A Famous Shed and Dudley

 

Photo Credit - Michael Coleran -  Dudley over Garstang  😉

Storm Dudley got us good and proper last night, it was wild and noisy with gusts going on for hours, although there was a weird lull for an hour in the middle before it built up again just in time for bedtime.  

I gave up trying to wedge the wheelie bins in place when they came knocking at the door numerous times and eventually left them lying on their sides with the lids pressed against the wall to stop the contents flying out.

Our neighbour got home from work and accidently opened her briefcase (just how do you actually do that?) and papers flew out.  Luckily she managed to catch most of them but one important piece of paper blew over the back fence between our gardens.  So her husband phoned Alan ... who was in Berkshire ... who then phoned me to let me know the neighbour was about to knock on the door to ask for his piece of paper back.  What a roundabout way to do it, why not just knock on the door?

Anyway it was all sorted and we got off a lot lighter than some people, although local roads were blocked for a while with fallen trees.  Massive thanks to all of the services workers who go out in atrocious weathers to put these sort of things right and keep our towns and villages safe.

My little shed is famous!!

I am currently catching up on some magazine reading and earlier this week I made a start on the January edition of  The Simple Things subscription I have.  I should have looked much earlier because look what I found ...

... I guess I'll have to cut out and keep this for posterity.

I think we have all our magazine appearances from our former new life in the country in Alan's office somewhere, but I don't think this needs to join them.

*** *** ***

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on yesterdays post.  It would seem we are all of the same mindset and they were wonderful to read while I sat at the breakfast bar that is now my mini office space clutching a massive cup of coffee.  Suky snoring rather loudly in the background made it feel very cosy in here while the wind blew even more loudly outside.

Sue xx

A Non-Foody Post ...

 

My little home is truly starting to feel like that.

I love going out but the best bit of any outing is now the getting back home.  Closing the door on the world and knowing that everything around me is mine, carefully chosen and wanted or needed. 

 That's why I think it's so easy for me to part with things that don't feel that way.  The things that do belong here make the things that don't really stand out to me, and now it's so easy to let stuff go.

Little corners with their little collections make me smile.  Some are purposefully put together and others ... like the things here on my bedside table just end up there.

Having less, and being on this decluttering journey really helps me both in this physically small space and mentally.  A clear mind is one gift that it's truly worth giving to yourself.  

Even this Challenge with me currently eating my way through the stores and thus claiming back tiny little bits of space in the cupboards and fridge is a truly clarifying and restorative process that is doing me the world of good.

Sue xx

Betwixtmas

 

Betwixtmas, as I have recently christened it ... is that strange time between the festivities of Christmas and the start of the New Year.

The urge to un-decorate is great and the need to see space, clean, clear surfaces means that surreptitiously without sometimes even realising it things are removed and packed away.  My one Christmassy area left is the top of the radiator cover, and with the fairy lights twinkling away still connected to the Alexa smart-plug it means that they come on first thing in the morning and go off last thing at night.

I will miss them when they go away tomorrow, but they are going away.  Then I will re-oil the wooden top and during the twenty four hours of bareness while it soaks in, I will ponder what will sit there for the next few months.  I don't like to chop and change for changes sake like I used many moons ago, I like to arrange a vignette of useful and beautiful things that make my eyes happy and my heart sing.

And a brand New Year seems like a good time to make your heart sing doesn't it.

This morning I cleared and cleaned one of the window sills in the living room.

The I got it back to how it used to be, with a couple of little additional extras.

One more area cleared and cleaned and one more little step back to normality.

This afternoon I will be raiding the Lodge for my various little money boxes, tipping out the old enamel teapot, emptying my purse and seeing what cash I have for next years Challenge.  I know it will be in the hundreds as all through the year whenever I have used a 'hole in the wall' to get at my wages, I have quickly squirrelled away at least a quarter of the money taken out for emergency use.  And as I have been pretty much unable to get to the charity shops and have therefore avoided the temptation to spend, there has been no need to dip into these savings.

