To everyone...

...best wishes for a happy new year, and for the following weeks and months. May they bring all you hope and wish for.

And as the year passes from one to another, my team now has new owners...giving us a little stability. We know we haven't got as deep pockets as some, we never will, but hopefully fans will welcome the new chapter in our history, and will give enough time to the new regime. We keep our management team, and rumours linking a certain Dennis with us appear false...and talks will be held over the next few days about a responsible pot for maybe a choice transfer or two.

We have also finished our kitchen(except for the french doors)...and I love it. (pictures to follow)

I now just need to work out how to switch the touchpad off this machine, as I keep deleting or moving things by touching it!! I use a mini mouse.

So...again, may pretty and handsome things come your way...thank you for being there.

Love Su xx

And then there was...

...a new shiny laptop!

Just getting everything set up and saved....

I hope everyone has a good weekend and not too much snow!

TTFN...

Do I do...

...a little wave, just to prove I'm still here!

I know, months have passed and no words...but I'm closer to my new laptop now...so please keep checking...

The bank holiday...

...is on the horizon.   Not many plans, except to visit the local Farmers Market, then to Walsingham to the farm shop and barns...and maybe a walk along the coast path.  The male of the household treated himself to a camera, and he's just been waiting for an opportunity to take proper photos and not just point and snap at anything which moves! 

I remain with my trusty photo taker...evidence below...some new beads...

Awhile...a time...

...a broken laptop...


I mentioned my laptop is feeling exceedingly sorry for itself, and I'm using the PC, which means I'm tucked away, and I don't like that...which is my excuse for doing what I have to and then disappearing back to the touchable world again.


Anyway, in my touchable world I've been making my little spacers, interpersed with experiments of other things...and decorating or titivating.  I did find out about previous owners of our house and why they renamed it...we know Norfolk's reputedly flat, but it does have hills and we nestle in a little hollow, and have not much height...we're a low cottage, and from across the fields it looks like a little boat sailing in the waves...and that's how it got it's name change.


Also spacers...here's some I made earlier!!

....just a small selection, but it proves I have been busy!

Football...Foxes and...

...Flowers...

The first is dealt with easily, my team have just had a management buyout.  Well, it's called that with Richard Murray a long time supporter, board member and chairman, taking outright control of the club.

"This has been a critical time for the club. Our future was uncertain, and financially this was potentially one of our darkest hours.


"However, agreement has been reached with my fellow directors for me to take sole control of the club through what is effectively a management buyout (MBO) of the plc subsidiaries. The new money I am injecting into the club will ensure we go into the new season with a competitive team.

"I shall be appointing a new interim board of directors, and we will now go forward and actively seek new investment.
 
http://www.cafc.co.uk/newsview.ink?nid=36314
 
With that...I'm happy...
 
Now, foxes!  My absence (yet again) has been due to visiting my Mum's and trying to get some order into her garden.  Not a huge garden, just a normal suburban one, but one which has had foxes make their home at the end of it, due to the over grown shrubs let run rampant by a "professional" gardening neighbour who didn't like interference, Mum didn't want to upset, and who recently retired from helping.  Now the shrubs are trimmed back...the debris of the foxes home has been cleared, and hopefully we can keep this now tidy.  By all accounts the foxes did come to check, sat and looked awhile, and then trotted off somewhere else.  Now all I have to do is weed, dig...prune and trim the rest of the garden! 
 
...and flowers.  That'd be in my garden.  Over the last few months I've been collecting an array of herbaceous plants, roses and small shrubs, trimming back overgrown shrubs in my own garden and yesterday I, at last, got to plant some.  We'd decided to make a new bed across the garden to break up a sharp slope, this we started to dig.  Then we found some photos of the house and garden fourteen years ago, (behind the old kitchen cabinets we've dismantled)...and lo and behold there was the garden bed full of plants just where we were digging ours!  Stranger still were some other photos showing the front of the house, with a garden just where we had decided to put another one! 

