tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30398949400106175102024-03-05T11:20:26.024+00:00Tales from Hazel CottageHazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.comBlogger148125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-379089512048783362017-02-18T16:07:00.002+00:002017-02-18T16:11:57.859+00:00Moving on...I think I've decided that this blog should be set aside. The original reason behind Tales from Hazel Cottage was to share our adventures and now those adventures are different, I need to make a break. Those who know me will know the reasons behind this.<br />
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I have however started a new blog, about my interests in art, books, music and life. I expect I shall also talk about nature and gardens once in while as well, so if you wanted to pop over to see it, it is here:<br />
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<a href="http://mildredlathbury.blogspot.co.uk/">http://mildredlathbury.blogspot.co.uk/</a><br />
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Thank you for your supportHazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-7207803562439566562017-01-24T15:48:00.000+00:002017-01-24T15:48:55.846+00:00A BreakSo much has happened since my last post and I'm currently deciding whether to take a break from it or whether to stop posting altogether. The original idea of this blog was to share our exciting adventures living at Hazel Cottage and at the moment I need to concentrate on other things and use my time differently and take stock. I hope to be back, time with tell. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #660000;"> Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer. </span></b></div>
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<i><b><span style="color: #660000;">Jean de La Fontaine</span></b></i></div>
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Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.
Jean de La Fontaine<br /> Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_friendship.html</div>
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<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-72460420486363535322016-12-24T17:17:00.000+00:002016-12-24T17:17:03.840+00:00A Merry ChristmasEven though I haven't posted very much lately, life continues to be busy here at Hazel Cottage. Since my last posting, I've made the Christmas pudding, a Christmas cake, visited the wonderful Buckland Abbey in Devon with their Tudor Christmas display<br />
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I was quite impressed with these old fashioned style mince pies, in the shape of the crib and wondered whether I could create one with gluten free pastry!<br />
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We've walked through the parks on a misty morning in December </div>
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Hosted a Scandinavian Christmas meal with friends, with homemade Cucumber pickle, Janssons temptation, gravadlax, kale, pomegranate and hazelnut salad.<br />
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<br />We've put up the Christmas tree of course. <br />
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And finally we are at Christmas Eve, and it is dark outside. This is one of my favourite parts of Christmas. Everything seems hushed and I've even finished the mince pies. I'm very pleased that my old fashioned mince pie hasn't fallen apart!<br />
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We would like to wish everyone who still keeps the faith with our little blog a very merry Christmas. I do hope to post more often in the year ahead.<br />
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<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-58743084708532173202016-11-05T21:59:00.003+00:002016-11-05T21:59:21.997+00:00Glowing embers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The leaves are many glorious colours and crunchy underfoot, the air is crisp and filled with smoke and mornings are misty and damp. Autumn is here! I often think that autumn has a deep sense of nostalgia to it, we seem to be remembering, marking times and seasons and thinking about the past. Perhaps it is a deep human need to make sense of the increasing darkness by thinking of ways to create light and warmth and to remember. November especially has a special feel of its own which is often lost when people rush towards the light and glitter of Christmas. We are quite a way off from Christmas, we are still getting used to the darkness and colder weather. There is much more we can do to create light at this time of year.</div>