Whatever I have will be divided into a weekly or monthly amount and be my only shopping money for next year.  Not being able to shop and bring things into the Lodge seems like something to really look forward too after the excesses and treats of the Christmas season.

What are you up to during the last hours of 2021?  Are you making plans and resolutions ... or simply breathing a sigh of relief at the prospect of a brand new year about to start.  Either way let's hope for all of us it is a good one.

Sue xx  🎄

Dearer, Cheaper, Larger, Smaller

 

Out shopping the other day in Sainsbury's I noticed that my usual coffee was on sale again.  

It used to go on sale regularly, £4 for the 300g jar size instead of it's more usual price of £7 and whenever it did I would stock up enough to last me until the next round of sale offers ... I usually manage to stay ahead of the game.  This time although it's still a good reduction the sale price has gone up to £4.50 for the same sized jar.  As you can see I bought four, saving me £10 on my four jars ...a saving still well worth having, but just another instance of sneaky rising prices that are going up in leaps and bounds rather than the pennies and pence they used to.

The £2 I didn't save this time could have bought me  5 packs of 40p spaghetti ... something that is for now still the same price, it shows the difference price hikes can make to a persons budget.

I was putting a newish pack of little biscuits into my jar the other day when I noticed the size difference to the ones I already had in there.  I can't remember how much I paid for the new pack as they have been in the larder cupboard for a while as I ate my way through the old ones.  But what's the guessing this size jump to the new larger size was done to completely baffle us in working out which is actually better value when we are in a rush in the shops.  The pack with fewer small packs inside but larger biscuits or the original with smaller biscuits but more packs   I do usually check the edge of shelf labels for  price comparisons,  it's the only way to get any sort of idea usually but these were bought quite a while ago.  Oh well, at least I have bigger biscuits to dunk in my coffee when I'm out and about.

All these foodie thoughts and price comparisons (and watching Miguel Barclay on YouTube this morning) made me realise just how much I was missing my Challenges recently.  I really do have to figure something out ready for the New Year.  I have my enamel teapot filling up nicely and the money it contains by the end of the years will hopefully fund whatever Challenge or Challenges I decide to do. 

What sort of Challenge would you like to see if you could choose any one or more to set me?

Sue xx

Hidden ... and Not So Hidden

 

Living in a small space means that some things just cannot be hidden.  When I'm making full use of the sunshine through the French doors even though the rain is pouring down outside, the washing is there for anyone to see ... lucky then that's it's usually just me.  😀

Somethings are not exactly what they seem, and storage is found and used in many ways.  The little green chest holds my collection of Beryl Ware pottery, the red flour-bin is full of packets of desiccated coconut, ground almonds and sweeties.

And hidden in the basket are crisps, ready to bake bread rolls and my potato bag.

You never know what you are going to find hidden away!!

In full line of vision the other day ... just after Alan assembled it ... was Ginger, trying the bottom shelf of the new office shelves for size.  He loves to watch the world go by on Alan's window sills and now it seems he loves to watch Alan work from his brand new vantage point.

Sue xx

Gearing Up for a Challenge

 I have decided that after I have just wiped out a massive proportion of my savings on a humongous purchase that will hopefully provide better for our futures than just money in the bank earning no interest  that I need to ground myself again and start building up the little cash pot that I have left. 

 So next year is going to be a pull in the belt and get back to basics type of year so I can bank a larger proportion of my wages each month.  If it all goes to plan it will be the year of The Teapot Challenge.

Those of you who have been reading along for a while know that I love a Challenge, and indeed I have another blog totally devoted to them although that has unfortunately been a bit neglected this year due to health events overtaking me.  So now I have decided it is time for me to start planning for the year ahead, well you have to have something to look forward to don't you!!

