Ridgeway Cottage anyhow

Just one day of sunshine has been enough to lift my spirits and just confirm, as if I didn't already know, that I like the warm weather and not the rain. I know there is supposedly a drought and a hose pipe ban and the environment desperately needs each and every drop, but on a purely selfish level, it really can't be too warm for me. I don't want to wear my coat or my gloves or a wintry wardrobe, I would like to skip through the park with a breeze in my hair and the sun on my back. Too much grey is not good and without those glorious golden sun rays it is practically impossible to appreciate the full spectrum of all those stunning spring blooms. The bluebells are beginning to fade and I haven't really had a chance to simply love the delicate shades of blue against the vibrant green stems. I do feel I have missed out on the enchanting way the shadows dance through the dappled shade. Without that vibrant sunlight, the subtle pink of the apple blossom is almo...

It has been raining for so many days now. I am starting to get quite down about the lack of sun and the endless rain. I know that it's good for the allotment and the garden but it just really isn't that cheerful. Everywhere is becoming so green and there is nothing more lovely than a walk in the woods to completely appreciate everything April has to offer. We were in fact on the road to Riverhill Himalayan Gardens but the rain was so intense that visibility was significantly impaired and we decided to rethink our plans and stop off at Shorne Country Park . We ate our picnic in the car and the rain eased enough for a walk in the park, a bit of tree climbing and plenty of jumping in muddy puddles. Waterproofs and wellies A ready-made secret den in a clearing in the woods Sunshine and showers The deliciously delightful flush of new green hazel leaves The boy with a stick

I had a happy childhood. I know this is not the case for everyone but I was lucky. I was surrounded by family and friends of our family and had more opportunities than are open to a lot of people. I did well at school, lived for ballet and loved to read and draw. I was happy. Perhaps that is why that now I have my own family, I want to capture some of that happiness and pass it on. I was a child of the seventies. I played in the street, my wardrobe was filled with the kind of retro prints I would die for now and Tupperware was a big part of our lives. Tupperware parties were these exciting things that happened after I had gone to bed. The lounge would be filled with friends, cheese, wine, nibbles and Tupperware. I could hear everyone laughing and talking from my room. This mysterious adult world was completely intriguing. Sometimes I was allowed to come out to say hello but always had to go back to bed before the demonstration started. I think that I am going to have to ask my mum what...

Today I have had a complete mum day. I was awoken to a request from Charlie to tie the Ammo belt I made for him and his Nerf gun last night around his waist, followed by a request for pancakes for breakfast. I really am not sure why he feels the need to suck lemons but nevertheless he does and I love how Josie eats pancakes, minuscule piece by the tiniest speck and Charlie tries to put the whole thing in his mouth in one go. The children completely and totally love pancakes for breakfast with lemon and sugar. They also like them flat on the plate and it is a crime to role them. This whisk is one that belonged to my mum and has been making pancakes and cakes for longer than I can remember and I really hope that this whisk gets to survive another generation of mothers and their crazy Sundays.

You have to be a particular type of person to wear Birkenstocks, nothing notably special but I could definitely divide my friends and family into those who wear them and those who don't. My brother wears Birkenstocks. My husband does not wear them. I love them and could quite easily have a pair in every colour but my favourite are my red ones. They are special. I bought them the summer I was pregnant with Jack. It was a truly happy time of my life and I feel that my red Birkies still contain a little bit of that happiness and a little bit of the memory of Jack. It was the year that my life changed forever and I am still trying to learn to live with that. At the end of last summer my red Birkies were looking a little worse for wear and I promised myself that I would get them repaired. So a few weeks ago I posted them off to the repair shop and they returned yesterday. It's almost an unwritten law that your toenail varnish must match or at the very least coordinate with your ...

As a teenager in the 1980s I was lucky enough to go camping in France every year which suited my young cosmopolitan spirit and sense of adventure. Apart from the limited vegetarian options in restaurants (salade de tomates avec pommels frites) I was very much at home in the more liberal European countryside. This was in the days before Tesco had taken over the world and French hypermarkets were more stylish, advanced and well stocked compared to the ones in England. The food was interesting, new and exciting; prickly pears, horse meat burgers and cheese made with champagne stick in my mind. They sold kitchenalia, clothes, electrical goods, stationary which was not common place in the UK. My mum was quite taken with the Arcopal white glass crockery, especially the Veronica ditsy blue flower design and built up an extensive collection over the years. At the time I found this quite bizarre but now I could happily follow her example and head off to France to collect such delights. Y...