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Today is 5th November, which marks Bonfire Night here in the UK. All around us fireworks are being set off, but here in Hazel Cottage we're having a bonfire, which is far more traditional. Standing in the cold night air, watching a wood fire, whilst the fireworks went off, and where we could see the stars in the night sky, is rather special. I love watching the sparks flying and the glowing embers sparkle. </div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">'If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently'. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">Calvin and Hobbes</span></div>
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When I'm looking at a fire, it feels as if I'm connected to the past, for hundreds of years people have sat around fires, laughed, commemorated, remembered and even put life into perspective a little. Kindling some light in the darkness perhaps.</div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">A new life begins for us with every second.<br />Let us go forward joyously to meet it<br />We must press on, whether we will or not,<br />and we shall walk better with<br />our eyes before us<br />than with them ever cast behind.</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #660000;">Jerome K Jerome</span></i></div>
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<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-21501227603631978082016-09-18T18:05:00.001+01:002016-09-18T18:06:47.463+01:00For the love of cream and greenOne of the questions we asked ourselves the other day was 'how much Woods Beryl Ware is too much?'. We've been sorting through our cupboards even though it isn't spring and discovered that we do have quite a lot. Most of this was purchased in charity shops for very little money and is a classic design which a lot of people owned in this country for a long time, hence why is found quite often.<br />
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After Mr C packed it away in various places, I noticed how much older kitchenware is based on the theme of cream and green. It is such a lovely combination and along with classics like the blue and white Cornish ware, make up much of our kitchen.<br />
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There is something rather calming about these colours to me. They speak of home.</div>
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We have collected a few different designs, these are T&G Green Streamline and Kleenware pots.</div>
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We are very proud of the dresser in our dining room. Almost all of the pieces were bought for very little money in charity shops, at car boot sales and on eBay. The dresser itself was an online purchase, painted by Mr C when we moved into Hazel Cottage.</div>
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A recent addition to our dresser is a plain white plate I bought at a charity shop, which I painted in a rough approximation of Bloomsbury design. I'm quite proud of it, it isn't precise or exact, but the colours were ones that went very well with our other crockery and it was the first time I have used porcelain paints.</div>
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Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-75973305463160922042016-09-08T21:39:00.002+01:002016-09-08T21:49:20.821+01:00The Small things of life<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><strong>“The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things . . . the trivial pleasure like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard.”</strong></span> <br />
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I began this blog thinking I was going to recommend or review a specific book that I'd loved whilst reading on holiday recently. I'd loved reading it so much and thought everyone of good taste should think the same. However yesterday I started reading another book by the same author and loved it just as much, so now this article is less a book review and more a love letter to the wonderful Barbara Pym. <br />