The Sealed Pot story started way back on my old blog Our New Life in the Country in 2011 and we have been using it in one form or another ever since.  My beautiful old enamel teapot took over from the Sealed Pot when the Sealed Pot were using then became too mangled to use.  Each year we would put change and sometimes £2 coins as well into the pot ready to have a grand opening on our anniversary each year, the contents were then used for various things and they have funded quite a few Challenges in the past.

This time whatever I already have in the pot and whatever I can add into it in the run up to and during next year, will be used to fund next years household spending for just me here at Lavender Lodge.  Money going into it will be acquired by selling stuff  that I no longer need or want, and after the move from the house in Wales and then from the flat, the slow filling of the Lodge as I unpack and rediscover stuff  has shown me that I have far too much.

I have been watching some brilliant YouTube videos and films that have inspired me to crack on and get back to a simplicity that I love and that makes me feel so much better.

The bag of coins in the photo above was the change that was in the teapot when we moved, bagged up so they didn't spill everywhere and that have been there since it's opening and counting last year, the notes I have somewhere safe ... I'll find them eventually 😄

The five pound note is from my first sale ... a bag of toiletries that I didn't want ... and the green enamel breadbin is awaiting pick up this morning.  It's only a fiver so you can see a bit of a theme developing here can't you ... virtually everything I sell will be five pounds, I want quick sales to get things out of the way!!  So if I can find twenty items to sell that will be another hundred to add to the teapot.

As one thing goes I add another to my Facebook Marketplace page to keep the numbers of things available manageable.  Just added to replace the breadbin are these jars ... fingers crossed for a sale soon.

I have decided that Facebook Marketplace is the way to go as I don't want to be faffing about posting things off.  This way people come to me to hand over their cash and take away my clutter.  We have also just heard of an indoor table-top sale nearby so we might have a table at that and share the proceeds.

She's just come for the breadbin ... so here's another £5 for the teapot.

It's going well up to now.

Sue xx

An Offer Too Good To Miss ...?

 

An offer too good to miss ... well it was for me anyway!!

I was in Booths the other day picking up a couple of much needed supplies and I decided to treat myself to the November edition of Country Living.  In it was this flyer, now usually I don't bother reading any inserts they go straight into the paper recycling bin, but this one caught my eye.  I used to buy Country Living every month and I had a few years of it on subscription at one point too.  Then I stopped ... at £4.99 a copy, although it's cheaper than some other magazines it's still a lot of money for something with lots of adverts in, even if some of them are glossy 'advertisement features'.

Anyway I read through the blurb and decided that I would buy myself an early Christmas present.  A years worth of Country Living for £2.49 a copy and a 'free' CL Diary, CL calendar and Christmas Special.  If I'm enjoying it by this time next year I may let the direct debit run and get another year of the magazine at £3.49 a copy or if not I will just cancel.

I've shared the photo of the flyer in case any of you want to take advantage of this offer too, although it's only open to UK residents unfortunately.  And here is a link to the webpage to make things easier -  Country Living.  (I went for the Best Deal £29.94 option.)

Sometimes you just have to treat yourself it's the law 

... okay, okay I might have just made that one up 😉😄😄

Thanks for all the lovely comments yesterday, I won't mention my back again until I have more news,  but it was nice to feel all the support from you lovely lot yesterday.

Sue xx

The Changing of the Seasons

 

No matter what this late in the year warmth and sunshine is telling us at the moment, it really is the time of the year to bring out the woolly pullies and stash away the lightest of Summer clothes.  Even in the unusual warmth of this years October it just feels wrong to me to be wearing light, bright colours so the only t-shirts I have left out are the more muted shades and the darker stripes that will see me through Autumn and Winter as an additional layer under cardigans, jumpers or fleeces.

So the other day the big swap around was done, well it's not really that big this time, just one drawer to empty of t-shirts and light tops and a few hangers to pull shirts off and then a quick switch over to jumpers and cardigans.