Oh, and my laptop has decided that it's had enough.  Not completely dead, but on the verge of dying...it's power cable is broken and it's virtual memory...it's been telling me for the last two to three years it keeps having to find more!  So I guess that's what I'll be saving for...

Damp...

...at last!


After such scorching weather the rain fell softly yesterday. 


Wimbledon is over...the World Cup is over...and Spain is celebrating.  Of course, we did have winners at Wimbledon with two young men winning the Boys Double title, and we did have representation on the World Cup final pitch with Howard Webb refereeing.  Blame and accusation have started...as has the pre-season friendlies.  My team lost on Saturday to AFC Wimbledon, and won tonight at Welling United, but these are exercises...no clue to the performances to come with so many changes and substitutions throughout the matches...but tonight saw the return of Jon Fortune (yay), maybe only for this...but I'd bite your hand off to get him back, and then there's the forthcoming talk with Christian Dailly...mix those staying with new signings and youngsters, that defence could be stronger than last year. 

I've been looking to go to Kettering, but ticket information seems a little scarce...

I nearly went to Lynn tonight to watch the match between the newly reformed King's Lynn club and a Norwich City XI...I wish I had now...Lynn won 2 - 0.    Norwich put a team of academy and senior players who didn't travel to Germany out.  I'll watch both teams with interest. 

My local team, Fakenham Town, haven't started their pre-season yet...

I know...

...it's almost a month since I've written!  I have excuses...reasons, but I won't bore you with those!

Except, we went to a wonderful wedding in Kent.  The bride was beautiful, and very "princessy", which is what she always wanted.  And we went to my sister's brilliant party...also in Kent, and had a great time!

So, the rest...seems at my team's headquarters things they are a changing!  Some departures have been announced, with second goalkeeper leaving for Motherwell where he's been guaranteed the number one shirt in a three year deal...I'm sure that will help his international aspirations (Ireland), instead of signing a one year contract with us.  Spring(released anyway) going to Leyton Orient...  Stuart Fleetwood off to Hereford...after numerous loan deals with clubs.  The Nicky Bailey saga goes on, with a deal imminent for his move to Middlesbrough...this is money we sorely need.  Jonjo Shelvey already at Liverpool, with a far better manager now than the one he signed for!  I always had a "what if" feeling about Roy Hodgson, us rather than Fulham...if only!!  Steve Gritt is leaving...an unfortunate casualty in the monetary reality of League One football.  He will be sorely missed, by all...he was a Charlton stalwart and had been there longer than some fans!  Another Steve...this time Waggott, who left this week...and redundancy warnings have been announced too, not actuality yet, but it's a nasty feeling having hanging over you!  Yassin Moutaouakil has had his contract terminated...so a weight off our wage bill!  We have signed our youngster Alex Stavrinou on a one year contract...and also, I'm glad, Chris Solly.  Two good young players, and with the new rules of youngsters who signed for a club three years before their twenty first birthday being in the squad, these two are positive news.  It's reported that Frazer Richardson and Jose Semedo both came back to training this week...and it's players of experience in the mix of youngsters we need.  We can't go out and sign a relatively "big name", but if we carefully blend youth with experience we could hold our own next season, and surprise those doubters!  One thing that makes me feel as though I'm chewing feathers is...we're financially tight...squeaky tight, but we're still there...others have gone into administration and bounced out...if not smelling of roses, at least still alive.  You tell me that's right! 

Oh, and I won't be watching the World Cup final, nor either of the Wimbledon finals...ce la vie!  As they say in France! 

It's strange...

...who you meet in your local shop.

Having gone to one of the local village's shops yesterday, I found the owner and a regular customer chatting about the coming World Cup and the Rio injury.  Being a person who can't resist a conversation about football...or most other sports either, I made a small comment, and found they both thought a certain Darren Bent should have gone instead of Emile Heskey.  I then found I was talking to someone whose nephew played with Darren at Charlton.  Thinking through who it could be, I discovered it was another Darren...Darren Ambrose.  It was mentioned that it was no surprise he didn't flourish at Charlton, as he was consistently played out of his favoured position, by all the managers...and as soon as he went to Warnock he rediscovered his niche in his best position...and is now happy.