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Barbara Pym is a novelist whose works on the surface seem to be about the musings of spinsters and their church jumble sale lives. A world of gossip and curates and taking tea, where the vicar is often unmarried and looked after by his vague sister and there is a disagreement about the church flowers. In lesser hands, this world would be disparaged and these seemingly unimportant lives mocked. However with Barbara Pym, the main characters are wry and sensible and very English in their self conscious modesty. Pym's writing is sensitive, amusing and actually rather emotionally subtle. There is no startling drama, but the small things of life were seen as equally valid.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><strong>“After all, life was like that for most of us – the small unpleasantnesses rather than the great tragedies; the little useless longings rather than the great renunciations and dramatic love affairs of history or fiction.”</strong></span><br />
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Many of her characters are spinsters or people feeling as if they observe real life from the outside. People who have longings, unfortunate marriages or deep disappointments but don't give in on life and hide away, they still help at the jumble sale, meet friends for tea at a Lyons corner house and make copious pots of tea. There is something timeless about the way she describes the inner monologue of someone who yearns for more in life. Even in the funniest passages, this world is acutely observed and tenderly described.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;"><strong>“It seemed so much safer and more comfortable to live in the lives of other people - to observe their joys and sorrows with detachment as if one were watching a film or a play.”</strong></span> </span></span><br />
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As someone who has spent a lot of time reading and watching films from the mid 20th century, another joy about Pym's earlier novels are the wonderfully evocative descriptions of life in the 1940s and 1950s. Bells tolling for evensong in Oxford, honey toast lying unfinished in the fire grate, listening to the rain fall and the Salvation Army band play hymns on a dark winter Sunday evening. These experiences may be set in the past, but are common experiences that remind us of our own lives, a very gently English form of nostalgia.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><strong>“I love Evensong. There's something sad and essentially English about it.”</strong></span> Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-62861500319257547032016-05-27T17:40:00.003+01:002016-05-27T17:41:38.574+01:00A Bloomsbury adventure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Both of us are keen on 20th century writing, art and culture. Most of the art we love and a good proportion of the books we read are pre 1950. In reading about the culture of the times, you do notice a number of connections between people; none more so than the so called Bloomsbury set. Recently we've both been reading a lot about them and I've been struggling through Mrs Dalloway very slowly. Last week however we had a little Bloomsbury adventure and had a week away to Kent and East Sussex to follow in their footsteps. I thought I'd share some pictures of our adventure</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knole, Kent. The seat of the Sackville family and where Vita Sackville West grew up</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sissinghurst, Kent. The garden created by Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sissinghurst<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monks House, Rodmell, East Sussex. The home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Painting of Virginia Woolf by her sister Vanessa Bell</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia Woolf's bedroom</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Virginia Woolf's writing room</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St Michael and All Angels, Berwick, Mural by Duncan Grant</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Berwick murals</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charleston Farmhouse near Firle, the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Charleston</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At Charleston</td></tr>
