two. As we were driving down one of the lanes my husband brought the car to an abrupt halt, reversed and pulled into a divet in the hedge, in a rather James Bond being chased by the bad guy fashion I might add. He had spied a Greenlane, a pathway designated solely for the use of pedestrians, and decided we should all don our coats once more and head off down the lane to discover where it lead.

It was a lovely muddy pathway (so of course it was popular with the gumboot clad members of our party) in between a few farms. Horses, chickens, daffodils, seagulls (which are ever present) and geese were our companions on our adventure amble. You could see the Reservoir in the distance.

We came across a group of these fine fellows in a spectacular daffodil field. I think they were left to fend for themselves rather than giving them the chop. There are no foxes in Guernsey so I suppose all they would need to watch out for is the odd dog.

I could not get any closer to these geese to get a better photo. I have had experiences with their hissing, honking and 'toothy' bills before so I think we shall admire their more picturesque quality from afar.

I hope your weekend was a lovely one.

How much wood would a Woodchuck chuck

I suppose this post should really be called how much turf would a kind husband dig. The answer - this much.



Here is the results of four hours digging on Sunday morning. After nearly a year of talking about it our cottage garden is finally underway. Now if it will just stop raining I can start preparing the soil for planting.

We both love those quaint little cottages with roses and wisteria draped over the front door. With some time and effort hopefully we will have a picturesque cottage all of our own. I'll keep you posted.

A will to live.

Last year I bought a jonquil (paper whites) bulb kit from our local nursery in order to have something lovely flowering at Christmas time. You place the compost in the dish, plant you bulbs, cover the soil with the white stones, give it light watering, put it in a dark place and hope for the best. Their performance left a little to be desired. Once the pot started to look a bit sad and sorry I placed it in my glasshouse or as we refer to it 'the place were all good plants go to die' and promptly forgot about them.

Over the past year I have splashed the pot with water occasionally, when I was in the glasshouse watering my cape gooseberry bush, but on the whole I ignored them. It was about four weeks ago, one sunny weekend, when I had an urge to clean up the glasshouse that I discovered the green shoots poking through the white stones. So green-thumbedness via remote control is worth a go.

Here are the bulb so far. I will post a photo of them once they are in full bloom. All of the bulbs have put up a flower bud, so I am hoping the kitchen will be full of their sweet smell for quite a few weeks to come.