Apart from that, wallpaper is being stuck to walls, paint is being brushed onto wood, a garden is being weeded and glass is being wrapped around mandrels!

...and another week starts....speculation within the wider Charlton blogging world is rife, and at the end of the week we'll all settle down to see how far all the teams get.  Maybe ours will raise a trophy just as the cricket team did.

We'll see!

Another busy...

...and gloriously sunny weekend.

We started by painting the ceiling of our "new" kitchen...and now it's all white, rather than an off white flavoured with an underlay of green shades.

Then off to town(Fakenham) as the monthly Farmer's Market was in full swing, arriving just as some were packing away.  If you're around on the fourth Saturday of a month it's well worth a visit...with stalls as diverse as Norfolk wine, to handmade willow baskets, bread, cakes(the nice lady gave us two slices of each), plants...meat, fish...veggies, handmade shoes, bird seed...etc...  We did pick up some bits we wanted, including a perfect willow basket for the kitchen...then into the church for the Craft Market...there I bought a little box for a forthcoming project, and a "love" cushion for the spare bedroom(I'm making the rest, but couldn't resist the little embroidered butterflies).

Like most towns we have a local department store, here it's Aldiss, and sells things from sofas to towels...and even has a chocolate factory outlet (Kinnertons) in the corner.  Anyway, another bargain was found...and we came away with a knocked about "posh" kitchen trolley, for a fraction of the original price!  Chipped paint after having a bit of sandpaper brushed over it, gives just the right look.

So a successful visit....

On my way into and from town I pass a fellow bloggers home, and as she was having an Open Studio weekend, (also the next two)...we used the excuse and went to visit.  Debbie Osborn Art and Design

is a genius at making things from the unusual, as well as a creative artist...and makes the most sublime and welcomed elderflower cordial...for which I must get her recipe!  Being followed around her garden by Louise, Martha, Miriam and Tildy(I think that's right!), with Katie hiding in the undergrowth having a squawk at us...  I'm sure they were checking Debbie wasn't going too far from sight.  We wish her and Mr O the best with the open weekends. 

And then home to check the ceiling...fine!  Dig...paint...finish plinths...cheer Blackpool...

Now all that's left to finish is to hang the lining paper and paint...plus find a piece of wood!

I'm trying...

...to rake up enough enthusiasm and energy to walk to work,  I did work until midnight last night, having given myself the evening off to watch my team in the League One play off semi final, we lost on penalties having gone into the second leg behind and having then played ourselves into a lead last night, we had a loose moment in defence and their eighteen year old became a hero for the second match, to draw them level.  I hate penalty shoot outs, I always have...some say they give the game excitement, but I've always detested them, ever since their inception.  So it's not sour grapes because we lost, and I'm not sure how you'd replace them either...I'm not a mover and shaker within the game!  Maybe the third team should be promoted...in this case Millwall, after all they did get the points!  Okay, so shoot me!

So now, where does that leave my beloved team...if you read certain accounts, from certain papers...we have a whistle blower...since when have we had those?  We had always been a friendly, family orientated, well run club...held up as such, but now we have, reportedly, a whistle blower?!  Or cause for one...which is more to the point!  I'm sure some will take great delight in that...but, as supporters of the game of football, not your or my specific allegiance, we have to wonder where this game of ours is going.  With parachute payments for the clubs coming down from the Premier League set to rise to £48m over four years from £16m over two, where exactly does that leave everyone else!?  We know from experience being relegated is expensive, trying to cut your cloth accordingly for the income of a lower league, and those contracts with players and managers are signed in blood it seems....air tight, water tight, and fireproof!  And if you subsisted on the weekly turnover of the Premier League...you might be lucky if you can keep your team together for a push straight back, probably though you couldn't.  Then you need to gather together a team to be ready for the next season, that bouncing straight back...but, you have to have them in place, playing together from the outset...and that's not always possible, throw in some injuries during a season and...you see where this goes...  That £48m even at £12m a year is a good starting point to keeping your team or the nucleus of it, together.  Go lower and what's happened to Leeds over the last few years shows what can happen.  To get the right manager with the right players at the right time...it's expertise, isn't it?  Or maybe just plain luck!

