I want a turqoise retro fridge..............Why???

I'm really starting to like the photos my broken cameras taking, and strangly they're purple......

I saw a retro fridge in turqoise, at a property we viewed and now i want one , this doesnt happen to me often, but when it does it's usually love for something completely frivolous, turqoise vespa for instance.......... but fate as chipped in and my fridge as died.........so i'm on the look out for a second hand one as they are far to dear new, so keep your eyes open and your ears peeled !!

Iwent to Rhyl today with every other mum in the area shoe shopping, it wasnt to painful, but i find when i go into town i get terrible back ache, all i can put it down to is the slow walking people and stopping and starting urgghh it drives me mad..

I came home to fox poo city!! you lot think its bad with 1 dog! try eight!! its a good job we've got a catering size tomato ketchup...

Are we an on line experiment??

Are we an on line experiment??

Sitting back this week and watching, the common room i realise how we've all moved on and learnt not to let "conflict" take root and make it move on as quickly as possible "wink",........... I've heard about and seen this type of thing on other sites, where a post is ........posted And left to see what transpires, the writer or writers no doubt sitting back and getting pleasure from the confusion and agro...I hope this wasn't the case.....I do feel sometimes that there are people out there who want to be puppeteers, and try to control situations experiment with us basicaly for fun......................Gawd isnt it boring ........... Well they'll get no joy from us will they....... {{_I_}} ........ [apparently thats a big fat wobbly Arse]..

Back to the real world and not the paranoid cyber space lot's inhabit....
After my insomnia for the last week I'd gone beyond wanting to sleep, so monday morning bright and early A beautiful sunny day i decided a drive was in order and i'd drive, so roof down beret on and off we trogged, my aim was a beautiful road from Bala to welshpool, which goes close by the village where the film " I went up a hill and came down a mountain was made"..
The last time i'd been this way i saw the most brilliant bit of graffiti written on the road, it said in 10ft high letters CONGRATULATIONS.......Then another 100yds.......IT's ALL........100yds to the brow of the hill .............DOWN HILL FROM HERE.............And it does really steeply.....

We stopped for lunch in a lovely georgian town called llanfyllin.......It's strange the welsh dialect there is so different from here , we could hardly understand them.................

We ended up in marton, and saw mountainear and sbs As i'm sure you gathered.....I saw sbs's neighbour peering through his window, and i met her free range ducks and mad dogs and hubby [ do i call him Malebeachsheperd ??] .......A lovely time and we arrived home at 11pm........the most important bit is I SLEPT LIKE A LOG...xxxxx

A PEA-ceful night...

HMMMmmmm back inside now after a peaceful night in "le petite pois"..No snoring man . just an owl ,and something rubbing against the side in the early hours ,i didnt look! i just hid under the quilt, sasha who i'd took for company didn't twitch a whisker. It got windy early on and it took me some time, to realise what the tapping and knocking was??? and strange scrapings!!! and then i realised it was the rowan berries falling and rolling off the roof duuuuu so much for a peaceful night..I'd dug out one of my Elizabeth Gouge novels The White Witch....Shes a lovely writer.............................The moon i think contributed to my restlessness , it's light keeping me awake... And then once looking out i was captivated by the beauty of the strange landscape and how everything was changed just by being seen under a different light,,Our pond dull and green during the day, was a disc of silver!! and i itched to have a camera to capture it, The apples on the tree where turned into magical fruit and the trees into graceful beings ..Whats the song with the line" you fill up my senses like a night in a forest" Well i feel a bit like that.....I'll be there again tonight.xx

Rose petal wine..

Lavender champagne..

LAVENDER CHAMPAGNE...
Thats what i'm bottleing today doesn't it sound lovely, I thought i'd post the recipe for you all to try.....
You'll need.....
A bucket.......
1 and a half bags of granulated sugar........
About 40 heads of lavender.........
The zest of a lemon.......
tablespoon of white wine vinegar........

Add all the ingrediants to the bucket and stir until the sugar's dissolved.... then cover it and leave for about 3 days..... Then syphon it into fizzy pop bottles and leave for 3 weeks to develop a fizzzzz and use within 3 monthes.......
I'm also going to do the same with the wild honey suckle, don't allow any of the green bits to get into this one or it will taste bitter .........................

There a nice simple succesful recipe....Even if it does make you fart !!! be warned

The Rose petal wine was a success , remember that the lovely pink stuff , very refreshing and sparkley, and i'll be making another batch with the last flush of rose petals.........

Heather mead is on the agenda next.....

The wwoofers are still here, nice lad's....................I always feel i shouldnt be on the computer though....................
The photo if it comes up is of the rose petal wine, it is much paler now that it has fermented..

New woofers etc..

