The Spooky Season is Upon Us.

Autumn is here. A chill is in the air , the leaves are starting to turn and the Bumble Bee'rs will talk of nothing but Halloween.


There are about 60 houses in our Clos and if we let them they would visit them all. We restrict them to about half and hour of Trick-or-Treating; although we would never let them do the 'trick' part. Some asked for a trick instead of a treat last year and B1 was dumbfounded. He had no idea what they were talking about, which really is a good thing I think as goodness knows what he would get up to!



I have decorated the hall table, which I still haven't painted white, with a few bits and bobs in the shades of the season.

I waited for these leaves to go on sale last Halloween as I didn't want to pay £20 for a vine of fake leaves but then the shop put them in with their Christmas wreaths so they didn't go on sale until January. It was a tense few weeks, I can tell you. I kept telling myself that no-one decorates for Christmas with the colours of Autumn; fortunately for me this turned out to be correct.

I do have one or two spooooooky items to keep the Bumble Bee'rs happy.

B1 was disgusted when he saw my Josef Original girl, 'There's nothing scary about HER Mum!' I did say that she was in keeping with the season but this didn't cut it as far as he was concerned.

I saw the cat jam pot in one of the Mill Street Antique shops last year, on sale, of course; so she made her way home with me too.

I have yet to carve our home-grown Jack-O-Lantern. I will waiting until a week or so before otherwise he will be all mouldy and quite disgusting for the big night.

Last year I had about 40-50 Trick-or-Treaters from around our Clos; we had a doberman in a tutu, a werewolf Dad and fair few ghouls, goblins, witches and warlocks. Alot of the accompanying parents dress up as well. I have limited the size of the Bumble Bee'rs collection buckets so the resulting E number 'possession' does not last for more than a few days.

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Thankyou to KC's Court blog for being part of my Pay-It-Forward.

I am still looking for two more recipients of a Bumble Bee Cottage Christmas gift. If you would like to participate please go to this post and leave a comment (please read the rules about participating first so you know what you are letting yourself in for :).

Her Royal Majesty

I have owned cats all my life, not that you really ever own a cat your just have the privilege of feeding them, cleaning up after them and patting them if they deem it appropriate.

Tilly is no exception. I have left these two doonas on a chair in the kitchen as I want to take them to the dry cleaners. I took the kids to school and came home to find this.

Tilly did condescend to open one eye in acknowledgement but as soon as this photo was taken she promptly went back to sleep. 'Yes, yes, off you go serf and fetch me my lunch.'

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My husband has pointed out to me 'two' me that I had spelt 'surf' incorrectly. I have corrected my errors. He also wished to point out that as Tilly only has one eye it is hard for her to open anything else! Yes, THANKYOU so much dear :P In case you don't know what this means it is a big raspberry to you, so neeeeeerrrrr.

Save the Sea Star!

I look at other blogs and everyone seems to have all these lovely linens to have for the background in their photos. Alas I have but two and I already used them in last week's posts so here you have one ironed and slightly stained Cath Kidston tea towel instead; artfully arranged so the all the stains are at the back.

I bought this vase a few weeks ago at the Salvation Army charity shop at the Bridge. It cost £3.00. It had a sticker on it which read Sugahara glass Tokyo, Japan. I googled this company and found a vase which looked similar. The old currency converter whipped into action and new it would cost about £30. So it is not a bad buy really.

We live about 200 meters from the ocean so I think seashells are an appropriate thing to have on display.

I had to find something to place my sea stars (seems we are not allowed to call them starfish anymore) in as Tilly thinks they are very tasty. I'm not sure sea stars are the natural diet of fluffy felines so this vase offers the perfect protection for both sea star and crazy cat.

Divorce Party

I went to my first ever divorce party on Saturday night. It was a strange affair. It celebrated something that had actually caused the woman giving the party alot of pain but I went to try to help her forget about it all and have a fab evening (also she always gives excellent parties:).


She had made a cake especially for the event. Mr Bee was concerned that there were going to be strippers; that was until I pointed out that there are NO strippers in Guernsey. To be honest we did not need any for a raucous evening; NO BOYS ALLOWED. There were Apple Sour shots, shot glasses with nude men in the bottom in various interesting poses, an extremely interesting game of 'Truth or Dare' which ended in someone (who shall remain nameless) running up and down the Clos in her underwear!

It was a fabulous, great, wonderful, stupendous evening and I hope it gave the hostess what she needed.

This post is for both N and E. You are both such lovely and wonderful ladies, although it may not feel like it now there will be a new beginning for you somewhere along the way as gems such as yourselves do not go long undiscovered.

Love Me
XXXOOOXXX

Pay it Forward

I just chose this photo because I like it not because it relates in anyway to this post. I have joined Diane at Heart Shaped's 'pay-it-forward'.

The way it will work is that Diane will send me a handmade gift and then three people will volunteer to join my 'pay-it-forward' and I will send them a hand made gift (which should be interesting as I do not sew in any way shape or form so will need to think outside the box here). Then they will ask for three volunteers on their blog and then they will send them a handmade gift and it seems to perpetuate from there.

It is just a bit of fun really and nice to receive a surprise in the post. Who doesn't like getting mail of the non-bill variety? So please leave a comment on this post if you would like to join in. The first three volunteers will receive the Bumble Cottage Gift soon, although the 'rules' of pay-it-forward are that you have 12 months in which to send your gifts so there is no pressure really. I'm just worried I would forget so I think it is better if I do it swiftly. Anyway I am a Christmas addict and would love to theme my gifts around the Festive Season.

Please do not let my possible self-harm with a needle and thread put you off joining in my pay-it-forward as I promise I will not send any gifts I have bled on ;)

Godzilla Defender of Brussel Sprouts

The smell wafting from Godzilla has forced me to move him out to the vegetable patch. Our patch is under siege from all sorts of creepy crawlies as it has been neglected for at least seven weeks.

As you can see the brussel sprouts are the worst hit. We are discussing whether it is best to spray them or simply rip them out. It seems such a waste after waiting for so many months for the sprouts to develop to edible size but I think the bugs have definitely munched them by now anyway.

Perhaps Godzilla will frighten the little blighters off!

Big Kids Day Cake Stall

Tomorrow is Big Kids Day and our school is having a 'Mufty' (free dress) day. All the children have been asked if they can wear something orange, the colour of Big Kids Day.


The school is also holding a cake stall to raise money for the charity. So I whipped these up this morning while I was on the phone to my Mum in Australia. I have a headset so I can chat and cook at the same time. There will be cakes and biscuits starting at 10p each. Let's hope they sell out.

The icing was supposed to be orange and white swirls but I didn't make the orange a strong enough colour so the colours blended in a little. I didn't want to add too much colouring as I am conscious of the poor teachers and what they will have to cope with in the afternoon with sugar and food colouring fueled pupils!