Old Houses, Spring Flowers and Sheep

It feels good to sit here and think back to the Easter holidays and realise that we did actually do something and go somewhere, it wasn't all building work and spring cleaning. This time last week we visited the wonderful Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex with my parents, sister and nieces on a sunny day that was just warm enough to eat a picnic lunch outside, so long as you wore a coat. It's a collection of buildings set in the most beautiful rolling South Downs, a few miles north of Chichester. In the picture below you can just see the impressive buildings of West Dean College on the left and West Dean Gardens on the right, which I visited last year.

Some of these buildings are many hundreds of years old and over the years they have been dismantled and moved, brick by numbered brick, from other locations around the country to their new home where they now sit, Tudor farmhouse next to thatched cottage, water mill next to Victorian schoolhouse, to be preserved and enjoyed. 

By far the best thing about this place though is how approachable and interactive it all is; doors are to be opened, staircases climbed, windows to be leaned out of, chairs sat on, objects handled.

Fires burn in grates and the smell of woodsmoke fills the air. Dogs are allowed everywhere and no-one cares if your boots are muddy. 

My favourite building was Whittaker's Cottages, a pair of Victorian homes for agricultural labourers. Unprepossessing from the outside, the interior was rich in detail and life. The volunteer showed the children how to beat carpets to clean them, and outside were buckets of water, collected from the standpipe at the front of the house. This was an eye opener for us - how much water we use on average a day (literally hundreds of litres in modern households) compared to what would be collected, carried and used "in the olden days". 

The warmth of the small kitchen was very welcome. I was getting quite chilled with walking around and going from one cool, damp house to another and it was a good lesson in how cold  - and how poorly insulated  - houses must have been then.

Upstairs, the clothes air in the sun over the end of the bed, and the hot water bottle takes the chill off the bedding. The children were fasincated by the old fashioned moses basket and cot, by the children's beds and most particularly the lack of toys and books. And of course there was no bathroom. 

And then there are the volunteers, those interesting and knowledgeable people who are passionate about history and don't mind dressing up in Medieval costume or as a Victorian blacksmith, or patiently showing a six year old boy how an arched bridge is built. Always friendly and happy to chat and show you what they are doing or making, they make the place what it is.

It makes it all the more real for a child (and adult!) if you can actually taste the bread and pottage soup made in the Tudor kitchen, or grind the wheat into flour in the mill. It was a good day out for all the kids there - largely because they can run everywhere in the fresh air and there is so much open space - but Angus especially was fascinated by the history. How the houses were built, who lived there, what they did, what they ate, where they slept - so many questions and all answered, and they don't even realise they learnt something because they are having so much fun. 

But I think my favourite part of the day was watching the sheep and lambs, particularly this pair below.

Nice memories to take with me into the new school term.

Kitchen Update

Work on the kitchen begun in earnest first thing yesterday morning and I thought you might like to see some pictures. They are messy and not very pretty, but working on the premise that the during is as interesting as the before and the after, I thought you'd enjoy seeing them.

On Monday afternoon, while Bella and Angus were at my sister's, my parents helped me empty the kitchen and dining room. It always amazes me the difference a person's things make to a space. Above, you see it full of the colour and clutter of every day life, and below, stark and bare. 

The last thing to go here was the dishwasher, which we'll put back in the new kitchen.

An empty dining room. (Sorry about all the washing flapping about in the garden - Monday was a good drying day.)

Within hours of arriving on Wednesday - bang on the dot of 8.00 am, no more holiday lie-ins around here - they had stripped the tiles and removed the kitchen. Most of the cupboards went into the huge skip which is currently sitting on our drive (curtains twitched when that arrived!) but some we've kept to hang in the garage as extra storage. 

The sink has gone, and today that whole back window and door section was removed to be replaced with brickwork and a new window.

I think the floor tiles you see were probably original to the house. The oven and hob is still hanging off that wall there because there is some gas pipe work in the wall which needs to be dealt with before the wall comes down. Incidentally, we gave that oven a good last meal on Sunday night, cooking roast lamb with all the trimmings and a sticky toffee pudding. 

In the meantime, all our dining room furniture - chairs, table, sideboard - is in the living room. 

It's a bit of a squash but really not too bad, and actually I think the dining table looks lovely in front of the window. 

And our current kitchen is in the garage. It's inconvenient, freezing cold, there isn't room to prepare anything and no hot water so we have to boil the kettle to wash up, but it's more kitchen than many have so I'll stop moaning there. Also, I am very thankful indeed to have a large garage with a sink and an internal door to the hall, so access is really very easy. 

I dreamt we had mice a few nights ago and since then have been obsessively keeping all food in lidded boxes and off the floor. 