This may sound really strange but i'm finding it really hard to blog without my camera!!! The main reason is i think!! is i forget what i did !! I've an absolutly cr.. memory for day to day activities and a picture helps me focus.....So out with the hairdryer and see if i can blast some life into the beast not my memory the camera........
We had two unexpected wwoofers arrive on wednesday, they are touring wales with a tent and are so far back they almost sound like LLoyd grossman, , it is nice having some extra help around the place but any plans we have, have to be put on hold, even lunch out is not done when wwoofers are here, when all's said and done they are strangers and i don't like to leave the house unnattended for to long...
I've decided i'm getting to fat, so tomorrow i will start following the slimmers world diet, please remind me, i'd take a photo if the camera worked...............
Yesterday i transplanted loads of wild flowers in to the tree field and took wood down there to build an instrument for what i don't know ?? but i will complete it today i promise.....
I also bought lots of this expanding willow trellis and i'm going to make a pavillion?? somewhere level but not where him on mower goes...Or monty is likely to visit come winter Maybe i won't bother.................!!

Chester..

Today i went shopping [ how twee that sounds] And if it's not for me "I HATE IT", today we where getting school clothes Groooooannn, now all the black trousers look the same to me but no , the pockets where wrong, the material was wrong ,the legs were to wide ,they were to narrow...!! gawd elp me it was a nightmare, and we still didnt manage to get shoes, so that means another trip out.....................
The day started as fun , my friend K came with me and as i pulled up in the convertable outside her house she rushed out with headscarves for us to wear and a camera for nel to take photos while we did "Thelma and Louise" poses, more like "French and saunders" i said.....
The EARTH COLLECTION as a brilliant sale on so i bought bits for me to go with their other stuff i've bought.......then off to the cathedral for lunch..
I'm going to stop now because i couldnt post my last blog, i'll see what happens with this one..xxoo

where to start ???

Well where do i start, there seems to have been so much going on, and it's the horticultural show today, i've not entered anything but i'll go and look, then we are invited to eat all the produce that a very industrious friend of mine makes afterwards hmmmm................

The 2 wwoofers left yesterday, they where a real pleasure to have stay, and very helpful ,so helpful that when the weather was bad they painted the kitchen and made new curtains for the cupboards and cooked , they can come again anytime... they loved "le petite pois" and have left it spotless.. The first night in the village they had a lock in and couldn,t get over how friendly everyone was! The fact that they where two attractive single females helped in this mainly male village , I'm sure a lot more interest will now be shown in my visitors now that they realise they are not all going to be male !!

PIli pala has at last managed to join our ranks, she came here for a purple coo lesson, and it was the seperate logging on for blogging that had confused her, so hopefully she'll be a regular visitor now .....................

I still don't have a working camera so i can't post any new photos....

Honey the new greyhound as settled in really well she's lost a bit of weight, she hasnt quite learned that you can't only eat half of your dinner and save the rest till later, it will get eaten, needless to say TYE is looking very fat.....

Nell having seen group of people who'd trained there rescued dogs to do tricks and follow an assault course, as decided to do the same tyres and poles are littered every where, i wish the camera was working, Tye is looking seriously disgruntled and ethans developed a migraine and wants his room,, bens loving it and so's bud,. the lady greys are standing by watching, very aloof ,and sasha keeps running off with bits of the course! and refusing to bring them back!The photos an old one of nell and tye ........

Part 2..

Thats actually a picture of the forest in Doone valley! as taken by my poorly camera, very artistic don't you think?
One thing i'd noticed on my way to the campsite was the ignorance of the people i reversed for on pulled in to allow past! I don't mind doing it one bit and it's less painful than watching someone struggle not to go off road in thier 4X4's , but not one person acknowledged us and i was starting to boil, quite alot of them i realised where from the site , i needed a week there to get them trained in basic manners but instead we left really early, before they started to emerge and we had the road to ourselves..
Needless to say it was very foggy, and we got a wee bit lost on the moors it was good though we saw wild ponies, in the mist and one jumped into the road in front of us!! why do animals do this?? We missed it though because i was only doing about 10mph, and it carried on it's merry way..
By now we where really hungry and needed a cafe, so as i pulled over to let a farmer past i flagged him and shouted " wheres the nearest cafe"he looked a bit shocked a grockle who smiles? and talks to you..."Follow the road down through such and such and take care on the bends" What a Lovely man my faith was being restored..
We saw an area of stunted hawthorne or something and in the fog with the sun shining to it was magical, we couldnt stop though...
It was now 8am as we dropped down under a tunnel of trees and saw a "Pheasant warning sign" how weird and carried on into the town looking for early open signs on the cafes we spotted one parked up on the pay and displayIt was then i realised we where in "Dulverton" Poo timing or what!! me there Jane in Alnwick !! never mind we ate in the courtyard cafe, they did me a lovely veggie breakfast and nell bacon and scrambled eggs hmmm ! and a doggie bag for ben who was waiting in the car..
We read the local papers and the church news, trying to kill time before the shops opened, because we'd decided we needed to tye a "purple ribbon" to janes gate which i knew i'd recognise [because i have Gothic arch envy].
Well could we buy purple ribbon anywhere could we heck!!
It's a really pretty village with some lovely shops and buildings and a good few charity shops reasonably priced as well and they had cutlery, as well as lots of totaly unsuitable purple things!! Which i would never be forgiven for leaving on anyones gate. We had a laugh though looking and we where watched like hawks {I think people thought we where romanian refugees]...We bought a jelly mould thet looks like a brain truly gross !! and the shop assistant tried very hard to sell us a purple pair of pyjama bottoms equally Gross! imagine them on your gate! Yuk, better than the purple bikini bottoms though,,,,,,,With what i'd been reading about the local councillor i didnt want to give anyone the wrong idea about the new people in town !!!!! The tye with the pink panthers on nearly won but was not purple enough we eventually settled on an awful scarf with embroidery on it sort of purpleish!!
We spotted the gate really easy just up the road from the cafe. And on the way up we spotted another charity shop !! the owner was mightly offended when he told me it was not "IT'S A GALLERY" and i said "well sorry but you should tidy your entrance and make it look like one".. lol that was so funny..
Arriving at the gate we heard noises from inside well i had to look in case you where home early!
Dissapointment it was the builder! though very nice i must say! Asbo nearly had my nose of as i peered over at him "mad jumping dog on a spring"!! and his friend who didnt get a look in..
I asked him the builder not jack to tye the scarf somewhere very prominent ! ! and after all the hard work i hope he remembered..........

