Tidy and Stocked Up

One good thing about the rain and not being able to get out very much is that we now have very tidy drawers.

 As in the ones in pieces of furniture, not the under garment type! I have sorted, chucked and re-homed various bits and pieces and now I really do think I know where everything is in our house.

I have also spent some time with S in newly part decorated bedroom sorting clothes and toys and we have a couple of bags worth of items for the charity shop and some toys to go to friends of ours who have just been approved as adoptive parents.

Something which took 5 minutes to do and which will hopefully save a bit of time in the morning when she needs a hair slide and we are due out of the door in 2 minutes and one can't be located, is hanging a length of ribbon from

 the frame of her wardrobe and clipping all the slides onto it.

Another well and truly tidy corner of the house is the food cupboard. Since we decorated the dining room last year and made over an old wardrobe into a type of larder I have been trying to do big grocery shops every few weeks stocking up on the staples. This was partly to try and save money buy buying in bulk and partly to try and save the amount of time spent shopping.
In a recent visit to Sainsbury's I was given a voucher for 2000 extra nectar points if I did my first on-line shop. As delivery mid week is free too I thought I would give it a whirl. So I ordered all the store cupboard basics I thought we would need for a couple of months. We now have 30 cartons of apple juice and 20 cartons of orange juice and the shelves are piled high with tins and jars! I shall be keeping an eye on our usage and may have to tweak the quantities of things. I do a menu plan each week so there will be the odd free things needed along the way but knowing that for a while my buying will be mainly limited to bread/milk/fruit/veg and meat makes the thought of going to the supermarket much less like a chore.

How Common

We have spent all afternoon walking on Southampton Common and we were lucky enough to see a baby squirrel

cute cygnets

being very well protected by mum and dad

and this little robin hopped in front of us as we were making our way to the cafe.

But this one was even more obliging when it came to posing for photos. He flitted from table to table and was very friendly landing right next to us in his search of crumbs.

Wild young of a different kind!

In the cafe G and I enjoyed a hot chocolate complete with whipped cream and a flake, more the drink for an autumnal stroll but it wasn't quite up to long cool drink weather. T was thrilled to find they sold Bakewell tarts, this one was nearly as big as his head!

We took a quick wander into the cemetery, we didn't realise how huge it is.G and I are planning on going back for a proper explore one day without the children in tow.

Keeping in the spirit of the jubilee I tried to keep my eyes peeled for anything red, white or blue and managed a few things.

Whatever you are doing this long weekend I hope you having fun.

Victorious Vintage

Well haven't we had a lovely day out. With our friends S&J we hopped on the train to Portsmouth, our destination the Historic Dockyard for the Victorious Vintage event which is being held on both days this weekend.

As our arrival happened to coincide with lunchtime it was only right that the first thing we did was find somewhere to eat our picnic. The perfect spot was found just inside these gates

and past this very camp looking golden Roman Emperor

in the Porter's garden.

Where along with the normal picnic fare I had made sure we had some of these Great British Fancies.

I really liked these pinecones stuck on top on the plant supports. May have to use that idea in our garden.

These sweet peas look so pretty and smelt like summer.

The view to the left of the garden was the Spinnaker tower

and just over the hedge to the right was a ice cream van in a lovely ice cream shade of pink.

Once fed and watered we went off exploring.  I couldn't resist having my photo taken with this larger than life model of Henry V111. 

There were a few vintage vehicles on show including this VW camper advertising a beach buggin event in August down in Southsea

There were quite a few vintage stalls offering homewares and crafts. I really like this idea using a Scrabble board and tiles to record a special event.

There was also a lot of vintage clothes, just how tiny is the waist on this dress?!


It was whilst we were mooching around the stalls I spotted a fellow blogger looking extremely gorgeous in her vintage outfit. I did feel a bit silly going up and saying 'Excuse me but you are Land Girl aren't you?' We had a quick chat and even though I had a camera in my hand I completely forgot to ask someone to record our chance meeting, duh, but it was lovely bumping into you both, we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we all did.

One of the craft stalls was selling an array of wooden signs, this one caught my eye as is perfect for the long weekend's celebrations for the Jubilee

T on the other hand felt the 'Do not start with me you will not win' sign was more his kind of thing!

Being at the Dockyard it was of course necessary to take advantage of a jolly sailor photo opportunity. Thankfully T was happy on this occasion to humour me

as was G.

And here we have the complete J&J family looking very happy and patriotic in front of a huge Union Jack flag.