So last night...Nicky Bailey missed one penalty, one shot of the game...one second in a lifetime.  It was cruel...he was devastated...but, at least he was brave enough to put himself there, to place that ball on that little white spot and try... Me?  I wouldn't have even been able to pick the ball up, let alone run and kick the thing. 

So I hope he'll be there next season to lead, but I have a feeling he won't be...I hope the team that played their hearts out last might will be there, but they won't be, either returning to their home clubs from loan...or moving on.  And please don't say Liverpool to me!  What about our youngsters?

Okay, now I'm walking to work!

However...

...did I have time to go out to work!

I spent the morning making beads, including these focals...

The two different types of glass I've used give the beautiful metallic finish, when heated differently in the flame.  I love making focals...I don't do that enough!

I top-dressed my herb garden...spread some muck about!

Put some chicken wire along the top of the fence behind our summer house, as the horse in the field that wraps around two sides of our garden, could put his head over and was chewing the back window ledge on the summer house.

Cleaned and finished the beads made this morning...

Normal house things in between...and chasing up some of the new kitchen bits.

....though I did get some time to do some embroidery when my dinner was cooking!  

I know how I get more time these days...it's being content doing what I do!

I'm a...

...newbie again!

I've just put my first item on Folksy.  http://www.folksy.com/shops/EithneGlass

I know it's only one item with one photo, but I have to change my way of cropping pictures so they're square...but it's there... ;)

Su's Charmed...

...By Charlton

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I was interviewed by Gary Haines for the Charlton programme, and this was printed in the one for the Carlisle game.  It's been mentioned that not everyone got to the game...and would I please print the interview...so...here goes.

She may live deep in Canaries territory, but the Addicks will always be precious to one long-serving supporter from Fakenham.  Gary Haines finds out about her unique jewellery collection and penchant for Peacock blue.

There's been plenty to cheer about for fans in Norfolk this season, with Norwich City seemingly destined for an immediate return to the Championship.

But one creative supporter from the region remains proud of her red and white heritage, and is hoping Charlton can follow suit in the campaign's closing weeks.

Jewellery designer Su Mose is happy to broach the subject of her Addicks heroes at any time.

A former season-ticket holder who lived on the borders of Belvedere, Erith and Bexleyheath before relocating to Fakenham last year, she was first charmed by Charlton in 1963/64.

"My allegiance comes from my Dad, who took me to a game against Manchester City when I was eight.  I was immediately hooked."

"We used to stand on the Eastern Terrace, and from there I could shout at and cheer for Keith Peacock on the wing.  I was never allowed near the Covered End, which is probably why I love being there now."

"It's quite funny, really; my Mum used to see Keith and his son Gavin when he visited his Mum's shop in Belvedere.  A lady fainted once, and Keith was off grabbing a cold sponge and mopping her face.  There were no delicate smelling salts- those were the days when a cold sponge healed all!"

Su, who runs Wayward Rose Jewellery, keeps in touch with Valley events mainly via the internet and the ever popular CAFC Player video website...

(it then goes on to the jewellery...you don't want that bit)...

Su, is hoping Charlton can clasp promotion come May - beating Norwich in the process.

"I was talking to a Norwich director last summer, and he smiled when he learned I supported Charlton.  He said he forgave me, and suggested that we would get automatic promotion and they'd be in for a tough fight.  I'm sure that he, like all their fans, is more than a little happy so far."

"Others who know of my allegiance smile indulgently at my folly, then go on to mention Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan.  With the home game coming soon, I'd love to have some bragging rights, so I'm really hoping for a win."

