My Week

Last Saturday was a strawberry day. Gabriel was invited to a friend’s strawberry picking party (what a lovely idea!) and we all tagged along to gather lots and lots for jam-making. Unfortunately, just as we arrived at the farm, the heavens opened and it rained and rained and rained. In spite of the weather we still managed to pick 4kg to take home with us. After a brief sojourn in the village pub for birthday cake, we headed home with our harvest ready for some jam making.

As usual, my jam-making was a slightly hap-hazard and messy affair. I also misread the recipe and forgot to add the lemon juice. So, although I used jam-sugar with extra pectin, it came out a bit runny – but in a good way. After  some reading around, I saw that Jamie Oliver doesn’t use lemon juice in his either – which made me feel a bit better.

It was heavenly spread on James’ homemade sourdough for breakfast on Sunday…

After breakfast we headed over to our favourite ‘lazy car-boot sale’. We’re never up early enough for traditional boot sales, so this one – which opens at 11am – is perfect for us. The sun was shining and we had a good meander round the field, with the help of a bag of doughnuts from the van. The selection of items was a little disappointing. It was very samey, and 1990s themed – with no real vintage gems. I bought this game for 50p which amused me, as James used to be a journalist.

It’s actually really hard though, and rather boring. Gabriel picked up a few Lego figures and Tom found a stash of little plastic ponies. But it was still a fun morning out.

Monday was The Day of the Missing Pony…

You probably don’t want to be bored by the details, but let’s just say it involved trudging about four miles in the torrential rain backwards and forwards between the community hospital and school. ‘Brownie’ the pony is now safely back in the family bosom and will henceforth be strung on a string tied to Tom’s trousers!

On Tuesday I met the sweetest little puppy, which has further fuelled my desire to have a dog. Let’s save that lengthy discussion for a future date though, shall we? I chase my metaphorical tail on this one on a daily basis at the moment.

One lovely thing that happened this week is the arrival of my second box from My Little Box. It was really great – much better than last month. You can read more here.

Thursday was a really warm day here and I spent a bit of time finishing off some more pots in the garden. As you may have read here, our new fence panels were delivered this week. Hopefully these will go up this weekend and I can finally arrange my pots where I want them and tidy up the patio. It’s funny how one broken thing can have such a de-motivating effect. Our garden is particularly messy this year. I want to get it sorted, as it should be a sanctuary and we’re lucky to have it.

I used the special twine that my mum brought me back from Chelsea this week. It was lovely – so soft and silky. It’s called Twool and is made from Dartmoor wool.

Looking back, I think my word of the week has to be strawberries. Better that than ponies.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Lizzie x