Spuds - the sequel!

Here's my crop of Vivaldi potatoes (and a couple of Red Duke Of York) ... I am a little bit disappointed with my yield. I feel that I have put in a lot of time and effort with the potatoes (which I am growing in barrels) and I haven't got many potatoes in return.

I might have emptied this barrel too early, but the potatoes had flowered and the greenery had died down, so I figured that the time was right ... hmmm

I still have two more barrels (with Duke of York and Charlotte's) I'll just have to wait and see how those turn out!

Is anyone else growing spuds in containers? I'd be interested to hear how you are getting on with them! Have a look at last year's crop here

Knitting Success!

Isn't this gorgeous? I am so proud of myself! My first matinee jacket knitted for a friend's baby ... I hope that they like it (and it's handmade shabbiness!)

What's occurring in Victoria Plum's Garden?

Lots of lovely things growing in the garden!! Have a look at a previous post here to see how things have come along in the last month!

Mmmmmm .... purple spouting broccoli ....

Peppers and aubergines in the greenhouse (it was 35 degrees Celsius in there this morning - phew!)

Pretty aubergine flowers ....

Broad beans!!!

Tomatoes!!!

Potato barrels!

The plot .... from left to right ... broccoli, red onions, carrots, fennel, leeks, courgettes and squash with broad beans and peas at the back.

Today's harvest! Ha Ha Ha ... two pods of broad beans, eaten raw with our bbq this evening - delicious!!

Courgette is looking a bit sad, but have plenty more healthier ones on the plant!! It's not a lot - but it's homegrown and that's all that matters!

Living the Good Life in Venice!

I have just come back from a wonderful holiday with my family. It was the first time since I left home 8 years ago that I have spent a whole week with my parents and brother - it was lovely!! Of course Mr Plum and my brother's girlfriend were also with us! It was a brilliant holiday!

We stayed in a beautiful apartment in the Dosoduro area of Venice (very close to the church in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ...) - there was a gelato shop opposite - perfect!

The weather was amazing ... we did lots of sightseeing, lazing on the beach, eating gelato, drinking prosecco, watching opera, eating more gelato, pizza and spaghetti ... and generally having a wonderful time!

Venice is such a beautiful city ... and I appreciated this visit so much more than the school trip I went on when I was 14 ...

Here's some pics of me living the good life in Venice (if anyone from Joules is reading ... I would be happy to be a model for Joules - ha ha ha!!) ...

Summer Days

The UK has been blessed with glorious summer weather (well, up until the torrential thunder storm of 0630 this morning!) ... so Mr Plum and I have been spending lots of time out in the garden, but also out and about enjoying touristy stuff in London.

We have been taking advantage of National Rail's Two for One offer on major tourist attractions (if you travel by train)....which makes a day out in London a bit more affordable!

So far we have been to Kew Gardens and London Zoo - both of which were fab days out and places that I had wanted to visit since moving down to London almost 10 years ago, but always felt that two adult tickets would make it quite a pricey day out.

We have spent this weekend at home doing housework and jobs in the garden.  The vegetable patch is looking GREAT! I have my first head of purple sprouting brocolli, lots of flowers on my tomatoes, flower buds on my potatoes, and my first little courgette appearing! Hurray!!!  Such a shame that I have the back to work Sunday blues ....

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.

An exciting Thursday evening ...

As regular readers will know, I have a NFS (new favourite shop) ... well, not so new now!  Ever since discovering Joules in York last summer, I have become addicted, and I have to admit it, a little bit obsessed with their pretty clothes!  I have the catalogue on my bedside table, the website set as a favourite ... I look forward to the new collection being released ... and eagerly await the sales! (Yes, unfortunately my civil service wage is not enough to support my Joules habit!)

Anyway, yesterday Joules opened a new shop in Wimbledon and sent me a 10% voucher to use. It would have been rude to refuse ...

I dragged a friend up to Wimbledon Village, I think I may have converted her to Joules and had she not been planning to head off to New Zealand on her travels in August, I think that she would have made a purchase or two .....

You will probably remember my wish list .... ever since I saw the Penelope dress, I have wanted it ... the perfect outfit for a May birthday, an afternoon tea with girlfriends, a holiday to Venice ... I MUST HAVE IT - but I am trying to save pennies, and couldn't really justify it. 

 
However, a 10% voucher makes it a bargain ... so I now have the beautiful dress, and a nice sweatshirt cardie thing to wear camping .... and I also got a basket of veg as I had spent over a certain amount.

How happy was I?  All that, and a glass of fizz and canapes while browsing.  I could hardly contain my excitement!  I love Joules!!!

Hurray! It's Friday ... I hope you are all relaxing and ready for a lovely weekend!  I have escaped work ... and am sitting in the garden with a nice glass of rose, catching up with blogging, reading two days worth of papers (yeah ... apparently I am supposed to be up to date with the media for my job - oops!) and am about to get stuck into "The Bolter" by Frances Osborne - has anyone read this? It's fabulous! 

Pay It Forward

This is the first time I have seen one of these and what you need to do is leave a comment on my blog and the first three people will receive a hand made gift from me! The only thing you have to do is participate and carry on the gift giving to three more people...as soon as you have left a comment do a "pay it forward post" on your blog and continue the giving.

Don't forget to let me know how to get in contact with you so I can send you a gift. 

I've no idea what the gift will be! I found this post on Shabby Chick's blog so I'm carrying it on :)

Look what we have found ....

Behind the horrible 70's panelled door ....
after a little bit of hammering ... (not sure why this photo insisted on uploading on it's side ...)

A lovely old door! 

Happy Easter!!

We have decamped to the living room while we are decorating our bedroom .... and having spent yesterday listening to Radio 2 LOUD - we forgot to turn it down and I was rudely awoken at 0645 by the alarm!

Anyway, waking up that early meant that I spotted Mr Plum's Easter treat for me ... and the reason why he told me not to buy any Easter eggs ..... 

An Easter Egg Hunt!!

Of course we will share the eggs ........ now, which one to have for breakfast .....