Well, we can't have everything, now can we.  

I hope Mr Haines doesn't mind the reprinting...and please don't work out the age thingy...it takes all the mystery away!! 

How nice it is...

...to have nice neighbours. Those ones who take a parcel in when you're out or don't hear the bell, then offer to help carry it because it's rather large, and those who you share a pot of tea with...and those you just know enough to share a nod, wave and smile with...

...and then there are those...

...who put a mobile horse shelter behind your summerhouse...

...even though they have a large (about two acres) field to put it in...

...and as it's a mobile agricultural building, in an agricultural field there it stays. It had been suggested that these particular neighbours could do something somewhere...as they have already to others, they seem to have a reputation for riding rough shod over others.

On a brighter note, the dolls house you can see in the window(I reshuffled the interior) my Dad made for me when I was about four. The poor thing needs some tlc...but it's all there and not broken, just the chimney stack a little loose and some new paper needed. I can still remember opening it that Christmas, and then all the furniture... To say I was excited...like moving into your own new house!

I've also been busy making some new pieces...along with some beads...

...and I see that my team have sold a young asset.  Liverpool have bought Jonjo Shelvey...  A midfielder who will no doubt warm the bench eventually! 

I found another...

...ball to juggle.  The area of garden behind the "new" kitchen (when it's finished), there was a raised area laid to gravel, leading up to another smaller area of paving, and then the hedge and walnut tree.  It's hidden beside the summer house, a little suntrap.  

On Friday I decided to start scraping the gravel away, moving it to the side paths(waste not), cleaning the paving...renewed the little stone wall finding two curled lizards under there and then sat and watched the wildlife come and go.  Big bustling bumble bees finding a hidy hole in the stump of an old tree, birds of all varieties collecting bugs from the newly tumbled stones, two blue tits testing my winter raised house for them, the pair of robins back and forth to their nest and a climax of coming eye to eye with a little brown mouse...I was on my hands and knees at the time pulling up the old weed inhibitor.  The sun rose on Saturday and we dragged some paving into place to make two paths, like the rays of the sun...next I started the digging, finding little pieces of pottery of varying colours.  Finding those, you wonder whose lives they touched, how they slipped to be broken and when they were strewn on the garden and buried...

Now I have the start of a herb garden...chives, thyme are already planted.  Sorrel, tarragon, flat parsley, sage, fennel, and chamomile are waiting to find a home, with mint and lemon balm staying in large pots.  A few sweet peas will trail up a wigwam this year, nasturtiums will tumble over the wall and a sprinkling of bright calendula will wend their way between...

Now...just the rest of the garden to deal with!

A special...

...day was Friday.  It was our wedding anniversary, and to say it celebrated a few years would be an understatement.  Not as many as some, but a fair few.  The day was saddened though by the passing of an old family friend.  The day he should've been celebrating his 90th birthday he passed away.  A grand age, but a sad day...

The skies above us have been quiet.  We have some noise from the odd passing fighter jet, but these with commercial airlines have been stopped from flying here...so, if this affects you and your holiday, you have my sympathy...if like my youngest son you live near an airport, you can make the most of these few days of respite.  Commercially damaging I know, but for those who live near them...just a few days of peace.

I'm not sure how many balls I have in the air at present.  Juggling maybe an art, and in reality it's not something I have ever been able to do, but with projects...I can cope.  The kitchen is nearly complete, the taps are on their way and the worktops should be measured this week.  A new (old) cupboard entered our lives on Saturday, when we visited Steptoes in Dereham and fell in love with an old oak four door cupboard, perfect for crockery and linens.  Skirtings went on over the weekend, plumbing in place, so now all I need are three strong men here at the same time and the larder can go upright, rather than laying forlornly on it's side...waiting.  We're getting there.

