Tales From Pixie Wood

The Sweet Simplicity of Happiness : Part Six

Our garden was given a great surprise recently with the growth and flowering of this magnificent honeysuckle. Our brilliant neighbours planted this before we had even moved into the house and just look at how it has spread over to our side of the garden too! The colours and the syrupy fragrance are well known and LBH and I are both feeling rather grateful to have this welcome visitor.

Last year was entirely focused on the inside of the house and this year we have been pottering in the garden at every spare opportunity. Boo rolls around getting to know the other feline neighbours, I add organic compost to the beds and LBH lifts bags of sand and heavy tiles. You can see who got the short end of the stick in this year’s project.

And the honeysuckle?

The honeysuckle just is and in so doing reminds us to ‘just be’ from time to time too.

Cherry xoxox

PS

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The First One

As an English person I wait for this type of weekend, the first of its kind this year, with an anticipation that I can only liken to a dog eager to go out for a walk. Lots of tail wagging, tongue dripping, panting and whining. This weekend was the first real weekend where it was warm enough to be out in the garden without my long sleeved thermal vest. It was bright enough not to have to worry about hours of rain and there was a smell in the air. The smell of a sunny weekend day in England. If you've ever smelt it you'll know what I'm talking about.

I'm having my bachelorette party here at my house and in my garden so LBH and I are working hard to get it looking pretty for the day in July.

Say hello to a new addition to our garden family, Jasmine. LBH and I both have fond memories of the scent of Jasmine which filled our noses on a daily basis while we were in Italy last spring, so when we saw this beautiful version we picked her up and brought her home with us.

If you stand back and look at the front of our house we have a climbing rose dealing with the left hand side of the bench which sits out the front and we both felt that the right hand side of the bench needed something to chat with on a hot summers evening. This area gets lots of sun and I'm so excited about training it up and over the front window.

I have to admit to testing the mettle of our new addition already. I was in the front room early on Saturday evening about an hour after we had manoeuvred the plant in to place and I secretly opened the window adjacent to the area of the Jasmine most heavily populated with flowers. I pottered about the room, plumping cushions and what not and waited. Within a few minutes the syrupy smell hit me.

"YAY!!!!! the smell comes into the house!!!!", I yelped to LBH as he immediately came in to see if he could smell it too. I think the smell hit him while he was still in the kitchen. Joy, joy, joy!

My geraniums are doing well too. We have three large planters going up the steps to the terraced area and when these girls are ready I'll pop them in there. Mixed colours of course. We have what is essentially a cottage garden and I really don't think you can be too precious about something with as many nooks and crannies as we have. I take the wise words of my garden heroine Vita Sackville - West to heart and cover, cover, cover!

My potted Lavender is doing well, prevailing through the past winter and has delighted us with blooming again for the second year. I was given two lavenders as housewarming gifts and they've done so well it would appear that I need to re-plant them in super pots!

Aubretia is something that can be seen all over the county we live in at the moment. Huge bunches of greenery punctuated by a violent purple flower and they have a wonderful habit of growing very well in walls. Driving out about in the surrounding countryside I love to see a random purple cloud of foliage seemingly floating in the middle of a cottage wall. Hopefully ours will do just as well and by next spring I'm trusting that it will be cascading down the steps of our garden.

This weekend also welcomed back another tradition that I love about warmer days in England - the pub garden. Some pub gardens allow you to watch the cricket on the green, some allow you three course meals. Some allow you to watch the day go by at the side of a lake or a river and others allow you stay out until well after the sun has gone down.

We enjoyed white wine spritzers and cold beer for the first time since last summer and I know it seems like I'm going on about it but anybody who has experienced the inclement weather that England has in late spring will know that when you can you LEAVE THE HOUSE! 

We trundled back as the sky began to turn indigo. By then LBH had goose bumples on his arms, but it was OK. He may have been chilly but his jacket was in the wardrobe at home. I'm hoping it stays there.

