Winter's Wonders

We've had the most amazingly temperate weather this year and our climbing rose was blooming right into December. Well, until two weeks ago when the frost arrived with a vengence. Our stunning roses were literally frozen in time. If you click on the photo, you can see the bits of ice on top of the flowers. Its beauty really takes my breath away:

The grass was covered in frost as well:

I do miss the long summer days where I pottered around the garden for hours: deadheading flowers, feeding and cutting back plants and just staring in wonder at how lush the garden looked.

But as I am discovering, winter brings its own pleasures as well. We are on a two-week break from work and have been doing bits and pieces around the house. We have plans to put shelves up in the living room on either side of the vintage mirror over my sofa and I have been slowly collecting items to put on them. The centrepiece will be a pair of old American tin ceiling tiles, one on each shelf. In front of these, I have decided on vintage pressed glass candlesticks, which I have been ordering online. They are being delivered one by one. I love the anticipation of receiving each package, opening it and placing the 'new' old items on my dining table, really for the big show once the shelves are up!

In the summer, it stays light until 10pm (my bedtime), so I never bother with candles. But one of the loveliest things about the nights coming early is that you can light candles to keep the house looking cosy. Not all of my candlesticks have arrived yet, but here are a few ready and waiting for tapered candles to complete the picture. The simple glass ones with the tea lights are vintage French jam jars.


I have also been busy trying new recipes, the lastest of which is a crumble-covered cherry cake. I plan on serving this on Christmas day when we may have some special guests for dinner. In anticipation, I have even bought a vintage footed glass cake stand. I purchased three of them this year to give as presents but have realised that I need/want one too! I even found a vintage cake knife to go with it. Isn't this just so pretty? I adore the fluted edge of the cake stand. It will look all the better on Christmas day with a cherry cake on it, warm from the oven and daintily dusted with icing sugar.

I hope that you are all enjoying the festive period as much as we are,
and we wish one and all a very

December's Delights

It is hard to believe that 2011 is almost over and we are less than two weeks away from Christmas. We have been busy with continually doing up bits around the house and with various social activities.

The highlight of the month is a surprise visit from my BFF Yellow Fever last week. He had a business trip to a nearby country and in cahoots with P, planned a secret visit to surprise me! We had a great time with lots of alcohol, day trips and as we say back home, 'talking c*ck'!

One of the things that P and YF did was drive around and pick up a few pieces of shabby chic furniture that I had bought online for my ongoing interior decorating of the house. We had a massive flat screen on the master bedroom dressing table which we haven't watched in the 1.5 years that we have lived here. All it did was collect dust. I decided to get shot of it, 'girlify' the space and it now looks like this:


The boys went to pick up the Italian mirror and re-furbished chair from a lovely lady who lives about 100 miles from us out in the countryside. I think P's white-knuckle driving down the narrow country lanes caused YF some concern but he lived to tell the tale (just!).

YF flew back to the Small Island on Friday and barely able to catch our breath, we had our annual Chrismast dinner for four sets of close friends last night. It gave all of us a chance to get together before the mad festive rush. Here is the kitchen diner all set for the gathering:



I cooked teriyaki chicken, pork loin in soy sauce, cabbage with dried shrimp and bok choy in oyster sauce, all served with steamed rice. For dessert, one of our friends made a dark chocolate tart with ice cream. Afterwards, everyone played cards. The sessions get very competitive with husbands destroying wives' games (and vice versa), lots of raucous laughter and much 'big talk' around the table. It was a loud and fun night with great friends.

P and I now have another week of work before we have a two-week break yahoo! We will be chilling out, going for long walks and seeing friends. Can't wait!