Happy Christmas

Well I think I am now ready for Christmas, brandy butter made, bread sauce made. tree up, presents wrapped and the icing on the cake the wreath is done!

And I must say I am rather pleased with it.

For the last few years I have done one with bay leaves from our hedge in the garden, but this summer it had got rather out of control and so it had a very hard haircut, which sadly it hasnt recovered from. 

So its a mixture of ever greens including flowering ivy, myrtle, bay 

and some variegated leaves on a twig base.  

Its a true case of necessity being the mother of invention, am really pleased with how it turned out.

Happy Christmas and see you in the New Year

a Liberty Christmas

We all need a sudden hit of inspiration don't we? 

Well earlier this month I was on facebook and saw this link to the fantastic Alice Caroline blog

Inspiration!

and it got me thinking, what a fantastic way of using up those 

little scraps of fabric that we all end up with. And I do have alot of those, including the remains of a fantastic scrap bag brought from the lovely Alice Caroline (her shop sells solely Liberty prints).

So I raided the fabric cupboard and got cutting all those tiny scraps into strips, mixed up some PVA glue with water and armed with some cardboard hearts from the Press Shop, I got sticking!

And I am hooked, its so satisfying 

These hearts both large and small are heading down to the Iris and Dora pop up shop that will be in the Inner Market from 28th November till Christmas.

So please do pop down and see us, we should be open from 10 till 5 and there will be loads of unusual and one off ideas for Christmas presents.

Think this is my favorite, 

and I think I will be making more,

 actually don't think any thing should stay still too long round me or it might get glued!

Luxuries that help others

Last Christmas, Chris and I had the fantastic experience of helping at the 

Crisis homeless shelter in Kings Cross, London. 

 It really was very special and we definitely want to do it again, but not every year.

But we still wanted to help.

On Christmas morning I was on the shower duty, and as well as organizing the rota we were also providing our guests with toiletries, those one use one you get in hotels.

We all have them cluttering up our bathrooms,  and so with the help of friends and colleagues we were able collect together a good collection of shower gels, shampoos, soaps, toothpastes etc 

And we got them all sent off at the beginning of November.

And thank you to everyone who helped us.

the power of the community

As I mentioned in ebernezer-at-terres 

there is a big community project going on down at the bathing pools,

There were two Sundays where the call went out for 'all hands to the deck'

 to help clear all the over grown greenery, ivy, saplings, brambles and sycamores.

 Chris and I were able to go down for second one last weekend,

 and we were blessed with absolutely gorgeous weather for the 1st November!

They have already done some amazing work, the roofs on both the changing rooms at both the gentleman and horse shoe pools have been replaced, 

and I understand the roof of the changing room of the Ladies pool has been sealed 

Chris and I were on the team which which was clearing all the overgrowth round the Horseshoe pool

Other groups were clearing  the lookouts - picnic spots along the road, 

you can now look out from them!!! 

And they are fantastic views, you can really begin to see what it looked like when it was all first built

And can imagine elegant islanders promenading along at the turn of the century. 

still can't work out why these steps are here....

mystery steps

There are now great places to sit and thing and relax....

...looking out over the castle and over the Ladies pool

Which was looking so perfect, almost like mid summer not November!

I went back on Monday to take these photos and made the most of the gorgeous weather

and had a beautiful swim, with a cormorant for company!

Then coffee with Chris in the kiosk over looking Jethou.

It really is days like this that make me love these islands so much xxx

Autumnal colours

Its the season of gold, red and umbers, it makes me want to wear woolly socks,

cook stews and light roaring fires. 

I love the change of seasons,

could not live where its hot all the time, must be so boring!!!!!

But its not just the leaves that changes colour but also the food, last weekend we picked up these gorgeous beasts, a Butternut that we all know at the back, a Turks hat on the right..

And these two High Sugars that are beautiful roasted whole with a knob of butter inside....yum

 I maybe the wrong side of 40, but could resist one to carve aswell

 Not sure why, but my pumpkins always seem to resemble Slimer from GhostBusters...

 ....but really pleased with how he came out, though that evening when I went to blow the candle out, I found two slugs crawling out his mouth...vile....but very Halloween!

On a slightly more grown up level, nothing was wasted,

the flesh has been made into a puree to go into a soup later,

and the seeds were roasted in olive oil, celery salt and smoked paprika, so very, very morish.