All the tops and shorts in good condition ... and that was most of them ... were quickly popped into the storage bag that the jumpers had come out of and in a flash of the hoover sucking the air out they were ready to be stashed under the bed.  The couple of t-shirts that were past their best were relegated to the 'sleeping in' pile in the drawer next to my bed.  No doubt in a few months they will be downgraded once more to the 'nice soft duster' pile.

Thank goodness for a little bit of secret storage!!

You would never know anything had changed 😃

Sue xx

Lazy Week, Cosy Afternoons

 

It's been a lazy type of week, my ongoing health problems keep me in most of the time, but this week we did go out on Tuesday to Poulton le Fylde to get Alan measured for a couple of new suits.  He needs to be very smart for work on the occasions when he has to venture into the office or to meetings, working mostly from home means jeans and t-shirts even when on secure line meetings, when visibility with other attendees at the meetings is a personal choice.

Anyway we found parking close to the tailors so I managed the couple of hundred yards walk to the shop, and very handily the carpark we were in was adjacent to a Wetherspoons so it would have been rude not to stop and have a spot of lunch.  We must remember to time the visit to pick up the finished suits with lunchtime ... the meals we both had were very tasty and very well cooked 😃

Yesterday I somehow came across a totally new to me YouTube channel.  Although it is in Russian most of the videos, of which there are only a few at the moment, have English subtitles.  The gentle music and the Summerhouse home that Daryadarcy is creating was absolutely lovely to watch and to relax into.

Although every time her beautiful cat came on the screen Mavis got a little excited.  After a while she settled down to watch with me, cocking her head to one side whenever the cat appeared on screen.

YouTube Link for anyone watching on phone etc.

Click on the photo to have a little watch yourself and you will realise why I found it so enthralling and relaxing.  She has a very similar taste in vintage and also re-using the things that she found when they bought the little summerhouse to me.  I have included the written link for anyone watching on a mobile device.

It was nice to sit and watch yesterday on a gloomy Thursday teatime, and seeing all that pretty china being broken up for the splashback it somehow reminded me that I had yet to unpack my shopping bag full of Beryl ware that was languishing in Alan's spare-room.

I knew I had one of my pretty plates missing!!

Sue xx

October is Here

 

Wow, October is here already ... how the bloody hell did that happen?

If one more person asks me what I'm doing for Christmas I'll scream!!

(And YES that includes YOU Alan 👉)

Summer is almost completely packed away here, although there has been some preparation for next year to lighten my mood and give me the hope of actually doing some growing once again.  My posh new raised bed was built last weekend and was filled with the compost and manure that we already had waiting and there are three more bags to top it up to the top with in Alan's car boot.  These will just be placed on top as they are so that all the nutrients don't get washed away by a Winters worth of rain.

There has been some homegrown food this year thank goodness, our little apple tree gave us three apples, which were very unexpected considering the transplanting and waiting around in it's pot for so long, but very welcome.  Alan had two of them and made a pie and I have this one in my fridge.  And we have had a constant stream of Courgettes from the three plants I grew in pots while we were still at the flat and transplanted into the flower bed when we moved here ... oh and a couple of marrows when we didn't spot a courgette in time for it to qualify as such!!

It's a good job we have something homegrown as my fridge is a bare and desolate waste ground at the moment, that's what happens when you get used to living with a tiny fridge and suddenly you have SPACE to expand your horizons. 

 Don't worry it will be filled once I go shopping ... and you know I have a bit of a larder of tins and dried food  😉

Sue xx

A Final Peek

 

As promised here it is, a final peek behind the doors of my new home.

The only room left to show you is the bedroom, measuring in at a smidge over 8ft wide by 12ft 7 inches long it is a good sized room with lots of light coming in from the floor to ceiling double doors and window and the same high ceiling as the living room.  I have the voiles at the doors puddled on the floor as I haven't been well enough to hem them, and if I'm honest I am kind of loving the effect now, they might just stay that way.  One job less to do and it's a nice casual look.

I'm still loving the accent wall with it's Laura Ashley wallpaper, I'm so pleased I chose this one and in this colour scheme it gives a calmness to the room.