Preparing meals is tricky but not insurmountable. Breakfast and lunch are easy enough, it's just hot meals. On Monday evening I had a salad, Tuesday Chinese takeaway (it was our wedding anniversary - we know how to live), Wednesday a meal from the freezer with couscous, and tonight we dined like kings on chicken pie and apple crumble at my mum's. We went to the supermarket today and bought some ready meals - macaroni cheese, fish pie, cottage pie etc - for busy weeknights when we are back at school and work next week. They are so expensive! I honestly had no idea. Our trolley was half as full as normal but we still spent about the same amount. 

So, that's where we are so far. The wall comes down tomorrow and the steel beam is ready and waiting. The people from Building Regulations will come on Monday to check the work and the kitchen will be delivered Wednesday. The room will be plastered and, if my plans work, we hope to have time to paint the kitchen while it's empty before the fitter comes the following week to install it. 

I am spinning plates here. I hope I don't drop one. 

Make, Bake, Sew, Grow

{ Make }

Making - at last - decisions and purchases, resulting in two lovely, shiny new lampshades for the hall.

I am in love with them. They were just as I hoped they would be. No more prison-chic bare light bulbs!

I've also been making a few sneaky purchases for myself lately, like these bits and bobs from the Liberty range at Uniqlo. John said the wide shorts look like pyjama bottoms. I am ignoring him and insisting that I will be both stylish and comfortable in them this summer, with a white vest and my Saltwater sandals. 

{ Bake }

I was given Anna Jones' A Modern Way to Cook for Christmas. I loved (really loved) her first book A Modern Way to Eat, but found I was less drawn to her second in the months following Christmas. It seemed too light, too salady, in the winter months when all I wanted was stodge, and I never seemed to have the right ingredients in the cupboard at the right time. But I've been using it so much over the last month and have found it an incredibly inspiring and helpful resource in my quest to eat not less, but better. It's worth buying for the breakfast chapter alone.

I made these chocolate bars, which are like a healthier version of a Bounty bar. Really, really good.  

My other current obsession is these rice bowls. 

They are amazing and have made them every week for the last three weeks when John is working a late shift (he would consider this a glorified salad, and therefore Not Dinner). It's essentially a bowl of brown rice, shredded roast chicken and lots of greens and fresh, crunchy shredded vegetables, elevated to the level of high-deliciousness by a dressing made of soy sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil and ginger. 

And this evening, John is making roast lamb followed by sticky toffee pudding so, you know, it's not all health, health, health.

{ Sew }

Thank you so much for your kind words on my Midsummer Sprigs cross stitch sampler. Recent creative efforts have been quicker but no less enjoyable. 

Oh a whim I made a few felt baubles/pompoms, from the book Felt Sew Good. I've had it for a while and this is the first thing I've made. Something about the colours and shapes is really pleasing. 

I am about to try my first kit from Wool and the Gang, a tablet cover. I'll let you know how I get on. In the mean time, nice packaging.

But the main thing I have been working on lately is the border for my blanket. 

I am nearly, nearly there. I keep thinking I'm at the end, then add another row, but I reckon it's almost finished now.

{ Grow }

Ever the fair weather gardener, the garden and I have been spending some quality time together lately and now my pots are fresh and colourful and my borders weed free. Drooping daffodils and withered tete-a-tetes have been removed and the front door step now looks respectable. (It's that kind of street.)

I remembered some great advice Sarah kindly left in a comment a while back: 

"When your daffodils have finished flowering you could plant them straight into the border letting the foliage die down naturally. Next year they will flower again and you can avoid bulb planting in Autumn which always carries the risk of damaging existing bulbs. Buy fresh bulbs and use fresh compost for your pots in Autumn and you will be able to continue the cycle."

Thank you Sarah. I planted all these fading bulbs in a bare patch of border in the back garden where they can die down with the rest of the foliage and hopefully re-emerge next year!

The long border at the end of our garden is a big old mess of yellow and purple. Suddenly, everything I planted last autumn has come up and burst into colour.  It's not going to win any prizes but it makes me so happy to look out the kitchen window and see this messy, colourful border that my mum and I created, rather than a big long fence.

Over the last week it seems like everything woke up in the garden.  Wall flowers suddenly have tiny flowers and plants suddenly look fuller, greener. 

The blossom is almost gone. It was so pretty while it lasted.

Can you tell that I'm enjoying being at home this Easter? My head is just bursting with ideas and plans, and my heart is full. I love spending time in and on our home. 

{Make } Something for our home, or for me.

{ Bake } Something from the kitchen.

{ Sew } Something crafty.

{ Grow } Something in the garden.