Dream Country Chat

BLOG TROTTING

 

Yes, thats you, out there in blogland, you are a Blog Trotter.  This is my new name for us, we are Blog Trotters - and proud of it too!

Anyway, today l thought l would introduce my fellow blog trotters to a few of the lovely bloggers who have contacted me and led me to their blogs.

Grasp that mug of coffee and visit Bertie Meadows  and see her lovely part of Yorkshire. Or go visit Land Cuckoo for some country magic. And just this week there have been two super additions to my blog list, Funky Monkey ,don't you just love that name! Another lovely blog is Consuming The Harvest.

I love visiting blogs and just thought that this morning l would pass you guys on to some of those fun blogs that l have just recently met up with.

Have a lovely weekend.
Karon  x

HAPPY HARRY

 

Good morning out there in Blogland. Here is Harry. Yes l know, he hasn't featured on the blog for a few weeks now, so thought it was time he put in an appearance.

Some may be horrified at a ferret popping out of the bed, but what the hell, he is my ferret and it's my bed. And come on, doesn't he look cute!!

I have really enjoyed the blog this week. I always enjoy doing my blog, but this week has been extra good. I think getting all your lovely comments on my home has done it for me. It really has felt as if l have had you round for tea.

Something else l have enjoyed lately with the blog was doing my giveaway. This was fun and l thought it would be even more fun to do one every month.  So this weekend l shall put my thinking cap on and try to come up with something nice for March.

March, can you beleive that - Spring.  On that hopeful note l will leave to enjoy your Friday.
Karon  x

COOK BOOKS

with Mr Amazon, so this was the perfect gift for me. Rather like James Bond having a Last week my lovely friend Rosemary gave me a super birthday prezzie - an Amazon gift voucher. Now Rosemary and l go way, way back and she knows me really well. She knows my book addiction and my ongoing love affairlicense to kill, l hit Amazon with my license to buy,with totally free conscience that l wasn't spending yet more money.

short', one of those 'you can do it', 'go for it gal' types of books. Anyway in there she highly Anyway my book choice came about as l had read another book last week (wouldn't you know it!) by Janet Street Porter called 'Life's too f***ingrecommended Nigel Slater and his cook books.

After a lurk round Amazon to see what he was all about, l decided on the 'Real Fast Food' and 'Real Fast Puddings'. They arrived yesterday and l am thrilled with both of them. Nice simple little paperbacks the size of a normal novel, they have no fancy photos, just plain text and lots of info.

Don't be put off by the idea of loads of solid text tho, he writes in such a chatty manner that you really get into the recipes etc and can easily imagine what the food looks like.

I particularly like the store cupboard hints. Being someone who has cupboards full of little used foodstuffs, l found his pared down listings really useful. Why have l always been tempted into all those extra fancy (and expensive) ingredients (too much Nigella l fear).

So my next Spring Cleaning task will be inside the kitchen cupboards to see what l can streamline.

Thanks Rosemary.

Oh by the way, do you like my new logo and look?

Karon  x

YOU ARE WELCOME

I bought myself some flowers last Thursday  to add a dash of colour to the kitchen. They were rather poor sad looking things, three little bunches reduced to £1 per bunch. With not a great deal of hope l brought them home and  plonked them into my old celery vase. They bloomed beautifully, a total resurecton. Bright, golden trumpets heralding the prospect of Spring to come.

It was £3 well spent, for almost a week we have thoroughly enjoyed their beauty, colour and delightful scent.  Today they look sad again and tomorrow will no doubt be in the compost bin. But what a joy they have been.

Now l have to say l am THRILLED with all your lovely comments on my house. Wow, if l could have you all round for tea and cake l certainly would. Since you liked it so much here are the other views of the rooms (the bit where the camera stood for the first pic!).

You don't come in to a hallway here, just straight into the diningroom. When we moved here over 12 years ago the entire ground floor (apart from the kitchen) were covered in a horrible ancient blue carpet. We lived with this for years until we eventually hauled it all up and found that the kitchen tiles extended into most of the diningroom . This just left a case of adding wood floor to the other end of diningroom and also in the livingroom.

