As you can see, I’ve been pretty busy so far this summer!
We’ve been incredibly lucky this year and had fantastic summer weather – lots of warm sunny days, bright blue skies and plenty of things to do out and about!
Here’s a few little snapshots of what else I’ve been up to here and there…. Continue reading
My dad came over to visit us this summer, so here’s a little snapshot of our week hanging out in Oxford…
Dad arrives at my sister’s house first to hang out with my niblings…
As many of you know, one of the biggest pieces of life admin I have been involved with lately has been my loft conversion.
After about 18 months of hard work getting all the paperwork in order and getting all the permissions from the council and the housing association and the bank, I finally got the money and it’s all started!
I thought I would document the process as I go along too…. Continue reading
Last weekend my sister and her family came to stay, and we went to check out the Cotswold Wildlife Park – our nearby zoo, and it was BRILLIANT!
I love zoos, and getting to see lots of amazing animals, although I increasingly worry about the cruelty of animals being trapped in small cages and things. However this zoo was FANTASTIC! Tons of amazing animals and the cages and paddocks were cleverly designed so it seemed like they weren’t in cages at all.
Here we are, pretty excited about the zoo in the morning…
And still pretty excited when we were in the car on our way!
I have finally achieved something I have been trying to do for years. Ever since I moved to Oxford I have been keen to find a local pottery class I could take, as I adored pottery as a child, and have been keen to take it up again ever since. All my years living overseas made that hard to do, and even when I was based in Oxford it was hard to find a class I could easily access on a weeknight, without a car etc. However I finally found one and I’m LOVING it!
Here are my first attempts at making some pinch pots and finger pots – very crap, but useful for practicing with glazes and slips etc.
This year a few things have happened to me in relation to food, resulting in some new experiments in the kitchen.
The first thing is that my palate appears to have suddenly matured, and I discovered that after 35 years of hating blue cheese, suddenly my tastebuds think it’s pretty much the best thing ever. Weird, but also delicious.
Secondly, my appreciation for red wine has suddenly soared, leaving me keen to try and taste lots of new and different red wines, in order to learn what I like (previously my only knowledge on the subject was that I liked Rioja, and all other red wines were a bit “meh”, But this is no longer the case! I also now have a fabulous book on wines which is helping me to learn and navigate the differences.
Well it’s been a while since my last – doesn’t time fly when you’re busy?
In the build up to the festive season I had a wonderful weekend using up my birthday present – a gin-tasting voucher for a posh hotel bar in Woodstock (the cucumber and watermelon tonic was INCREDIBLE).
So, although I haven’t specifically written about it on here, last year my sister was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and she and I decided to do some fundraising.
As we thought she might lose her hair during chemo, I decided to let her live vicariously through my hair instead, so after raising nearly £1,000, I went off to see my lovely hairdresser (at Vente Tsunami in Headington, Oxford in case you’re interested – they are the best!).
Me and K ready to get started – I think she was more excited about it than I was!
I’ve spent the last couple of weekends getting my garden back into shape, after a 2-year hiatus in which my garden got quite overgrown!
Here it is looking a bit overgrown and in need of a major tidy-up
Poor Spike, my lovely Cordyline got a bit too big and had to be removed!
This gallery contains 32 photos.
Here’s the evolution of my living room… When I first moved in, it looked like this… And here it is with all my furniture in… I wasn’t a fan of the wallpaper… And then I got rid of all the … Continue reading
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Stuff I've seen, and places I've been...
Stuff I've seen, and places I've been...
Stuff I've seen, and places I've been...
Stuff I've seen, and places I've been...
Had we but world enough and time... 