A downside to the weekend, my team lost...they should've won if the pictures were anything to go by, but the opposing goalkeeper had one of those matches, where everything he touched(and he touched a lot) went away...I knew he'd be our downfall this match, but I guess it makes the locals around here happy...so everyone should be going around with a smile on their face.  Maybe Delia will make a celebratory cake.  An annoying thing about it...those teams around us all dropped points too, so we could've climbed.  Hey ho!!

Last Sunday...

...we visited Sandringham(sounds posh eh?!).  It's only twenty minutes away and had a three day Food and Craft Show, which is always a good reason to visit anywhere.

It's the first time we've been there, we had fun and met some great and interesting people.  There was a lady who makes wonderful corn dollies.  I now have an Earth Mother sitting above my head, she's perched on a beam looking at home.  The lady also makes the most amazing brooches, all from straw and so intricate...she was saying she makes them during the winter, when she can concentrate...and when they're gone she doesn't make anymore until the next winter.  The couple came from Leicestershire.

We also came home with a Wensleydale rug...hand woven in Norfolk by Mr Townsend, and all curly and soft and beautiful.  He was saying it takes him about a week to make them... A lady who makes the most wonderful soaps...Mad About Nature(she blogs)...she had an organic deodorant stick.  I'm trying it out!

So many other crafts were there.  Woodturners...hurdlemakers...chairmakers...calligraphy...windvanes...knitters...glass blowing...and so much more...  So many of these shows and festivals don't have proper craft people, this did...and well worth the visit...

And I might be winning with the bunnies...

Sometime ago...

...I received an email, of which the contents came as more than a little surprise! This was the middle of January...

After picking myself up off the floor, and taking a few days to think about things, I replied...giving a positive answer.

It then went quiet for nearly two months, and I thought that was it. Suddenly another email arrived apologising for the delay, and was I still okay for things.

My correspondent was a guy called Gary Haines, and to lots that will mean absolutely nothing...to a few they'll recognise the name. A couple more emails passed between us, and it led to me being featured in my team's programme, on the "Fan Focus" page for the Monday game against Carlisle.


Yes, that was me.

I think I'm still in shock...

PS...we also won!

Living opposite...

...the church makes it easy when trying to direct people to our cottage.

It's also a pretty view or it is if I look sideways, as the church itself is slightly to one side. Opposite is the churchyard...there's no wall, and the ground is about three foot or so higher than the floor of our cottage, so I have a view of the headstones. At Christmas a delivery of several Christmas wreaths were laid at different stones, then a couple of weeks ago a bunch of red roses were laid at one closest. Now there are little bunches of daffodils popping their heads through the soil bringing a brightness to the grassy expanse.

I understand there's no electricity...oil brings the only illumination, and no regular services. It is still consecrated though. It has some very special murals inside dating back nearly five hundred years.

St Andrew's



In reading a book by a previous owner of our cottage, I note he was told that St Andrews lies on a ley line with a ley stone outside it's porch.

These are...

...what arrived yesterday. I just kept a smile on my face all day.

My door and floorboard bench, sitting waiting for the finishing touches.



I'll be making a cushion for it, and maybe a bit of polish...but, I'm thinking about that.

These boxes also arrived...

...with a few more out of shot. These are the start of the working side of the kitchen...sink and cupboards. I think you can just see a hint of the colour?! You can just see the colour charts balanced on one of the boxes. Which one to colour the walls...and doors. So many choices...and so little time.

I was also busy making some necklaces. A friend has a boutique just outside Norwich, part of which is the sale and hire of Prom dresses, and she asked if I could make some necklaces to put with the dresses...so...making some simple beads I put together some necklaces for her. I'll photo these and show a bit of sparkle...every girl needs a bit of sparkle for her party.

The bunny battle still continues. I'm down to only having one hole reopened each morning now, and I see there are two holes in the field next door, so I'm hoping they're gradually getting the idea. Otherwise, the whole area is due for a dig over. I only want them to move slightly...just a matter of ten yards...I do.

The finished...

....kitchen slate floor...



Tomorrow the couple of units arrive and the strange door bench. Then we have to decide about worktops.

After making...