The mis-matched bedside tables were both Vinterior finds, you saw the Ercol drawers on the right before I moved in on  THIS  post and the dark wood French cupboard was another find a couple of weeks ago ... gosh sometimes I am so easily tempted!  Although that really has to be my last furniture purchase as I have pretty much run out of space for any more.

I am hoping that one day when I am in a more brutal mood this bookcase and it's contents will go, but for now my papery overspill of friends live in here with me. 

A calmer side of the bed, just the basics and everything I need to hand.

And that it is, the final room of the home tour.  To give you an idea of the full space and the overall layout, here below is the floorplan.

It also shows you how the annexe is connected to the main house.  The connection in the top corner of Alan's kitchen is his tall broom cupboard which has the main soil pipe to his two bathrooms and mine  behind a false back.  The whole thing is very well done, and although our kitchen are back to back we really can't hear each other at all when we are in them.

So my 336 square foot of living space is working out very well and proving to be a better and more useable space than the caravan, which actually had a total of 432q ft but some of it just wasn't used at all, hence me being confident that this would work for me.

Now the tour is over it's time to get back to some more regular and more normal blogging, and it's time for me to simply chat and to show how life is being lived here at Lavender Lodge.

Sue xx

A Quick Living Room Tour

 

It's time for a quick living room tour I think. 

Sorry to have kept you waiting but this week has been all about appointments and such, the boring stuff that I really do not want to talk about.  So ... some housey housey photographs to take my mind off things.

Two small steps past the kitchen and there is the bathroom door on your left, and heading onwards just  two more steps bring you to the living room. 

The modified radiator cover gives me a welcome extra surface for display of much loved treasures and a handy surface for putting down keys etc  The painted picture sellotaped to the wall was done by my son as my 60th birthday present but due to Covid and his work patterns was only delivered in person by him a few weeks ago.  I wanted to have framed myself once I had decided what colour scheme to go with, so it's there while I make up my mind.

It is a representation of this.

Just a girl in the woods by a simple log cabin ... my idea of heaven ... that I wanted to bring the spirit of to Lavender Lodge.

Anyway to carry on ... turn yourself around watching you don't fall over the ever present Pug, sometimes I think there are three of her she is simply everywhere!!

My gloriously lavender coloured sofa and footstool dominate the small room with a very welcome splash of colour, with most other things having come with me either from the Van or from Wales.  The bedside lamp re-invented now as an evening reading light and my much loved and years old lavender cushion having at last found it's perfect home.

Opposite my sofa and from my viewing position you can see what I see when I sit down on the sofa to relax, and there's been a lot of that recently!!  Everything fitted in so neatly thank goodness, although I do feel slightly dominated by doggy beds.  One or the other was supposed to be the choice but both the dogs and Ginger the cat vary their choice of bed so often I can't bring myself to take one away and leave someone disappointed.

The light floods into this room so wonderfully through the almost floor to ceiling and wall to wall double doors and windows, and the vaulted ceiling takes the eye up so well that although this space is small ... just over 9ft by 12ft ... it feels quite spacious.

There's just one more room to go, so I'll see you next week.

Have a good weekend.

Sue xx

Come On In ...

Well I enticed you in with pictures of The Shed at the end of last week, so now it really is only fair that I ask you to grab your coffee and step in for a quick visit to my new home instead of leaving you loitering in the back garden.  

Let's wander in together.  Today I will take you into the front garden, such as it is and then the hall ... which also just happens to be the kitchen.

This little space in the top photo ... as well as being the logical space for the three wheelie bins to live ... just screamed out to be my own little front garden.  So a couple of planters were purchased from the good old centre aisles at Aldi and planted up with Lavender ... well they had to be didn't they 😊

Directly outside the front door is my little tin bath planted up with Rosemary, Sage, Chives and Thyme, nice and handy for the kitchen, which is just through the front door.

