that was the weekend

Saturday was a quiet day. We got up late. I did some laundry and decluttered and organised the kitchen, where I found I have enough food in stock that we shouldn't need to do a big shop for several weeks. Famous last words, and then the Prof went out for a few essentials and managed to spend £60 anyway - although he did buy me a super pack of Sharpies, reduced to £8 from £24. Bargain! The Prof watched the archery and the shooting part of the Olympics on his laptop. The red button service doesn't work properly on our tv.....despite being a widescreen it seems it's verging on obsolete. I did a little knitting, and we caught up with the new series Containment, I'm liking it so far, it's one of those realistic breakdown-of-society things that I like to terrify myself with for some reason.



On Sunday we went out in Kent for the day. We live on the edge of East London where it converges with Essex, but Kent is very near and the Prof lived there for over twenty years. We both love Kent, and get over there as often as possible. My favourite area is around Stelling Minnis, and that's where we went this time. We stopped off at Chilham, a pretty little village where I love the shop - I came home with a book, a new peg bag and a bar of the most gorgeous honeysuckle soap. Then we drove through the lovely countryside to the Lord Whisky, an animal rescue centre with an attached restaurant that does lovely meals. We forgot to say hello to the resident pig this time.



After dinner, driving through the countryside we called in to see our friends, who were going out that afternoon to an open day at Old Bladbean Stud Gardens so we went with them and spent a happy couple of hours wandering around the garden together, and catching up.



I loved the whites, silvers and blues of this part of the garden, the photographs I took don't do it justice. I bought one of these plants with the ball shaped flower heads, they are much bluer than they look, and the bees love them.









We saw two memorials as we walked around, one to 'Abigail', and this one in front of a Roman style bench. I wonder who the rainbow chaser was?





I love the purple and white flowers behind the bench here.



I think this plant is Eryngium Giganteum, otherwise known as Miss Wilmott's Ghost, named after a 19th century horticulturist who liked to scatter the seed in other people's gardens. 

The gardens were beautiful, definitely worth a visit. They're not too huge, just large enough to spend a pleasant couple of hours, including a stop for tea and cake.







Our friends Brian and Trisha, and my Prof. No photos of me - as usual I was the one behind the camera.

Joining Karen at Pumpkin Sunrise

eighteen, nineteen, twenty

Chilham, Kent

We've been away for ten days, house sitting for friends who live near Canterbury. You may have noticed the Kent bias to my photographs recently. We had a really nice relaxing time and now I am pretty much exhausted. How come a relaxing time doesn't leave me feeling relaxed?

We arrived home on Sunday, and I spent Monday unpacking and working my way through Mount Washmore. I am busy every day this week, never a good thing for me, I seem to need a day or two in between to recharge. I have a hair cut scheduled, a days cleaning for my Auntie, a WI coffee afternoon. I need to colour my hair, too - I am still planning to stop colouring it and see what colour I actually have underneath but for now I'm using semi-permanent instead of permanent. It has no ammonia, smells nicer and I don't notice a difference from the permanent dye. I have white roots in 10 days whatever I use. I am still mulling over how to tackle growing it out but it's my Dad's retirement do at his work this week and I'm not turning up to meet all his workmates looking like mad badger woman. 

I've been making progress with my £2013 in 2013 goal. My earnings each week from the bit of cleaning and ironing I am doing is going in the pot, along with any cashback we earn here and there when we buy things online. I still need to get going with ebay. I do have some things here I know I could sell, but working out how to do it all just seems overwhelming. We have so much decluttering to do and really, right now I feel like just taking everything down to the charity shop and being done with it. That won't get to me to my £2013 goal though, and neither will it pay for the house renovations we're planning.

This evening we're having a rare treat, the Young Philosopher wants to watch a film with us - Cloud Atlas, which he's seen already and loved. I'm making a sit-in-front-of-the-film pizza and salad dinner and I have to have it ready for the minute the Prof gets in from work as it's a three hour film and otherwise we'll be falling asleep. 

seventeen

 We strolled into Canterbury town centre from a different direction than usual, I'd not seen this building before and had to take a photo 

fourteen, fifteen, sixteen

 

The view from our friends' back gate

...and at night. We saw several shooting stars, but no photos. Did you see any?