He Seemed To Know What Was Needed & That Was To Follow The Sun

Good lord, what a week last week was. It was FANBLOODYTASTIC on many levels but I ended it by eating a bowl of pasta on the sofa and falling asleep at about 8.15pm on Friday night without ever really feeling the benefit of the fire that LBH had made in the hearth. Although I did wake up SUPER HOT and rather red of face before taking myself off to bed at around 10pm so I suppose I got something from it.

Last week was a week of meetings and tests. I'm very lucky to be building relationships with people in the television industry and find that they are as passionate and as practical as I am. I think that sometimes the industry can be given bad press as a place of insincerity but as long as you're not unrealistic I think that its possible to  forge working relationships with folk from every (within reason) industry and there is a lot to be excited about no matter what happens.

I also took my driving test - and passed.

I had been driving around for AGES, years in fact, but I always had to have someone in the car with me. This was never really a problem when I lived in London and had public transport of all types on my doorstep but now we're out in the sticks its a touch more problematic. I also want and NEED to see those babies whenever I can so it suddenly became important to pass my test.

I gave up fear in 2007 and taking this blasted test was one of the last bastions of fear that still intruded upon my life. No longer. It's over, passed. My first solo flight was over to Jo-Jo's to see the girls and now I'm free as a bird. Of course this DOES NOT mean that I shall be throwing carbon into the air willy nilly and will continue my love of WALKING into town but it does help, it really does.

So, getting back to the point of this post, after a week that was pretty taxing on my mind if not my body LBH did what he does best. He knew what was needed, when it was needed and made sure that it happened. On Saturday morning this happened to be a walk in the countryside near to our town and in temperatures of approximately zero.

As we walked we watched the sun rise higher and higher until it met us, head on as we turned down a path which lead back to the car.......

....and in passing took us by a field that implored me to yell "Oh England, my England"!!!!!

Although I didn't as LBH spotted some bunnies just in time and my mind was distracted by the site of their little white fluffy bottoms hopping across the landscape.

I'm not sure whether it was the freezing temperatures or the surroundings but this early walk worked. It jolted my brain back into gear from meetings and projects and dreams of the future to what was needed from me right now. This was companionship for LBH, dedication to my business and my home and to the other work that I do.

I don't want to sound glib when I say that I gave up fear in 2007 as I know, deep in my soul, how debilitating fear of all sorts of things can be. But the fear of what may or may not happen was taking up more time than dealing with the things that actually were happening. Its not that I don't care about the future its just that I know that no matter what does happen, eventually, it will all be OK. Those truffles in my pockets appear to be doing a good job!

Cx

I'll Be Home For Christmas

LBH's mum arrives today. This means that Christmas has REALLY started as she is with us for the duration. She will arrive bearing gifts of venison and beef as well as practical items such as spare quilts and carpet shampoo.

This is her room. The guest room. This room has been the most well behaved room in the house lately. Why? Because it has sat there, without complaint and kept itself in shape and tidy. This means that apart from a little plumping and sprucing I have had to do nothing except close the door behind me and wait for our guest.

The cushions are fat and the tissue box replenished. I keep a postcard sized print of my favourite artist in the whole world, John Currin, by the bed and of course there is a candle. We light candles a lot in this house around this time of year and I want any person who stays here to feel free to do the same. How many of us have read by candlelight lately and gone to sleep having puffed it out and buried down into the bed?

On the other side of the bed is a more traditional 'lamp'. It was slightly dull and a little grubby so I re-covered the shade in some odd bits of fabric and added a button trim. Hand-cream is a must and I always have two or three on the go in the drawer of my nightstand, our guest gets Penhaligon's. The rose scent lasts all day and fills the room.

Look at the books. Ahhhhh, Susan Branch. Who would have thought? I have been given so much, including friendship, Rachel and more inspiration than I can shake a stick at.

Let me take a moment while I pop off to the guest room and have yet another flick through the treasures...............................................................................................................................................................

.........I'm back. Inspired and ready to continue.