My children appear to be in disagreement over my continued sketching efforts. As I sat in our comfy new reclaimed leather arm chair sketching our most fabulous piece of seventies veneer furniture with tinted glass, gold detail and back lighting, Josie hopped on the arm and clearly told me that the Easter holidays are now over so why was I still sketching. However moments before Charlie had been trying to work out what I was drawing and suggesting several topics for what I might draw next. Josie is correct, I did say that I would simply try to draw one picture a day during the holidays but I am quite enjoying recording snippets of our lives, everyday items that surround our world, constant or fleeting, windows through time. Perhaps I should just see how it goes, no rules, no restrictions, just drawing.

There is nothing more relaxing for me than wondering around a car boot sale looking for treasure. Car boot sales are one of the few places left, where you can guarantee to find products that  are "Made in England". It would be almost impossible to write about the decline of the British manufacturing industry without wandering where it all went wrong and who was to blame. However considering the political implications of these questions and because the purpose of this post is to be a celebration of "Made in England" as opposed to damnation of the rich and greedy corporations profiting by exploitation of the people who aren't protected by EU legislation........ I do actively seek out things that are "Made in England" because they should be saved and I am proud of our manufacturing heritage. After all for some of my teenage years, I lived in the Black Country where I went on school trips to learn about the role the local community had as the heart of th...

I am all for technology and electronic gadgets but in moderation and carefully balanced with some real games. Today both Charlie and Josie had friends round and there was noise and craziness throughout the house. They played on the Wii, the computer, watched TV and then there were the real games. Charlie and his friend fishing with earth worms in a net. I made four toys which inspired games for the rest of the day. Sometimes the simplest things are the best. I pinned a piece of ribbon to a stick for each of them. The girls turned theirs into ribbons for the 'out the back' Olympic rhythmic gymnastics championships and the boys had whips belonging to Indiana Jones for fighting snakes and baddies. Before Charlie went to sleep he asked me to tie a piece of yarn to the leg of a toy giraffe and then tie it to the bed. When I asked him why he explained that it was because the giraffe was his horse from the olden days and his bed was his wagon that he lived in and he ...

I do have slightly more than one unfinished project so the title is a little misleading and once again it is a quilt that lays at the bottom of one of my "to do" piles.  Having already wimped out on the knitted garden quilt, I started for Josie in 2009 and subsequently missed the Christmas deadline that I originally set myself, I really am going to do my best to get this Scraps quilt completed by Josie's birthday. Sewing machine close up sketch Pile of large squares ready to be laid out Smaller squares for the border Possible layout?

During the Easter holidays, it has been almost impossible to not be inspired to do a bit of spring cleaning. When you are at home instead of at work and the house is filled with sunlight (not today though I might add), the cobwebs, dirt and dust simply cry out to me to be removed. My children have prevented me from becoming overly precious about having a beautifully clean and tidy home (clearing snow in a blizzard is still the most accurate description) but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't like it presentable. I were to spend every second on housework, I would still be fighting a loosing battle so I settle for small corners and pockets of perfection here and there and my husband does an amazing amount of washing up, hovering, laundry, cooking and cleaning (he really does and I am eternally grateful). Yesterday was the turn of the room on the back of our house that I like to think of as my studio. It also contains the fridge, the washing machine, all the laundry (clean and dirt...

Recently Josie and I had a discussion about what special power we would have if we were super heroes. We both agreed that to be able to travel through time would be ideal. If I were to travel back in time and were only allowed one turn in the Delorean, then I would go back to the 1970s and spend an afternoon at my Grandparents where I spent so many happy times as a child. I often see their house and gardens in my dreams and I was especially fond of my Grandpa's greenhouse. I loved the way it smelt of tomato plants and was gloriously warm. It was filled with terracotta pots and red geraniums, there was even a door half way down which led to the second greenhouse and the wonderful water tank surrounded by a myriad of coloured watering cans which invariably had a surprise toad or frog hiding nearby. It was the most spectacular greenhouse, set against an enormous white brick wall of the garage workshop next door and ran almost the length of their garden. In my imagination, it was enorm...

Today I am having a day at work and really I could not have picked a better day. It's a little cold and a slightly miserable outside and the staff in the LRC are decommissioning books. Any book that has not been taken out of the past 12 years is being recycled or rescued and re-homed. I am not officially a member of the LRC but as a Drop in Support Centre Lecturer, I am based in the library and therefore have been invited to save any of the books I like the look of and there are quite a few. I am rather fond of any book that comments on the history of domesticity in the home and have managed to pick up some real gems: Laundry Work (Third edition printed in 1974) Modern Home Laundry Work - the latest and completely revised edition which covers the thinking and methods in this field right up to the end of the 1960s A Woman's work is never done - A history of housework in The British Isles 1650 - 1950 The Kitchen in history (Published in 1972) Complete book of cleaning -...