Smackerels and Provisions

The weather was lovely yesterday, so George and I decided to seize the opportunity for a picnic tea.

For me there is something extra special about a picnic tea, more so than a picnic lunch.  They remind me of long summer evenings growing up when my mum would take me and my brothers up on the Mendips for afterschool picnic teas, eating Yeo Valley blackberry custard yoghurts (before it was all posh and organic!) on Blackdown Trigpoint with its 350 degree views of Wales and the Westcountry... Somehow being able to have your supper outside in a field somewhere and walk home all before the sun has gone down just epitomises Summer at its best. 

Being a Mendips girl I am partial to a good hill view so we took our provisions up onto Purdown and made a den in the long grass, looking out across the rooftops and railway lines.  Seems the balloonists of Bristol were seizing the nice evening too as no less that six floated over our heads while we were eating. 

Fingers crossed for more warm, dry evenings!

 

Glad Midsommer!

Picture from Scandinavian Kitchen

Happy Midsummer everyone!

Yesterday my good friend Lisa and I went on a daytrip to London, for me this meant an opportunity to go on a bit of a Scandi pilgrimage, with trips to Scandinavian Kitchen and the Nordic Bakery, not to mention lots of lovely interior shops full of Marimekko and Iittala goodness! 

If you're in London and in need of lunch I most heartily recommend Scandinavian Kitchen.  I had a lovely 3 piece Smorgasboard, with a cheese and radish open sandwich, dill new potatoes and carrot and courgette salad - it was so good I ate it straight away, forgetting to take a photo, which is pretty unheard of for me!  They also have an excellent little grocery shop in the cafe for all your cheese, crispbread and licorice needs. 

Yesterday for Midsommar they were doing takeaway picnic boxes to take to the Swedish picnic, we didn't go but the atmosphere in the cafe was so jolly, full of ladies (and the odd man!) with flower wreaths in their hair, and people singing "Snapsvisor" (Swedish Midsummer drinking songs).  

Here's how I celebrated Midsummer last year in our wee flat.

Hope everyone's had a lovely weekend. x.

A sheepish return

I'm back!

And I'm rather annoyed at myself for letting my blog fall by the wayside so quickly.  I do so want to be a regular blogger with readers and blog-friends and some kind of consistent output... Does anyone have any tips for having some kind of blog routine?  Do you have special blogging time at a similar time each day?  And what do you prefer to read, long and detailed or little and often?  I think I want to be a little and often blogger, but I tend to save up things to blog in my head and then have a lot I want to share when I finally make some time to sit down and do it.  Of course sharing a computer with my partner doesn't help!

Although I've been quiet on the blog/commenting front rest assured that I've been reading other people's with great enthusiasm!  What a lot of wonderful inpiration there is out there.  Special mention to Jen at Little Birdie and Lou at Little Green Shed for a) being awesome and b) introducing me to some more wonderful blogs - 4etg, My Rainbow Vintage Home, Scraps of Us, you're all fab!

So, what have I been doing if not blogging?  All the usual Sarah Activies - baking, homemaking, some very amateur gardening, daytripping.... in the spirit of 'Little and Often' there will be some more blog posts to follow with snapshots of my current doings!  A little sneak peak into some of the things below...

 More soon x

Oversleeping on Monday

 It may be grey and rainy outside but I have woken up in a tip top happy mood!  It's amazing what a couple of extra days off can do.  It's raining now but Summer will come, and this week is my birthday, and I have super fun planned - Lido, dinner with my oldest pal, pot luck party with (nearly) all my favourite folks, hurray! The sun is shining in my heart.

I've got the house to myself for the day so been doing some chores, in the search for some upbeat 'housework music' I've been working my way through my now rarely listened to collection of indiepop cds which soundtracked my early 20s, and come across these guys:

 

They might be totally daft but they can't fail to make me grin, I've been bopping around the kitchen like a kid who's had too much orange squash.  So turn it up loud and do it too!

Happy Easter everyone! xxx

Then there were three

Gosh, sorry for the gap in posts.  I've been a bit busy with various things, not least settling in the newest member of team 77.

Her name is Ellie and she's a darling! There were 48 very sad hours where we couldn't see her at all except for her two green eyes far far away behind our built in cupboards, but as George pointed out, seems a pretty sensible response to being kidnapped and transported to a new home with total strangers.  But after 2 days eavesdropping on us from the safety of her hiding place she must have decided we were A-OK, as she came out and made friends, and now she's just a total sop who loves ear rubs and laps and blankets and especially especially Ikea Poang chairs.

Ha, she's snoring away in her basket as I type. Very loudly for such a small creature...

A less cat-centric post soon!  Hope everyone's having a lovely Easter weekend, the extra lie in this morning was just blissful.  And 3 more to enjoy!

x

Table for two

Our dinner last night - stuffed mushrooms with quinoa pilaf and spring greens.
Followed by hot chocolate pudding and vanilla icecream.  All vegan!

I think I prefer special meals at home to meals out, I love getting out candles and a tablecloth (this one is from a charity shop in Stockholm) and putting on a nice dress just because.  I get it from my mum, she knows how to make the weekend special.  I wore a nice dress and George wore his pajamas.

You can't do that in a restaurant!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend x.

Sunday Blue Skies

Finally some sunshine! It's  been a grim week, mainly for reasons other than the weather, but oh the weather sure hasn't helped!  Never ending greyness somewhere between mist and drizzle, it really kept my spirits low.  But the weekend has been a nice break and finally this afernoon the sun came out and the skies were blue. 

I have acquired a good haul this weekend, a pretty juice glass and some Swedish sweets from my friend , plants and Swedish cake from Ikea (along with my regular purchases of coffee and jam!), 2 new coffee pots (for his and hers caff and de-caff), seeds for the garden and all manner of cat paraphanalia, some of which can be seen above.

Why cat paraphanalia I hear you ask?  Well because on Wednesday we are going to meet this little lady, and hopefully take her home with us...

It's been a long long long wait for cat ownership, but now we are no longer in a top floor flat the conditions are finally right.  I do so hope we like each other.  Times have been a bit hard lately and the therapeutic power of a warm, purring creature just cannot be beaten!

Right now I'm off to make a nice dinner for my dearest other half who has been away for the weekend, the plan is stuffed portobella mushrooms followed by 'self saucing' chocolate pudding, I might even crack out the candles and table cloth.

Sarah x