...some beads this morning(burning my arm in the process, as the rod spanked and shot a sliver of red hot glass up my sleeve!), and waving good bye to the tiler who has finished the floor(photos to follow), I pulled some weeds, looked for another rabbit hole...as a baby bunny was nibbling the grass and my pansies, which I still can't find, did some ironing. Then feeling kind of bored I wanted to discover what was making such a smell on the stairs, so up came the carpet which is now sitting outside waiting to be thrown. Now if I thought I would discover beautiful( I didn't) wooden stairs...I'd have to think again. There, all old, bent...worn, painted brown, nails and staples everywhere, were my bare stairs, but I did discover the smell...it went out when the carpet went.

Now what to do with those stairs!

This is...

...where we walked yesterday...Holkham Beach
Through the pines behind the dunes, then down to the sea...paddling in wellies...

If you're ever this way, it's worth the visit... You can always park in the village and walk down the lane...

Next time I will take the camera!

A little bit...

...of slate floor...



it just needs cleaning and grouting on Monday, and then sealing on Tuesday...I'll be a smiley person then.

And what a week of sunshine we had, so taking full advantage of the beautiful weather I've been cutting, digging and beginning planting. Now old shrubs have gone, dotted around in piles, waiting for recycling...

My little recycled brush fence, which now has some hawthorn hedging growing by it.

It's been a good weekend...finished today with a walk along Holkham Beach...twenty or so minutes from home and I can be paddling in the sea! Today was wearing wellies!

Have I mentioned...

...the oak refractory table we've got? It belonged to my brother-in-law's father, and they wanted to lose it after it was "renovated", with someone varnishing it with polyurethane; now it's a beautiful pale orange, and very ugly. We know her beauty is under there, it just needs a little persuading to show itself again.

This table will go into the new kitchen, as it's just the right height for me to use for mixing, kneading, rolling, reading, writing, sewing...(you get my idea...), it's going to be the centre and today we found a chair for it, or rather a little settle. Walking through Swaffham from Saturday's market...with fruit pies, hawthorn for hedging, and three primula Victoriana....

...we found a maker in pine of free-standing pieces, and amongst all the new he uses reclaimed floorboards and doors. This is what our "new" settle is...a door and some floorboards! It's dented, has old paint flakes still attached, but it's beautiful, and so much fun.

He delivers it this week...and then you can see...

After that some wax, oil and elbow grease...with a couple of handmade cushions and voila, our first kitchen chair.

Then we came home and I listened to my team's commentary. Another bad day,, and although we didn't lose, we didn't win and listening to it, we found it tough going. This is after it being said it was a "must win" game. To make things worse (if possible), our local rivals can go above us if they win on Monday, when they play second placed Leeds. So, which is worse? A guess a draw would be best...

Also the club sadly announced the death of an old player. Bob Curtis played in the late 60s and early 70s. One of the players I can remember cheering. He had been ill for sometime, but still an unhappy event.

Our new...

...kitchen floor is nearly complete. Large slate slabs are being laid to make our two rooms one. Just a few edging ones to do then sealing, grouting and then sealing again to bring them to their full glory. At present they're dusty, dull and waiting... Our floor was a lovely mismatch of levels, and now only slopes gently, well we are talking old cottage... Totally reliant on the two men who've been laying it. A young man and his father-in-law, who have worked hard...in amongst the copious cups of tea and coffee I've made. Then next week a couple of cupboards are due to be delivered... Slowly we're getting there

I've been searching out old...or handmade bolts and latches ready for repainted doors, as those in place are those DIY store versions. It's a shame at some stage all the original pieces have disappeared and now the cottage is owed a little respect and dignity...