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Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-38234766563972259752016-04-09T18:52:00.003+01:002016-04-09T18:54:13.343+01:00A magical alchemyThis post is really a boast, although not about me. Mr C is a clever kind of person who can turn his hand to anything. He was already a very practical person and an excellent cook when I met him. However he has learned so many new things since we moved here to Hazel Cottage, he has made cheese, sloe gin and at least three different types of wine (parsnip, sloe and cherry plum). <br />
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His main creations however are breads. I just wanted to share some photos of the marvellous things he has made.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuhsLldMH_Z_VtGK0CzVdWBrQUMpKrePCfIx9CyKVLMQxgrcmjstTa-1dTjySgixD-H5KWqVI75bm0ReUd24P21M3f9q3yS3ACgVc8uEqjuO-GeX6hFl0PS6ZgM3bRlmW-ZOsIAFB_sV8/s1600/bread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuhsLldMH_Z_VtGK0CzVdWBrQUMpKrePCfIx9CyKVLMQxgrcmjstTa-1dTjySgixD-H5KWqVI75bm0ReUd24P21M3f9q3yS3ACgVc8uEqjuO-GeX6hFl0PS6ZgM3bRlmW-ZOsIAFB_sV8/s400/bread.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cottage loaf</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVqRoXafFwkpPkWkMk0dlyD5dFrkVB03W2bu4nkLOAvXKfGAF-ikn928LhPvMdbTYBHIUcGyBtxJtRe-OFLnlWJC_9nXtrhrqRTMgLh9GOpbho5IfIlNFTZcj-tK0I9U1GKOblr4XPfs/s1600/bread2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVqRoXafFwkpPkWkMk0dlyD5dFrkVB03W2bu4nkLOAvXKfGAF-ikn928LhPvMdbTYBHIUcGyBtxJtRe-OFLnlWJC_9nXtrhrqRTMgLh9GOpbho5IfIlNFTZcj-tK0I9U1GKOblr4XPfs/s400/bread2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hot Cross Buns</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLoxjg27v7GbNxotq44pDkjaisolx8cPVxiol3keFiVhtjBileU7s4_Ao-8zunGWwLrz2c2GlH-90h-uwtk7EKFYcyxPquBJWJnJEUBbs0uWf0__cXQK5Bp3GP3mMrowEFSCy448-gcgY/s1600/bread3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLoxjg27v7GbNxotq44pDkjaisolx8cPVxiol3keFiVhtjBileU7s4_Ao-8zunGWwLrz2c2GlH-90h-uwtk7EKFYcyxPquBJWJnJEUBbs0uWf0__cXQK5Bp3GP3mMrowEFSCy448-gcgY/s400/bread3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fougasse</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHx3T0tnELxuZ1obRuEV30dNn2fMs8cmkwQDT0_Gmr_fhP0-w36chOwzOWXLOh2BIEp-hMhyphenhyphenOQhOsplCyiob9fJwdd0pr5O8yB9jokSSy0JBPG4dJGCFeYPkbiE1gdmrpsy-CkUtzrgs/s1600/bread4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHx3T0tnELxuZ1obRuEV30dNn2fMs8cmkwQDT0_Gmr_fhP0-w36chOwzOWXLOh2BIEp-hMhyphenhyphenOQhOsplCyiob9fJwdd0pr5O8yB9jokSSy0JBPG4dJGCFeYPkbiE1gdmrpsy-CkUtzrgs/s400/bread4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rye Bread</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz_nD_u_6gR6Jl7QsFXGzCtd4twlje_zblQmuG8v4JC6oAKjivF_6Jrtc4G3HNQpWoYVP7YqsbL1YITKYKnPzAYUgW6J0JSxxdS2CuYHlPy3EzGYUZonihqdgmYoHkdBYMPigmPksyCWU/s1600/bread6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz_nD_u_6gR6Jl7QsFXGzCtd4twlje_zblQmuG8v4JC6oAKjivF_6Jrtc4G3HNQpWoYVP7YqsbL1YITKYKnPzAYUgW6J0JSxxdS2CuYHlPy3EzGYUZonihqdgmYoHkdBYMPigmPksyCWU/s400/bread6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And to go with all that bread, here is the cheese he made last year. It was very tasty, especially washed down with the parsnip wine he made the year before!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwX7-T1-VxzNwKwWXMe28OLZuJaaLVZKHRBSxL5ZWAEbFZ6GSnKtfoNyLL82wyuKtH8RRtrCGGHcn4PrM7So-GtQkb-y9SN_GS1_l0mhs5bP4J92WAYqm7TBL1tMP9efYGkSLwsM2pGI/s1600/cheese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwX7-T1-VxzNwKwWXMe28OLZuJaaLVZKHRBSxL5ZWAEbFZ6GSnKtfoNyLL82wyuKtH8RRtrCGGHcn4PrM7So-GtQkb-y9SN_GS1_l0mhs5bP4J92WAYqm7TBL1tMP9efYGkSLwsM2pGI/s400/cheese.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
M.F.K. Fisher</div>
Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-2034523784960307312016-04-03T21:39:00.001+01:002016-04-03T21:39:04.093+01:00O soul of the spring-time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
