Monday 30 March 2015

Liberty and Bourbon Blues








What a bustling, busy city London is, I'm glad to be back to the relative peace of our little Duchy.  I will not moan about our traffic again ........ well yes of course I will.  The workers all look so tired and stressed as they cram onto the tube and buses heading for far away homes.  Others are packing the bars for after work drinks, fighting to get served, spilling out onto the streets with loud chatter, living life as if their days are numbered.  Along the rivers and parks, lycra clad joggers sweat and puff their way painfully along as if being chased.  Even recreation and leisure activities are done at full competitive pace.  It's no wonder so many make the decision to move out of the cities for a more sedate pace as they become exhausted by this city life.

I love to visit London, I love the thrill of the city, but I could never live there.  Maybe when I was younger, but I made my life in the County of my ancestors and don't regret it for a moment.  It was a wonderful place to bring up our children. They may not have had the Science and History Museums on their doorsteps, but they had the beaches as their playgrounds.  Picking them up from school and heading down to the beach for a bbq, staying until it got dark, the freedom to run wild in nature, that was the childhood I wanted them to have.

We have been to London many times so don't feel we have to rush around seeing the sights, we choose a few things we would like to do.  If we don't manage it we just put it on the list for another time.  This time some of the things on my list were ticked off, others I didn't manage, but thankfully I made it to Liberty.  What a beautiful special place it is, of course the first place I head for is the fabric, but I did stop to take photos of the beautiful building for those who have not been lucky enough to visit.  It has real character and creakier stairs than we do.
















I wasn't tempted to buy one of these funnily enough.







Fabric


Fabric



and more fabric (and yes I did buy some)



I loved this evil looking cat








What about the Bourbon Blues?  We went to the great Scarfes Bar in Holborn which is full of Gerald Scarfe satirical cartoons, live music and delicious cocktails.  Now I know what you are thinking, but no I didn't have too many, just the one but I stupidly didn't think about what was in it.  It was the gluten in the Bourbon that did for me.  Leaving me out of action most of Saturday and too scared to eat anything on Sunday.

More of our London adventure on my next post.

Chickpea xx

Welcome to new followers Connie, girlofmanderley and veronica :)

Friday 27 March 2015

Off to The Smoke










We're off to London Town for the weekend woohoo!  I am really excited, this is the first time we have  been for a couple of years as I just haven't been well enough to tackle it.  I'm not going to go mad, there are only a few things I have planned, we have been there many times so have seen most of the 'tourist' things.  I may have to pop into Liberty though :)  The bearded ones eldest daughter who moved to London a few years ago has just moved to a new flat so we are going up to see her new place.  We have both been incredibly busy at work so are looking forward to a couple of days chilling.  No cooking, no housework and no work.  Plenty of good food and wine, Liberty, Persephone Bookshop and Camden Market .....bliss ......though I always look forward to coming back to my beloved Cornwall.

I will leave you with the last of the photos from Eden.  There are so many fabulous ideas that I would like to use in my garden.


Ideas for the veg patch





Tyres and pipe to divide up the different areas and paths





Beautiful fencing









Some yarn bombing





Tableware



and unusual nests



Well I'm off to make some sarnies for the train, hope you all have a good weekend and welcome to new followers Anna and Melanie.

Chickpea xx


Monday 23 March 2015

Eden Through the Seasons - Early Spring Part One








I'm afraid I have been very slow putting these photos up here, I thought I had better get my finger out or it will be time for the summer photos.  Early spring at Eden saw the beautiful daffodils leading the way in the spring show of colour.  The pictures really don't do justice to the vibrancy of them.  Here are the photos taken outside of the biomes.  It was a cold March day but the flowers brought a feeling of sunshine to an overcast day.  I hope you enjoy them.



































The flowers really are beautiful with their gorgeous colours, but I also love the sculptures that you come across as you make your way around the site.



From the scary to the beautiful




I love this one the more you look, the more you spot.




Washing machine drums, irons, lawn mowers, computers.......what else can you spot?











There were also living sculptures made from willow.  I would love to make one of these  it will be interesting to see them in the summer.



Whoops how did that get here :)



Chickpea xx