Recently…

A lovely sunny weekend exploring the honey coloured villages and towns of the Cotswolds. I wish I had some photos to show you of the magical cottage gardens we saw. There seems to be a big hollyhock fan club. They were everywhere. There also seems to be lots of old fashioned sweet shops with jars upon jars of goodies. I hope my dentist is not reading this.

Usually before I go away I do loads of research to make sure we’re not missing anything but this time we went without a clue of what we would find and left it all to chance. Very relaxing just wandering on a whim. It turned out that Hidcote was just down the road.

This huge garden is divided in lots of ‘rooms’ all with different characters. The mural below was a big surprise.

It’s hard to tell which is painting and which is part of the structure.

All in all a great weekend and there’s still so much of our fab country that I’ve never been too. Where is your favourite place for a weekend away?

A peek at what I’ve been crafting…

I’ve been woodburning designs and patterns onto beads and making necklaces with my pyrography kit. For ages now I’ve been fascinated by tattoos, especially old school type tatts. I’d love to get one done (my mum is horrified by this even though I’m in my mid 30’s! Haha!) but I hate needles so it will take a lot of courage. I’m a big fan of The Cannibal Bonbon blog, her work is amazing! So maybe one day I will travel to Paris for a tattoo. Maybe! In the mean time I will play with some tatts on wood and I’ll wear one round my neck instead.

I’ve got lots more designs to show you, many of them are geometric patterns (another fascination of mine at the moment) and I’m working on building up a collection and putting them in my etsy shop. I’d really like to open a new shop with a brand new name for my pyrography but I’m finding it hard to choose one and I’m not sure it’s a good idea after building up some good feedback with Bird Ahoy. But now would be the best time to do it. What to do… what to do…?

Any suggestions would be very welcome! Especially for a name.

old red fox pyrography

My latest woodburning.

Old Red’s a wily fox who likes nothing more than finding a quiet spot to sunbath. He knows that he’s less likely to be spotted if he follows the edge of the field and in any case, everyone knows that the edge is always the most interesting place to be with all the wild flowers, animals and birds nesting!

I have taken to hanging these little circles of English sycamore wood on the wall like mini artworks.

There is also a small slice of yew that I’m working on from the timber yard down the road. I’ve decided on a sleeping fox this time. Rumours of a mini festival being organised at the yard centred around wood craft with a barbeque and some live music have caught my interest. Sounds like fun! My friend asked if I’d like to show some of my work so of course I said yes! Better get cracking then!

Bye for now.

Where I would love to live…

Marloes beach in Pembrokeshire.

We have not long come back from a lovely break which included in no particular order:

• Lots of gorgeous beaches, some sandy, some pebbly, some rocky, some deserted, some with other dogs to play with.

Freshwater West

• A boat trip round Ramsey Island which Floss seemed to really enjoy (her second boat trip ever!) We saw seals, razorbills, guillemots, fulmars, blackbacks, gannets and a buzzard.

Boat trip from St. Justinians around Ramsey Island

• A game of rounders on Barafundle beach with Flossy’s tennis ball and a driftwood bat. Great fun, especially with our lightning-fast furry black fielder!
• Over-sized food… in the form of a giant ice cream that Mr P accidently ordered to the amusement of the queue behind him. I laughed so much I cried and Floss somehow ended up with it all over her head as it dripped through the picnic bench. There was also a giant hot chocolate drank in a breezy beer garden at the Druidstone Hotel (a mad, arty, laid back place if ever there was one!)

Humongous hot chocolate at The Druidstone Hotel

• Stumbling across an exhibition at a fab gallery in St Davids of one of our fav artists, Chris Neale. It must have been fate and a painting was somehow found room for in the car for the journey home.
• A fab holiday house in Little Haven called Regatta Cottage. We fell asleep to the sound of waves breaking on the beach and there was a great spot on the terrace to watch the sun setting over the sea. It also had an ace shower in the ensuite.

Little Haven

• Beautiful wild flowers everywhere, the bluebells and red campion looked so beautiful against the bright green of the cow parsley flower buds on the tall banks down the winding lanes.
• Seaweed! On one beach in particular I found so many different types of different shapes, sizes and colours that I went a bit mad with the camera and ran the battery down!

• A couple of good drenchings. Well it wouldn’t be a proper British holiday without it and as long as you’ve got the right clothing and a pub to dry off in afterwards there’s no reason not to get out there.

Looking out towards Skomer Island.

• Strolling round the little harbour of Porthgain and eating fish and chips at The Shed.

Porthgain

• Buying some sea thrift from the perennial nursery as a souvenir so I will be reminded when I’m in the garden.

Traeth Llyfn

I think my one ambition in life is to live here one day. Can’t wait to go back again soon!

exciting parcel

It wasn’t my birthday, but it felt like it when this came through the post! Gorgeous wrapped goods from vintage squirrel! Look at that lovely ceramic button!!

And inside was the lovely woolly flower brooch I have had my eye on since I saw it in this blog post.

The only photo out of about 30 that I managed to focus on the flower!
I’ve been wearing it constantly since I received it. Thanks Katie! I really think you should charge more for them. I am very tempted to buy another in different colours.

lovely aberdovey

Wanderlust led us to Aberdovey on the Snowdonia coast this weekend.

We travelled through the dead of night and found ourselves winding our way up the side of a mountain, bumping over pot holes, around hairpin bends to a little wooden cabin. The moon was so big and bright it lit up the whole of the estuary below and the hills beyond.

The next morning the sun shone as though it was summer and we ate our breakfast outside a cafe wearing our sunglasses and later relaxed in a beer garden overlooking the estuary. The golden sandy beach stretches on for miles, backed by sand dunes and with glorious views we walked and played with Floss, kicking her ball for her to fetch. It was so good to spend some time together.

There is nothing like exploring a new place to refresh your creative spirit.

a thoroughly English afternoon tea

On Sunday Mr P treated me to afternoon tea at a posh hotel. When we arrived a table had been all laid out for us in a quiet lounge next to a large window overlooking over the gardens. We settled down on a comfy sofa and soon the table was filled with tea, cakes and finger sandwiches. After being on a diet (admittedly on and off but mostly on) since October and finally hitting my target weight, I almost squealed with delight to see mini chocolate éclairs and scones with clotted cream. The scones were so light they would have blown away had the window been opened! Everything was delish and we almost managed to polish it all off.

A woman who saw me taking photos offered to take one of the two of us and this was the result. Isn’t it posh?! We both had a giggle at it as it’s really not us at all. But a lovely reminder of an exquisite couple of hours away from the norm.