After what feels like months waiting for spring to appear, not only has it begun, but each day the sun is brighter and the buds on the trees and bushes are growing by the second. The birds are singing loudly and even the odd day of cold and rain, the march of spring continues on!</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOUm7BkBMA4QOm3jdpXnc4Zmy79umybn4R3ktm81f9xSZO0Wj4LrR6SoDxVDWv5WOJGWEWnJxaf94PFTJ5gplZkPh1vnT8WxGRUCzuvO1ruPevcwYeJkRZJaGR6HB6nCIN9mrRH9w4oWA/s1600/20160402_090949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOUm7BkBMA4QOm3jdpXnc4Zmy79umybn4R3ktm81f9xSZO0Wj4LrR6SoDxVDWv5WOJGWEWnJxaf94PFTJ5gplZkPh1vnT8WxGRUCzuvO1ruPevcwYeJkRZJaGR6HB6nCIN9mrRH9w4oWA/s400/20160402_090949.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sunny day in the garden</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Luckily even though it is early April, some afternoons still need a fire to be lit and a blanket to keep cosy under.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglonr6ofA6ntV4NHV8pP3Fv9oCRptsHaNRs6Ws1pWnXT_YGQdNrbA2NEn_uomy00g4VNy_cvcSfbJaE30E7mvqNL1cB5r1Hgo2EQQ3N72LrK4FhDCvTxIw5jD0tbY8jwp4JkLH07YGBr4/s1600/20160402_174239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglonr6ofA6ntV4NHV8pP3Fv9oCRptsHaNRs6Ws1pWnXT_YGQdNrbA2NEn_uomy00g4VNy_cvcSfbJaE30E7mvqNL1cB5r1Hgo2EQQ3N72LrK4FhDCvTxIw5jD0tbY8jwp4JkLH07YGBr4/s400/20160402_174239.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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I even had time to do some sewing, although I don't quite know what I will do with it yet, it may end up on the patchwork quilt. For some reason the lovely dark green looks brown in this photo.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Iu7WrDSJXFoSxVRJ2lZIjpcQHIvuSTGTD3RrNLJ79NAhucmc12v40E5_XhjMgFwKbdgqvqMl5yAAIsfK-T9wXDxNKd9eoyk8UJCvtgCk4DozAjYRWxB8GnOqSWV1EAz9SU5ZtuJw1nQ/s1600/20160403_170427_Richtone%2528HDR%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Iu7WrDSJXFoSxVRJ2lZIjpcQHIvuSTGTD3RrNLJ79NAhucmc12v40E5_XhjMgFwKbdgqvqMl5yAAIsfK-T9wXDxNKd9eoyk8UJCvtgCk4DozAjYRWxB8GnOqSWV1EAz9SU5ZtuJw1nQ/s400/20160403_170427_Richtone%2528HDR%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here are some of the buds in the garden, I will take some pictures when the bluebells are out properly as well. I love this time of year!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cPbNmOqfEmQj9Uwk29Oe_FKS1d2hO60CRaqXWKZi1JFUoBQadFWbtkedBiQzcIwXiliVon-fdYhXzd9R3JN5CiR_6pRmxV0XW45OlYH1gGEDuDA0sKO4SXuma4NApQi5feIrI61Uo9A/s1600/20160325_102736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8cPbNmOqfEmQj9Uwk29Oe_FKS1d2hO60CRaqXWKZi1JFUoBQadFWbtkedBiQzcIwXiliVon-fdYhXzd9R3JN5CiR_6pRmxV0XW45OlYH1gGEDuDA0sKO4SXuma4NApQi5feIrI61Uo9A/s400/20160325_102736.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSTu5VbleLgfK0cb6RDMkIxp5de5SSud8V5vuQpM1lrya7COVY0T7hHlcekPS1Zq5r4uqGQBubztNjE6V0TGRq9R6DkIqomrQ3O2nwRyRjmCowzu3OBDnf35Gw3xlSltNdMSMpfi4BO8/s1600/20160325_102720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSTu5VbleLgfK0cb6RDMkIxp5de5SSud8V5vuQpM1lrya7COVY0T7hHlcekPS1Zq5r4uqGQBubztNjE6V0TGRq9R6DkIqomrQ3O2nwRyRjmCowzu3OBDnf35Gw3xlSltNdMSMpfi4BO8/s400/20160325_102720.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Revive with the warmth and the brightness again,<br />And in blooming of flower and budding of tree<br />The symbols and types of our destiny see;<br />The life of the spring-time, the life of the whole,<br />And, as sun to the sleeping earth, love to the soul! </div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">John Greenleaf Whittier</span></div>
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<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-89302875792320125202016-03-07T10:22:00.001+00:002016-03-07T10:22:04.019+00:00The sun is brilliant in the sky<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #660000;">"The sun is brilliant in the sky but its
warmth does not reach my face.<br />
The breeze stirs the trees but leaves my hair unmoved.<br />
The cooling rain will feed the grass but will not slake my thirst.<br />
It is all inches away but further from me than my dreams."<br />
- M. Romeo LaFlamme, <i>The
First of March</i></span></div>