As you step in, to the immediate right is a little welcoming tableau, and yet more lavender ... this time very fake ... alongside a very real Mother in Laws Tongue plant sat on my little car boot sale find table from last year.

To your left and behind the door is space to hang your coat, mind now don't spill your coffee!!

Oh look someone is here to welcome us 🐕

And here is my little office set up.  I'm using the worktop that the kitchen fitters set above the radiator cover as my desk, and on my new comfy breakfast bar stool from Dunelm I can just about manage to get a blog post done before my back starts screaming too loud and drowns out the words in my head.

My gorgeous Welsh Bread and Cheese cupboard is now known as the larder.  In Wales it was christened the Jam Cupboard as that was what it mostly held, but now it holds ALL my food and is doing a sterling job, as well as looking very pretty and bringing some rustic charm to my modern kitchen space.

To the righthand side of this six foot wide space is the main body of the kitchen.  It starts at the Smeg fridge freezer and ends at the clock on the wall.  I have somehow managed to fit in everything I need to be able to carry on enjoying cooking.  

Gosh you can tell I'm not an Instagrammer can't you ... I should no doubt have closed the washing machine door, moved the rubber gloves, emptied the drainer and artfully arranged a vase of flowers somewhere, but I'm me and you get me warts and all (I haven't really got warts!!).

I love the gentle green of the units, the spacious drawers and my little hob and I love once again having a selection of  cook books on shelves in my kitchen.  Inspiration for my cooking and a lovely colourful display to browse through while I wait for the kettle to boil.

What you've finished your coffee?  Come back another day, I'll make you a fresh one and we will venture further in.

If you have any questions on what you've seen up to now or would like to see more of the behind doors areas of this space before we move further in just let me know and I will see what I can do.

Sue xx

Hello ...

 

Hello remember me?

Haha, of course you do  😀

Firstly, I'd like to say sorry for being away for so long and I realise that I have lots to catch you all up on.  So over the next couple of weeks I'll try to get back into that blogging rhythm and bring you up to date on life as it is now ... now that I am here in my new home, Lavender Lodge.

The top photo is the little flower garden, well it was supposed to be the flower garden but the Courgette plants that needed somewhere to live have taken over completely.  Soon, as the colder nights really draw in, the plants will die back and we will claim back this part of the garden for the pretties and the wildlife.  Next year the Courgettes will be in a large planter to the side of the shed.

Talking of sheds ... we finished it last week, that is mostly the royal 'we' of course, although I partook of all the tittivating and prettying up.

Dave the Handyman set to on my shed as soon as all the work on the house was finished.

And over the course of two weeks, my shed slowly took shape.

With vinyl shingles on the roof and a little veranda area at the front it started to take on exactly the look I was after.

Do you remember the picture I found on the internet?  This is all Dave had to go on, and I think he copied it very well for the space I had.  I purposely asked him to leave out the front step as we didn't have the height available as the shed walls are made out of the old fence panels we took down which were six foot tall.  Re-cycle, re-use and re-purpose is always my motto.

The day the door catch went on was funny.  

Dave actually put the wrong sort of gate latch, I don't think we were on the same wavelength and the sort he used cannot be opened from the inside!!  He realised his mistake when the wind blew the door shut and he very sheepishly had to phone me from inside the shed to go and let him out.

We now have a large hook and eye system to hold the door open while I'm in the shed.

I'm really happy with the finished result.  

There are just some stones to add to the pots to hide the cement and it will be all done.

This is the inside.

I've wanted a wallpapered shed ever since we lived in Berkshire and I found some glorious 1930s wallpaper up on the walls in the little ramshackle shed that was there.  See Here.  Now I finally had the chance to use up two odd rolls of wallpaper that I had been storing for ages.

All my favourite little bits and pieces are ready for action for next years growing season.

And with the large window and insulated roof and sides I should be able to get some seedlings growing early next Spring.

So there you go, first snippets of home to whet your appetites and I promise I'll be back very soon this time.

Have a great weekend.

Sue xx