Busy in the Garden

I have spent this lovely bank holiday Monday pottering in the garden and tending to my veg ... my parents-in-law were visiting over the weekend and drove us to a nearby garden centre to get various plants (we don't have a car so are somewhat limited in how much we can carry back from our nearest B&Q!) ... here we go, a little update on what I've got growing in the garden this year .... I'm not sure my father-in-law was ready for me to load the car up with 4 bags of compost, a grow bag, some orchid compost and pretty flowers to attract bees!  Oh well, they did offer to take us out!

From left to right we have got ... fennel, sunflowers, squash, cucumber and some lettuce on the top shelf ... 

and on the bottom we've got some peas, peppers, a tub of rocket and a propagator with some pansy seeds in.

Here we have various tomatoes (due to the gales I am not sure what variety is which ...), aubergines, marigolds and propagators with violas, lupins and stocks ... on the bottom shelf there is a grow bag with 4 strawberry plants in ....

Three potato barrels! 

And finally, the "plot" ... from the left we've got purple sprouting broccoli, red onions, leeks, broad beans, courgettes and some parsnip and beetroot seeds .... when the peas are a little bigger I will transplant them outside.

What have you been up to this bank holiday?

Happy Belated Birthday to Me!

It was my birthday last week and as usual I was spoiled rotten by Mr Plum and my family ... here's some of the lovely gifts I received ....

Mr Plum treated me to a Cath Kidston Chiswick Bag .... (that's me in my "Penelope" dress enjoying a nice glass of Kew Ale at Kew Gardens on my birthday), as well as other bits and pieces for my greenhouse

and some garden tools ...

my parents got me these lovely little knives from an antique shop in Bruges ... perfect for spreading jam and cream onto scones!

A bit blurred ... but a very pretty brooch from my brother and his girlfriend ...

oooh! and some lovely Hope & Greenwood chocs from Mr Plum

We had a lovely day at Kew and then spent the evening watching Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day ... it was such a shame to have to go back to work ...

Pret a Portea at The Berkley

I'm very lucky that someone close to me works at The Berkley Hotel in London and last Sunday (before heading off on the EasyBus to the EasyHotel in Luton -y'see it's not all 5 star for me!!) I went in for afternoon tea with one of my best friends (who I have known since I was 6!) and my brother's fabulously glamourous Italian girlfriend .... it was wonderful.  Have a look here 

Here is the cake stand with all the fabulous cakes based on this season's fashions! 

It was lovely and of course I wore my new Joules dress and the red patent shoes (picture to follow!) that my parents bought me for my birthday (and I wore a little bit early!)

I love cakes!!

More lovely things!

Okay - this will be my final post for today ... I have gone a bit overboard today!

Anyway, some more lovely bits were collected from the depot this afternoon ...

These were my lovely gifts from Tracy, my Heart Swap partner ... I feel thoroughly spoiled - such beautiful things!!  Thank you! x

Pretties ...

I returned from Switzerland very late last night and found the following package waiting for me (sorry - the photo does not do the sachets justice!)

The lovely lavender sachets and CK soap were sent to me by Shabby Chick after I replied to her Pay It Forward post!  Lavender is my favourite scent ... well, that and rose .... oh and the lilac that I can smell through my bedroom window! Thank you so much for these!! Mr Plum has popped to the Post Office Depot to collect another parcel for me! So exciting!

I'm bored of tidying and unpacking and while we have blue sky, I am going to pop out to the garden and see how the veg is getting on .... my brother did a marvellous job at keeping everything alive while we were on holiday!  

Happy Tuesdays (I love not being at work!)

x

Can I tempt you to a cupcake?

It's my birthday tomorrow and it is tradition that we take cakes into work ... I thought I would knock up a batch of cupcakes to take in on Thursday when I go back after my holiday!  They are just basic cupcakes with yummy flavoured buttercream (the purple ones have a dash of cassis and the green ones a dash of creme de menthe!)  I'm just waiting for Mr Plum to get home with my required ingredients for the chocolate and raspberry cupcakes! Yummy!!

A Wonderful Week In Switzerland!

I have just come back from my camping holiday in Switzerland! It was AMAZING! I would thoroughly recommend the Eurocamp site at Lauterbrunnen ... the valley of 72 waterfalls! At night all you could hear was the water ... it was so beautiful and with plenty of beautiful walks nearby - it was the perfect setting.  Some walks would start in the valley in blazing sunshine and finish a steep walk later (with the help of the odd cable car!) in the snow!! 

I also enjoyed the Swiss diet (and amazingly ... haven't put on any weight!! ha ha - maybe if I hadn't troughed my way through 400g (oh yes!) of toblerone, I may have even lost weight!!)

As you would probably expect, we found Switzerland quite pricey and most of the time we took a packed lunch out on our walks and ate something back at the tent in the evening.  We did eat out a couple of times and had local Swiss specialities ... fondue, raclette and rosti! YUM! All washed down with the local lager (much to Mr Plum's shame!) or the lovely Weiss Bier. 

I hope that you have all had lovely weeks!

x

Junk Shop Bargain!

I haven't blogged very much lately as have had so many other things going on ... but I am now on annual leave for nearly two weeks (first proper break since August last year!) - Woo Hoo!!

I was having a bit of a tidy ... and have cleared all the junk surrounding our oak bureau which we found in a lovely little antique shop in the town where my parents live.  It caught our eye immediately and while Mr Plum and I were stood by the bureau debating on whether we could really afford the £55 price tag (which, to be honest ... we couldn't really ...) the owner of the shop came across to us and said "yours for £40..." SOLD!

Here it is .... perfect for hiding stuff!

Dawn French or Darcy Bussell?

Definitely Dawn French!!

Today I did a ballet class ... for the first time since I was probably about 3 or 4 years old.  They have started the classes at the local gym - I thought that it would be good fun and a great way to get fit.  It was sooooooo hard! I'm sitting here and all my muscles are shaking! Ha Ha!!  

Thrifty Livin' Part 1

I have just discovered readitswapit.co.uk - a brilliant way of getting hold of cherished books and swapping books which I won't read again ... and all you have to pay is the postage - bargain!

I don't know whether you have been into Superdrug lately ... but if you take in your old, unwanted make-up, shampoo, conditioner, gel, wax, lotions, talcum powder etc you can swap them for a 10% voucher off products in store.  This swapping offer finishes on 12 May .... I have a bag of stuff ready to go!

Although a bit London-centric ...  me and Mr Plum have decided that we need to take advantage of the free BBC recordings as it has been years since we watched a John Shuttleworth Christmas Special recorded (in July!)  I have applied for FREE tickets to see Mitchell and Webb record a radio show.

Hope everyone has had a lovely Wednesday!!

West Side Story - 50th Anniversary Tour

On Saturday me and my mum weeped through the 50th Anniversary production of West Side Story ... we have previously weeped through a touring production in Oxford a few years ago.  We love West Side Story!

I can't believe that the show was originally performed in 1957 ... the music hasn't dated at all, and the themes are so current...nothing good will come of gangs, racism, knives and guns.