I have always wanted to have floor to ceiling bookshelves. I remember many years ago staying at a friends house in England. She had a solid wall of books and l so admired it. Not just for the reading matter (and lets face it l am seriously addicted to books) but for the whole look and the coziness of it. I was always determined to have this in some form or another. Well my big bookshelves made from recycled builders scaffolding planks is the best l can do.

The old sofa is one with a drop arm so that you can stretch out in total relax mode. When l first saw it, it was the mangiest old brocade thing, however my friend Carrie from Rustique Interiors was on the case and she turned it into this magnificent patchwork beauty.

The other side of the bedroom shows 'Martha' (she had the name long before l called the dog that!) my tailors dummy that stands in the corner swathed in beads and old scarves.

The other side of the kitchen and those trusty daffodils! The sink unit is the only piece of static furniture, everything else is cobbled together from bits and pieces. The welsh dresser you saw in yesterdays pic was from ebay and the Victorian wash stand that l use as a chopping board/prep area was a junk yard find. I had to build a platform for it to stand on as it was a good eight inches too low for working on. The marble top makes it perfect for chopping and also for rolling pastry etc.

So that's it for the house guys, hope you have enjoyed the tour. Nobody gets to see Idgy's room - serious mess area! I still have the tiny spare room to finish off. It is full of all the stuff from HQ. I hope to get everything back out to HQ in March and get the spare room finished then too.

Thanks again for all your lovely comments, it has been lovely having you all at my place. Drop in any time.

Karon  x

COME ON IN.....

 

Since the house is so tidy (or was, until about ten minutes after the photographer left) I decided to rush round taking some snaps myself - just as a reminder of what l really can do in the housework stakes when push comes to shove!

So l thought l would invite you in to my place, to sit down, get comfy and have a chat.

 

The top pic shows the diningroom, aka my work room for the past few months. I had to do a mad strip down of all the wrk stuff to make it look like a diningroom again, was amazed to find the table under all the fabric and paperwork.

My bedroom is the opposite of downstairs in light and airiness. Downstairs is very dark and there really was no point in trying to lighted up the rooms with white paint. The windows are north facing and small for the size of rooms. I decided to go for all out coziness and warmth, so have the deep red in livingroom and warm mustard in diningroom. The bedroom on the other hand is bright and sunny and a total contrast to downstairs.

Just some of the pictures that l spent this weekend hanging.

The mudroom that l painted and slogged over these past few days, so thrilled with this little room now.

And of course the heart of the home, the kitchen.

Karon  x

D.I.Y.ing

I am so tired l could just flop down on my new cushions and sleep for a week! It has been a very busy weekend, and the busyness and stress are all my own making - of course.

Today l have a photographer coming to take some snaps of the house, hopefully for future magazine feature. Now l have known about this for a few weeks.

Over the past few weeks l appear to have forgotten the fact that l have ommitted to paint the wall in mud room where the house was divided last year - very attractive 2 metre patch of tan plaster. There are 4 doors that l hadn't finished (again from last year), a cupboard that l was always going to paint, and of course my bedroom wall, oh and did l mention curtains too.

Well guess what, l did the whole lot this weekend. Started with the bedroom on Friday morning, then on to the wall in mudroom. Enthusiasm had worn out by Friday evening when l had to hit B & Q for yet more paint, and by Saturday evening when the last swipe of the paintbrush took place, l was heartily sick of the whole thing.

Sunday morning and l was aging wood with Briwax and trying to hang a curtain rail on stone wall. Now l bought my own lovely new drill from B & Q on Friday so thought l was armed and ready for action. I even had the right drill bit. What more could l want. Well the right drill for a start. After half an hour of arm breaking drilling and more holes than the mole filled garden, l staggered off my ladder and phoned Colette. Help, l cried, l can't do this. The voice of reason assured me that l could indeed do it and that they would be down later to help.