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I was going to call this post 'Four Seasons in one day' as last Friday was a typical changeable March day. The morning started bright and sunny and breezy with an intensely clear and blue sky. Then the snow started, which turned into hail, then sleet. Then the sun appeared, then the rain started. The problem with calling my post that is that I only have pictures of how beautiful and sunny and clear it was first thing! <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvaV7cWypWbO2_UW1XCuDMsCCjksAFePuEsvCNH2BDNZH-GhMDXX5fmwvQSSHM6Y0nh_Bu6L71Slg5vr1D1QXj_FLd__0uGCiFftXDp_ai1H1Cl2IDr7LDu16tSFCkYzNl1VGYAbVD9qs/s1600/20160304_140258.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvaV7cWypWbO2_UW1XCuDMsCCjksAFePuEsvCNH2BDNZH-GhMDXX5fmwvQSSHM6Y0nh_Bu6L71Slg5vr1D1QXj_FLd__0uGCiFftXDp_ai1H1Cl2IDr7LDu16tSFCkYzNl1VGYAbVD9qs/s400/20160304_140258.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hawthorn</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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March was always seen as the new year rather than January and you can see why. Even though the weather is still cold, the days are longer and the sun is brighter and warmer. The daffodils are coming out, and the smallest of buds are appearing on the bushes and trees.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-qZTpw8VnOeFHd7YqRGajr9K7iQf-XUTNInF6gb5NpyPAqWRAwXCGkF_1FlWbzlAVh3sNEXH0pzSWz-MCEADFf6ChBw-ggvz-a7X1jKw-POS8kjUNOxc2pVOkxOfSxbEyf1CB-U4kZc4/s1600/20160304_135745.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-qZTpw8VnOeFHd7YqRGajr9K7iQf-XUTNInF6gb5NpyPAqWRAwXCGkF_1FlWbzlAVh3sNEXH0pzSWz-MCEADFf6ChBw-ggvz-a7X1jKw-POS8kjUNOxc2pVOkxOfSxbEyf1CB-U4kZc4/s400/20160304_135745.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lilac</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Early flowering shrubs like Forsythia are starting to bloom and the catkins are forming on the hazel trees.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM311Do8qPOrPen1rGNfrzM9GxwJa64yJYxUgLXuBZFWKS75Gqnw2Gvul4AfAeyrZXvUteZWsT7g8Tliwe3UlxE_112QTrf3chO3la_2fyHR5Jhf5vwdrIqHNLQGk-ZyissI4FX3ubXbo/s1600/20160304_140002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM311Do8qPOrPen1rGNfrzM9GxwJa64yJYxUgLXuBZFWKS75Gqnw2Gvul4AfAeyrZXvUteZWsT7g8Tliwe3UlxE_112QTrf3chO3la_2fyHR5Jhf5vwdrIqHNLQGk-ZyissI4FX3ubXbo/s400/20160304_140002.jpg" width="225" /> </a></div>
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The birds are starting to make a lot more noise too. The blackbirds who fed companionably together on the lawn all winter are now competing for food and space. The woodpigeons always squabbled and argued with each other of course!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyetaRtgnybm4x2xCii1YntPnqJtiDnAKdot845tgngOOq34ckKnuD8bgYo5B9OTyqUk1gF56W3huoO0SmuL3iIhHZHVmKN9FpeZk6aV6RaaTDan_yF8LmegwGq9ukUvdmRVk4wqUjWbc/s1600/20160304_135514.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyetaRtgnybm4x2xCii1YntPnqJtiDnAKdot845tgngOOq34ckKnuD8bgYo5B9OTyqUk1gF56W3huoO0SmuL3iIhHZHVmKN9FpeZk6aV6RaaTDan_yF8LmegwGq9ukUvdmRVk4wqUjWbc/s400/20160304_135514.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We haven't reached spring of course, but winter is starting to come to an end. By the end of March we will have a number of flowers in the garden and everything slowly starts to green.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kE4Ugw6j2YlV38gbafF_oD31LCziwr7YCrqbP_c4OlTgHYlpJ9MCtWzusWknoNQh4E2ngge7HdHbUKa_Y-TT_EN9HogQjIR2pAsCnpPBZWNA2KyfN5jtr877C7rOqBaZSF-hhRxya3w/s1600/20160304_135620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kE4Ugw6j2YlV38gbafF_oD31LCziwr7YCrqbP_c4OlTgHYlpJ9MCtWzusWknoNQh4E2ngge7HdHbUKa_Y-TT_EN9HogQjIR2pAsCnpPBZWNA2KyfN5jtr877C7rOqBaZSF-hhRxya3w/s400/20160304_135620.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The cherry plum is already flowering. I hope we get more fruit this year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCvGHk-mB_5EAvcxc7lhSNV0FT0Lw7sSph5pRsvGGFnSvLRBxXNpWqODZJZd3Ra0tUZ533Y7vFIyutmQySfbzsbsG5-djNEe-e1AVwphrS1zHdy87qFkWLsAk_CrnFp1gqf9lkIkHjoc/s1600/20160304_135312.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKCvGHk-mB_5EAvcxc7lhSNV0FT0Lw7sSph5pRsvGGFnSvLRBxXNpWqODZJZd3Ra0tUZ533Y7vFIyutmQySfbzsbsG5-djNEe-e1AVwphrS1zHdy87qFkWLsAk_CrnFp1gqf9lkIkHjoc/s400/20160304_135312.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
The beautiful hellebore glowing in the sunshine. There isn't much else flowering yet in our garden.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #660000;">"March is a month
of considerable frustration - <br />it is so near spring and yet across a great deal
of the country <br />the weather is still so violent and changeable <br />that outdoor