I picked up a grand total of SEVENTEEN Beatrix Potter books in the thrift store just this week. They cost me thirty pence each and although there are not the classic square, white versions I am in love with the colourful spines they sport. The stories are the same, as are the pictures and I think that every home should have a little BP in it, for cosy englishness if nothing else.

This is the view that any guest will wake up to if they open the curtains in the morning and then retire back to bed. Frost. It's the closest we shall get to snow I believe and I like it. It adds a white shimmer to everything and is so fitting. It disappears as we head towards lunchtime but if the weather report on the radio is anything to go by we are headed for a cold snap.

The part of the garden that you see in the picture above is our 2008 project. I can't wait to plan, clear, dig and sew and then entertain!

Supper, al fresco by hand painted lantern light. Thats the recipe for next year. Let me at it, let me at it!

If you are reading this I'd like to wish you a wonderful day. These next few days are my absolute favourite days of the entire year. I shall potter, shop, hobble a little, tweak, hobble some more, cook, bake, wrap, sing, eat and be merry. It's not always been like this. My goodness, I spent five Christmases on the trot single, lonely in a crowd,  in between boyfriends, dating a loser or in the midst of a break up with no home of my own and only my precious family and a dream of cosiness to rely on.  I remember those years too acutely to take even one mince pie for granted.

Merry Christmas

Lots of Love
Cherry xoxoxo

Credit Where Credit Is Due

I'm not a huge fan of Ikea I have to admit. When they first opened over here people descended in droves and on a Bank Holiday Monday the traffic would be backed up for miles just to get into the car park. But over the years Ikea has served me and the home I was in at the time very well.

Nowadays I go there for big boxes of candles, the odd picture frame and small bits and pieces that are helpful. On my last trip however I spotted this lantern and I'm loving it. It holds a small tea light but seems to give off a great deal of light, or should I say glow?

I popped it up on the trellis outside the front door last night and went back inside for twenty minutes or so. By the time I went back out to check on it the sun had well and truly disappeared and the fading autumn light was beautiful. It was Tuesday evening so I could hear the bell ringers practising and all was calm in my street. The picture is slightly fuzzy as I didn't want to waste time getting the tripod out and 'setting up' a shot.

But as I stood there staring at a lantern that cost me £6.99 I was washed with a love for just being here, alive, living, experiencing, learning and doing simple things like watching one season morph into another.

I remember a tutor and mentor of mine at drama school saying to me "you need to find the beauty in something simple, like a tree", (I've written about this before I'm sure).

I wasn't finding the beauty in anything in those days. I was walking around like a lonely zombie trying to find my place in a world that wasn't right for me. But I heard what she said. It penetrated. And although I ended up exchanging a lifelong dream for that of something else entirely I eventually found the beauty in a tree.

Or a lantern from Ikea.

Beauty.

I'm entirely certain it can be found almost everywhere.

Cherry x

My latest SheerLuxe article is here!

Footnote
I have been awarded the 'Nice Matters' award by several people and I have yet to make a mention of this. It was remiss of me not to mention it or to even respond to the folk that have awarded me this award. I apologise, it was rude. 

What The.......!!!!

I only put it out there to revive it a little. It had gotten dry sitting in the sun on my kitchen window sill.

Mr Slug, I wish a plague on both your houses for eating my basil plant with such wanton abandon. I also hope you have a terrible tummy ache and produce highly embarrassing, bright green, basil coloured poo's for the rest of your days.

Phew! Well, that's a weight off. Have a wonderful week you beautiful creatures that may happen to be reading this. Thank you all so very much for your thoughtful, educated, considered and enlightening comments to the last post. I love being female at this moment in history. We have the choice and capacity to do so much and our only downfall will come if we are are judgemental of others who make different choices to us. We are a team no matter what. And I for one am feeling super lucky right now to a member.

If you have a moment do stop over at L'Influence. I'm having a Mitford Moment.

Love Cherry xx