May Scavenger Hunt

The end of the month already? It can only mean one thing, another scavenger hunt post is due.

One of the items to snap this month was 'nine'. This one I failed at. And the reason is silly. You see we live at number 9 and all month I kept thinking I'll just pop outside and photograph the number of the wall. All month I have failed to do so, so we are nine-less.

Here are the rest.

Good things- a stretch out on the bed with an added treat of a tickle is high on the list of good things for Melvin Cat.

Small packages- this wee wee package was originally stuck onto a Christmas tree decoration which broke. It now lives on the dresser.

Fragrance- I bought some flowers from Sainsbury's last week. The bouquet contained a flag and was named 'A Little bit of Chelsea'. The fragrance was gorgeous.

Station- the local train station we travelled from last weekend. Lovely old building.

 Nose- This was the first photo I took for this month's hunt whilst at Homebase. Love these little doggies sat nose to nose.

Front page- the front page of a newspaper from 1924 which we discovered in an old wardrobe and I blogged about here.

Beverage- bit of a cheat as I took this photo last month, but like the box so much and seeing it's Jubilee weekend on the way thought I would use it again.

Currency- One of my favourite purses. The address is so sweet and contains Pennies.

Historic- at Salisbury station I picked up a free copy of the Wiltshire View magazine. Inside was a fascinating article about a group of incredibly brave men who gathered information about the beaches in France right under the noses of German soldiers. Fundraising is in place to erect a memorial to these men. You can read more about them here.

Yellow- this chap was from the Friends of the Earth and was manning, or should that be beeing?, a stall at the Spring fayre we went to. 

Can you see what I see?- I was a bit stuck on this, but I hope this one fits the category ok. A little splash of red and black in amongst all that green is easy to spot. No pun intended!

Big thanks as ever to Kathy for organising us such a great list. I always enjoy seeing what everyone else has found.

Bunting for School

S's school is having a special Jubilee day on Friday, all very exciting stuff! Last week the children were sent home a sheet of card with two bunting triangles drawn out on it. They were asked to decorate them however they wanted. All triangles will all be strung up together to make bunting for decorating the classrooms.

We took inspiration from the bunting we have strung up in our dining room at the moment, £2.oo from Sainsbury's in case you wanted the info,

and went with glittery blue (and silver) crowns teamed with white stars so we had the red, white and blue colour scheme.

S told me very confidently that hers are the best as most of the others did flags and ours look good!

Playing Catch

If when playing catch with your dad you concentrate on the ball as it comes towards you, sticking your tongue is optional,

 you keep your eyes wide open

and when picking up the dropped ball from the floor you are careful of rogue thorns from recent pruning, ouchy,

you will be successful in the end and make that catch

and have a great laugh too!

Salisbury to Old Sarum

We took the longer scenic route to get to meet up with G's mum and dad yesterday.

A ten minute walk from the station took us to the start of the Avon Valley Nature Reserve and what a welcoming sight it was. Who could not resist being beckoned in when greeted with such a sight of lushness. Frothing cow parsley abundance lining the boardwalk on either side as it twisted and turned tempting you in to discover 

a walk by the gently rippling river. There were very few people around. Just a few dog walkers on the path and the dogs in the walk cooling off in the shallow water.

At a fork in the path there was a beautiful bench which had been designed and made by local school children. Click on the picture to enlarge and you can see the design of swimming fish, but for all it's loveliness it couldn't really be used as it had huge stinging nettles growing all around it.

Turning to look back there was a great view across the meadows to the Cathedral.

Part of the walk included the path G would take to his primary school, what a treat to see sights like this from the little bridge.

And this is his old school, much changed since his day, well it was 34 years ago that he left!

Lining the road are the most selection of cottages and houses. A history of Stratford-sub-Castle and some of the houses, including this whitewashed cottage, can be found here.

G told us that this is the House where his Grandad worked as a gardener for many years right up until the day he died. It looks from the signs up there is some restoration work being done.

Across the road is St. Lawrence's Church.

From here it was a fairly steep walk up to the Old Castle. We paused once for a swig of water and once to snap another view of the Cathedral in the distance.

The remains of the Castle are owned by English Heritage and the website shows a fantastic aerial view of it all. We haven't visited it with the children yet, we keep saying we'll go when they have one of their special event days. 

Unlike the website photo the grass isn't currently all green as it is awash with yellow buttercups and the children obligingly laid down amongst them for me to take, what in my opinion, is one of the very best photos of them I have ever taken.