WE then headed to charnmouth and spent 2 lovely day's fossil hunting on the beach, you can hire a hammer and goggles and hack away at the rock's well nell was in her element!! she found some small ammonites ! A tooth ! something else which is alledgedly dinosaur puke!! And a Flippin great lump of rock with a few little things in which we struggled to get back to the car with ! You are allowed to remove these things from the beach..I was busy collecting stones with holes in ! Why ? i don't know...
It was a bit of a bind having ben with us as so many places are out of bounds to dogs, but they where allowed on the beach between 6pm and 9am, here. we'd parked up on a car park to sleep with public loos, luxury! but they closed them at 9pm till 10am bladder control was necessary no esssencial ..
People really use the beaches down there, from 6am people where swimming ,jogging ,fishing it was lovely to see and campfires and partys at night a real social place, it doesnt happen up here..
It all went to quick and we headed to dartmouth which was fairly close to the kennels.
Dartmouth is lovely and was choc a block! like Wales in the 70's so we shopped a bit and Nell crabbed that was fun....
We headed off to slapton to find a sleeping place and go to a pub/restaurant a local had recomended.. i hadnt really wanted to go to slapton it just sounds awful! but what a pleasant surprise it's lovely a 3 mile beach with no dog restrictions lot's of loo's!! only about A dozen houses and a few shops and the most delicious Fish and chips i've ever had at the pub Which was heaving with satisfied customers....

Time out!

Not a seaside photo i'm afraid! the cameras broke! and so am i! but who needs photos and dosh when, just fuel in the car and food will do..
We set off like grand explorers the van stuffed to the rafters with essentcials and ben the JRT with pride of place on Nells knee at the front, i'd checked and checked again that i had my AA card and a bottle opener just in case..first stop was lunch in church stretton with sbs at 1.30pm and at 1pm there we are stuck in traffic me finger tapping the engine threatening to overheat and panicing because i hate to be late! we laughed at one point as a bloomin big helicopter flew just over the top of us from behind scaring the livin daylights out of us!! and nells said "There she is looking for you" ..I'd been half noticing the lady in the car behind us laughing and the passenger with her not joining in, then i recognised her and the barmy woman jumped out of her car and came for a chat!! Now what are the chances of that?? We had lovely lunch and chatted for ages, her son who is lovely didnt seem mind one bit being stuck with 3 females and ben....
We then headed down to chepstow and stopped at the services!!! And they looked really surprised when i told them to put the food back!! when i saw what they expected me to pay £12 for..What a rip off.
We got lost a bit around Bristol, but ended up in kilve?? where we found a decent carpark to sleep in..
In the morning we headed to Porlock? and had breakfast in a hotel at 8.30 what a lovely chap he even let ben in and gave us a doggy bag..........
From there we headed towards ilfracoombe but got sidetracked by a sign saying DOONE Valley so off we went and ended up on a campsite at cloud farm, well worth a stay it is proper old fashioned none of this health and safety cr.. ! to spoil things , a little shop and cafe open all day from 7am-8pm , dogs where allowed, and campfires, and swimming. and there was a pony trekking farm there so off she went while i sat and read, i just wish it was "lorna doone" which i havent read since i was a child, then i would have recognised all the sights from the book. there where some truly beautiful woodlands and me with no camera!!
This site was so busy and i think i was the only british person there ......................And the sun was shining!!!! i'll continue tomorrow on how we arrived in Dulverton..