In the meantime l ran up a pair of curtains for the mud room, hung all my old photographs that have been in storage for years and finished retouching all the bits that l had carelessly painted over (like the door hinges etc) and took Idgy out for a 'Littlest Friends Digigame' hunt. Back by 5pm and Colette and Simon arrive with the biggest drill l have ever seen. Wow this guy meant business. My pock marked wall didn't stand a chance. The curtain rail was up in a flash. So were the extra pictures l couldn't hang due to the fight with the wall.  What joy!

The daring due went a step further by inviting Idgy and me up for dinner at their place. We ended up having a lovely relaxing Sunday eveing with a full roast dinner and great chat. Fell into bed and slept like a log. Now today l just have to clean the place and then pretend that it has always looked like this.

Karon  x

ON THE FENCE

The farmers round here are not big on fencing (keen bloggers may remember the horror of the cows getting into my garden last year etc) and sheep tend to wander willy nilly from field to field all over the place. They leave their tell-tale signs on the broken fencing like motorway signs to the next flock passing through.

To me some of this trailing wool looks like that slightly creepy moss that hangs from trees in the deep south of America.

Yet other fences just look like fresh white sheets hanging out to dry.

Amazing the things that catch your interest when you pound round the lanes despirately trying to think of anything bar the run itself.

Karon  x

AND THE WINNER IS.......................

Margaret from 'Margarets Ramblings'. Well done, you have won the heart pillow. Will send it out to you as soon as l get your address. Hope you will like it.

HUGE thanks to all those who sent me birthday wishes. I had a lovely day thanks. Idgy gave me two cards, one was handmade and from her and all the animals. She also gave me a pair of earphones to use while running. Oh this will make a huge difference to me. I had started using my mobile phone on radio setting and with the earphones while running. Really makes the time pass, however the ear bits kept flying off and l would spend more time footering about trying to get them to stay in than l would actually on the move. Abandoned my visions of running with music. Well now l have the ear things and will just have to learn how to use the little mp3 thingy l have had for years and never used..........

In the morning we went through to the East coast and visited my Mum and went for lunch. Then caught up with Madge for coffee. Then off to see Carrie at her gorgeous shop 'Rustique Interiors' and spent my birthday money from Mum. Came home with a lovely old dressing table that Carrie had painted to an aged white. Now l just have to get it upstairs!

We spent a lazy evening by the fire with birthday cake (couldn't get a small one that wasn't for a five year old so had to go big!) and wine for me Coke for Idgy. Watched Billy Connelly's new travel programme about the north west passage - fabulous stuff.

Now back to normal and the run - - - -
Karon  x

MY COMFORT ZONE

I love my home and all the bits and bobs l have collected over the years to fill it with. So l thought l would start sharing some 'in house' photos with you every now and then. Today we start where everything starts in this house - the kitchen, the real heart of this home.

There is nothing fitted or formal in my kitchen. It is haphazzard all the way.

 

This is the organising area.

All the seasons are catered for too.

And why have cornflakes when you can have real corn............

And there's me, l'm always in the kitchen.

Karon  x

SEEING COLOURS

I'm back to running in the mornings again. There is no snow or ice so l have no excuses, just got to get back out there. I am really noticing a difference in my fitness with having a couple of weeks off. I am definately slogging my way round the 2 miles and the only good bit is getting home.

Everything is very greige just now. Sort of mix of grey and beige landscape. It all looks muddy and dirty with no brightness. The grass is very worn looking with no joy in its green. I can't wait for Spring.

I've been running past this old iron barn at the dairy along the road. I love the soft colours and the way it is all peeling and showing those colour layers.

I'm a so enjoying your comments on the '10 Things l love' giveaway. You are really making me think with some of your lists. I keep finding myself saying 'oh l'd forgotten about that, wish l had said that, what a great idea and hmmmmm that makes me hungry'. Keep up the good work, you have till tomorrow evening at 6pm.
Karon  x