Whilst the floor is being laid I've been fighting the garden. Old shrubs have been attacked with vigour, trimmed and when needed, dug out. Grass has been taken from old flower beds, and little sprouts from bulbs now show. I made a small wattle fence, not your full hazel or willow one, but with the cuts from the shrubs(waste not want not), and this has plugged a hole in our hedge where a large bushy tree was cut down, before we moved in, and I must say I'm quite proud of myself. I've also been fighting rabbits. We have burrows in the garden, it might be a whole warren, but the little dears eat anything remotely green and within reach. So yesterday I started the fight back, closing all holes in the garden, leaving them the main one in the outside bank. This morning most of the holes were back...so, fork in hand they were closed again. Tomorrow I'm guessing they'll be back...and the fight for my garden will go on. I want to plant flowers...I like flowers, but if they're nibbled back...it'll be a waste of time and energy. So the rabbits have to go...humanely. They have large fields next door if they want house room, and all the grass they could want to nibble.

I refuse to say anything about last Saturday and football...apart from...*sigh*

A strange thing...

...happened on the way. Well not quite to the Forum, but you know what I mean, now don't you?!

There was I quipping about cupcakes in my last post and an invite came my way to a T and Cupcakes morning at a friend's boutique, in support of the Haiti appeal. So down to Norwich we went, and a beautiful (and tasty) array of cupcakes were before us...we just had to try some, and I can personally recommend the orange and cranberry, and the lemon ones. Then popping though my post box comes a note saying I've won nine cupcakes in their raffle...I did say the cakes were sublime, now didn't I?! All I have to do is find someone or two, to share nine cupcakes with!

Know anyone?!

Tomorrow...

...with love!
Tomorrow we at last have an electrician coming to get the work done. A new consumer unit...or the old fashioned name of a fuse box, as I know it as, and lights to glow...
The "new" kitchen is now cleared. All the old fixtures have been taken out...the old plastic ill fitting double glazing is now sitting outside in the rain. We also had to dig up a cement doorstep just to get our french doors open, as they'd been screwed shut, and then those screws covered by cement and steel... years of wallpaper is in the throes of coming off the walls...
....then, the AGA is being built on Thursday...so Friday I can...bake...bake...bake!! You did want cupcakes, now didn't you!

Have you been watching the Winter Olympics? I have...well, some of it and had a great time, even with our one gold, a brilliant win in the ladies skeleton for Amy Williams...and tonight is the final medal...ice hockey, and with both Canadian and American friends...who do I cheer for?!

Just one...

...little socket is all we need, but now, if you want one in a kitchen you have to have an electrician who has his part P2...which is fair enough. Then, when you ask someone to come and give you a price for the work, and he goes white at the sight of your fuse box...starts trembling, then you know you're in trouble. To get all technical, it seems our RDC..breaker is one they discovered fifteen years after they were fitted, that they don't actually break....or trip. So now, we need to have that changed before we can have our one little socket fitted...
But...it's all for a good cause...I keep telling myself....it is!

The wait and weight of snow...we lost our telephone connection over the weekend, so with BT summoned, a "little man that does", arrived this morning. After testing what we'd tested, he found the fault was fifteen metres from the house and not with our apparatus. So pulling the ladder from his van, putting his warm clothing on, he shimmied up the telegraph pole, telling me that the whole connection needed to be rebuilt. There he stood, strapped to the pole...and the snow had waited for him...blowing round his ears until he'd finished and came back to the warm to test again, and there...a tone, and a crackleless one at that. It was probably the weight of snow before Christmas which started the issue, the crackles. But, much to my Mum's relief I'm back. She loves worrying about us all...she's a wonderful gem.

A little bit...

...of silver.

I decided yesterday to mix my lamp-work style necklaces with my chain designs, and these are the result...


Above is a necklace of my lamp-work beads of a mingled green and amber glass, with mid amber and sterling silver spacers, with a large agate pendant I found a couple of years ago and had never got to use...


This one is made from cobalt blue lamp-work beads with a drop of white and cobalt, finished with silver beads...

I must admit, I'm more than a little pleased with them...

You have...

...to love the colours...

Seashell Pink

Shadow Grove

Pale Blue

Dark Ivory

and Mint...

It's been good getting back into the swing of things, after so long of just jogging along. I've missed making these little pearls of colour.