Bunting in Rochester, against a lovely blue sky.  I think every town could be improved by a bit of bunting. And every house, but the Prof doesn't agree

thirteen

Spotted in a front garden near Lenham, Kent: the strangest garden ornaments I've ever seen

twelve

eight, nine, ten, eleven

My favourite Valerian, seeing it everywhere at the moment. 

Memorial in the church at Chilham, Kent. Apparently the only memorial in England to depict children's toys - a battledore and shuttlecock, and the book they are reading has a picture of the Babes in the Wood

The bees love the passion flower in our garden

Above the doorway of a lovely little shop in Chilham, reminding me I have Thoreau's Walden on my Kindle still to read

On my mind

Sunshine. Cherries. A herb garden. Purple ink. New jeans. Cherry brandy. Bathing the dog. Painting the garden bench. Possibilities. A toe ring. Dreams. Garlic mushrooms on brown toast. The day we saw the bluebells.

That Was The Week #2

Contrails over Kent

On Monday, I did a LOT of laundry. Did you know you only need about a tablespoon of washing powder? That's all I use, and I have never had a problem. At one time I made my own washing powder, but these days with a little more money in my purse and a bit less energy, I am not frugal to the same degree as when I was a penniless, home educating single parent. Although then, as now, a lot of the money seemed to go on books and getting out and about. Priorities!

I have no recollection of Tuesday, I expect there was a Tuesday last week, there usually is, but I can't remember it at all. I can safely say I probably spent too much time on the internet and drank a lot of coffee, forgot to eat either lunch or breakfast, or both. That would be a fairly standard day.

On Wednesday, the Prof had a couple of business meetings in Kent, so I went with him for company. We had lunch in one of our favourite places, MacKenzies in West Malling. The Prof had his usual pizza and I had what I always have, the maccheroni carbonara which is the best carbonara I have ever had. Other than that, I spent a peaceful couple of hours writing and reading in cafes, whilst he had his meetings.

Thursday was a bad day. Maybe I did too much on Wednesday, but I was wiped out and spent most of the day in bed.

On Friday the Prof finished work a couple of hours early and we went to collect the disposable cameras from our wedding from the developers. We put a camera on every table at the wedding reception, for people to capture candid shots. I sent the Prof on his own to collect the pics, and I was right to do so, because exactly as I suspected, one of the films contained a photograph of someone's bare bottom. I guess there is always one arse at every wedding.

On Saturday we drove into London, as we had tickets to see Warhorse, and were hoping the Rapture would hold off at least until after the performance. We had lunch first, then made our way to the theatre, only to see smoke pouring out of the roof. Not good. Several fire engines promptly arrived to deal with the smoke (which was caused by an electrical problem in a restaurant in the same building, and was not the beginning of the Rapture). The performance went ahead eventually, about 45 minutes late, as soon as the building was deemed to be safe. Warhorse was excellent, gut wrenching but very good. The puppetry involved in working the horses was nothing short of brilliant. Go see it!

We had quite a relaxing Sunday, a long lie in followed in the evening by dinner at our friends' house. Always nice to have dinner cooked by someone else! We took the scenic route home through the beautiful Kent countryside.

To make your own washing powder:

Grate some soap

Put in dispenser drawer with some washing soda

Run machine as normal.

Apparently you can add Borax. I never did find out what it is, let alone track it down in the supermarket. I didn't notice it's absence!

You can add a few drops of essential oil: I didn't bother, though it is a bit strange having clean washing with no scent. We are just not used to it. Sometimes I used Ecover fabric conditioner as it has such a lovely smell, other times (when I was more skint) I used vinegar, which makes an excellent fabric conditioner. It softens things up beautifully and leaves no smell. I did find the home made washing powder did not have the same stain removing qualities as biological, so if necessary I used stain remover. Perhaps that was what the Borax was for. Ah.