The sun came out last weekend and showed St A off in all its brilliant glory. We fed the ducks who had by then realised that spring was beginning to sprung.
The Boy came up with the goods with a newly planted and installed hanging basket that will certainly last much longer than the sad little roses that wept on supermarket shelves...
Valentines dinner was a triumph over adversity and involved three trips to the shops... Images and carnage to follow...
The Boy has been on nights. It's been a rather chaotic time. The food must be good enough to last the night but mild enough to wake up to and be the 'breakfast' of your day. Oh, and it must be cooked between me getting back from work and the Boy getting out of the shower...
Queue stews, bakes and macaroni cheese.
Just what you need for the frostiest days of the year...
Further to the request following my last post, here is the exterior of the thatched cottage. The roof was re-thatched before major structural work had been completed so the scaffolding is there as a precaution to reduce stress.
Because it's been lived in for so long by an elderly gent of limited means, the before and after photographs are rather topsy-turvy.
The below is the 'before' shot, taken from a village photograph in the mid-1960s.*
I think the word is 'potential'...!
*Historically, it was usual for thatchers to thatch upon thatch increasing insulation but of course thickening the layers each time. Look at the difference in chimney exposed between the two images once all the layers had been completed scrapped and the thatch started again!
My inlaws have this month brought together all the money in all the little pots that they possess and bought and tumble down wreck of a little chocolate box cottage in Kent: the Boy and I couldnt' be more green with envy.
It has one sink, no toilet, ancient electricity and a well to be uncovered in the garden. There are about six to ten layers of wallpaper on every wall in the house and I want them all. It's a bit like dating a tree, where you can peel off layer after layer and date them back chronologically in print design. 
My favourite is the birds in the middle. The bottom left is thought to date back to the 1750s.
There is also a Victorian fireplace to be removed, to reveal the Inglenook nestling in secret behind, and five-hundred year old brickwork to restore and protect.
It's going to take some work to get it to a habitable state, but boy, would I love to be the one doing it!
A trip to the panto and a puppet workshop...
My beautiful goddaughter in denim and her big sister enjoy opening presents before seeing Jack and the Beanstalk at the Barbican.
Good ol' arty children's workshops. We made the most fabulous puppets on sticks using polystyrene eggs and funky foam. God love a good pipecleaner.
Nibbled on the remains of the cake and basked in glow of the tree (in my period bay window - god I love my house!) before taking it down yesterday.
New Years came with Fun Rolls (Summer Rolls to non-antipodeans) and a towed car on New Years Day.
A wopping £300 to retrieve it from the pound. With hangover. Happy New Year indeed...
And for those of you interested, here is the finished gingerbread house. Quite chuffed with it myself! Will certainly be tucking into it later though. January is well and truly underway.
It has been a whirlwind of a year here and December has been no exception.
Christmas passed in a blur of roasted vegetables and cracker innards.
All I have to show for it is a tidy haul of beautiful presents and a fridge-full of slowly thinning leftovers.
I shall share it with you in pictures...
Fondue on Christmas Eve followed by tipsy Jenga and a victorious father-in-law!
Christmas day with presents, preparations and the scrumptious feast
The Boy was a triumph in the kitchen, and sleepy in the afternoon! 
Followed by a sunny boxing day walking around Bedfordshire and stumbling upon a delightful working mill with its own secret garden...
Now there's nothing left to do but face the tidy up!
All will be well in 2008!
Best wishes to you and yours
xx
This month I have been mostly gadding about town, hence the lack of recent activity...
...the new St Pancras International station...
...helping out at my soon-to-be new place of work very early in the morning and marvelling at the calm and serenity...
...and coming across wierd and wonderful installations in the most unlikely places...
Well, after the promise of my last post it has been rather quiet around here hasn't it? I can only apologise and blame frantic pre-holiday planning and faffing. Days have been getting shorter and time spent away from my house longer. Not a recipe for frequency of blogging I'm afraid.
I know you've all been losing sleep over the lack of these images so without further ado...
The men were a blinding success:
House got built... eventually...
Final pic will be taken in the daylight at the weekend to fully appreciate the wobbly-tiled roof splendiforousness.
Last Friday was the fabulous Sparkle the Dark Up late night opening at work... I was given the arduous task of leading the 'Decorate Your Own Gingerbread Man' workshop. Sexy singing was provided by the straining vocal chords of Gamine shown below and the Actionettes, an amateur 1960s style dance troupe in red shift dresses accented with white fur. Gorgeously naff!!
The gent who runs the public program at the Museum is an artist in his own right and came up with these card designs using only snowflake punchers and hole punch remnants... They make me so happy!!
Huge apologies for the quality of the pics - the camera was on low-res mode and I didn't realise until now. V frustrating!