activity in our
yards seems light years away."<br />
- Thalassa Cruso </span></div>
<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-78522509004353894872016-02-12T17:48:00.000+00:002016-02-12T17:48:15.970+00:00Space to spread my mind out in<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hazel Cottage isn't a large house by any stretch of the imagination. However we do have a spare room where a couple of years ago we added a plain sturdy table in front of the window so I can have a space to create. My sewing machine sits there and my paint brushes and pencils share pot space with sewing scissors and pinking shears. Nearby are paints and a basket filled with bits of material for future project. Sat on the desk too is Hopeful Bear, an old bear I bought a few years back from Fading Grace.<br />
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I love the fact that I have somewhere to paint, sew and write. Somewhere Virginia Woolf called 'Space to spread my mind out in'. Any projects I'm in the middle of can sit on the table and are safe until I come back. <br />
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Sometimes I just like sitting at my table and look out the window which overlooks the back garden and watch the birds in the trees. Even when I don't have time to do anything creative, I like to come and stand in the room and I just feel calmer. <br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">'I feel so intensely the delights of shutting oneself up </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">in a little world of one's own, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">with pictures and music and everything beautiful'</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Virginia Woolf</em></span></div>
Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-56733474836126518492016-02-08T13:30:00.000+00:002016-02-08T13:30:33.507+00:00Muffins and heartsSome weekends are just 'making' weekends. Mr C was out on Saturday morning and I had a quiet morning listening to Radio 4 and making banana and chocolate chip muffins. There is something so wonderful and British and precious about Radio 4. You could be listening to a play or learning about culture or a very silly comedy.<br />
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As I made the muffins I listened to the Reverend Richard Coles and friends on Saturday Live. It almost felt as if it could be any time in the last 50 years or so!<br />
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Our mixing bowl is an old Mason Cash one we had found in a charity shop a few years back.<br />
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The muffins were quite nice in the end, I wasn't sure the banana I used was mushy enough though. <br />
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On Sunday we cooked a wonderful recipe of stuffed lambs hearts. It was a bit fiddly as you have to make the stuffing (onions, sausage meat, mushrooms, parsley garlic), then a sauce made with tinned tomatoes, red wine, flour and butter, then stuff the hearts, wrap them in bacon and tie them up with string, then cook for about two hours. It was worth it though, they were lovely! <br />
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Offal never looks pretty, but it makes up for this with the wonderful flavour. I do find that these days a lot of people are very squeamish about using heart, liver or kidney, many people are even flummoxed by any meat on the bone that isn't vacuum packed and bloodless! I do think they are missing out though.Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-31305281857066301062016-01-30T16:38:00.001+00:002016-01-30T16:38:24.707+00:00Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigueMy blog today was inspired by two entirely separate things, firstly a walk we had last weekend and secondly reading Jane's great blog <a href="http://thelifeofaneccentricenglishbooklady.blogspot.co.uk/">The life of an eccentric English booklady</a> where she shared some wonderful 19th century advice on improving lowness of spirits. One of the suggestions for improving mood was to 'Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue'. I must admit that even spending time in our garden in sunshine this afternoon, listening to the birds and seeing what is happening outside did make me very happy. My hands are scratched by brambles and we barely scratched the surface of all the work there is to do, but just being outside was so lovely.<br />
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Last weekend we went for a walk which took in both farmland and woodland so I thought I'd share some of the pictures I took.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ducks enjoying the new pond created by incessant rain</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sodden fields</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking across a valley filled with beech and birch trees</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Muddy banks of the river. We saw a pair of dippers dancing in and out of the water</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beech trees and much lichen</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ferns growing out of moss and lichen on a tree</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ferns haven't really died back from last year.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sheep were quite muddy in their field</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnKgahwtKpQavP3WmTpSZZbe6iv7vhJPlau5vLWTVyIR0-TYDziFeUCK1oX8GT-9lZDWi_eKIGzfA2c5rd2rKo1SUL-mHN2pVyVViFcZcU5xdIs_27HO1DjdA1NLsbbqriAiD9VlAJzA/s1600/20160124_111621.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtnKgahwtKpQavP3WmTpSZZbe6iv7vhJPlau5vLWTVyIR0-TYDziFeUCK1oX8GT-9lZDWi_eKIGzfA2c5rd2rKo1SUL-mHN2pVyVViFcZcU5xdIs_27HO1DjdA1NLsbbqriAiD9VlAJzA/s400/20160124_111621.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very free range chickens</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQdtw1zplrcf_zbzv8gIBN4jEt_6rH8M_83gbDtNQQsni4OCAGqRYjv3he6MEEzvk6Co8IvXCDtmqRUXWGYW-KhF3oXawyksxZyf0Rt6GftqS9y1sCQit5kTcsndMgG4Kd73lPGVaXDog/s1600/20160124_113550_LLS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQdtw1zplrcf_zbzv8gIBN4jEt_6rH8M_83gbDtNQQsni4OCAGqRYjv3he6MEEzvk6Co8IvXCDtmqRUXWGYW-KhF3oXawyksxZyf0Rt6GftqS9y1sCQit5kTcsndMgG4Kd73lPGVaXDog/s400/20160124_113550_LLS.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hedgerow not looking quite right for winter</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #660000;">The holly bush, a sober lump of green,<br />Shines through the leafless shrubs all brown and grey,<br />And smiles at winter be it eer so keen<br />With all the leafy luxury of May.<br />And O it is delicious, when the day<br />In winter's loaded garment keenly blows<br />And turns her back on sudden falling snows,<br />To go where gravel pathways creep between<br />Arches of evergreen that scarce let through<br />A single feather of the driving storm;<br />And in the bitterest day that ever blew<br />The walk will find some places still and warm<br />Where dead leaves rustle sweet and give alarm<br />To little birds that flirt and start away.<br />John Clare - Winter Walk</span></div>
Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-31325645705574414132016-01-16T15:39:00.002+00:002016-01-16T15:39:55.614+00:00King Winter is now in the land<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We are very lucky here and haven't suffered from any flooding. It does feel however that we've had rain most days since before Christmas. Until recently we haven't really had much of a winter, the odd warm weather has made it feel like a perennial autumn. Then suddenly winter has arrived and we are getting frosts and sunny days.</div>
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So in order to make the best of the beautiful wintry weather, we set off early for a walk on the South Downs this morning.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nobwGWSsv_6EDQswpzkZVSWpIP2dODDm7uB48aF6b_4VMo3r2xDxMjtsKdYu8uw5ER20L08BiLzBZ8CNDXhIU7j9rwsS6WV5YGi6RZo5CHd-oj-iqh8hYwYwKHx8xaGLpdmwZfHpx2E/s1600/20160116_094155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nobwGWSsv_6EDQswpzkZVSWpIP2dODDm7uB48aF6b_4VMo3r2xDxMjtsKdYu8uw5ER20L08BiLzBZ8CNDXhIU7j9rwsS6WV5YGi6RZo5CHd-oj-iqh8hYwYwKHx8xaGLpdmwZfHpx2E/s400/20160116_094155.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The frost covered everything, and glittered and shone, even the grass was tinted with silver and white.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXkxLbUksNrnS3g5567tkqK-ppYQ8JdTrAHvep5wHVQ8S1Iv8J2bOHGKY8szd6RVgWX91Z9P0VSxxaGD5fUUPbm7x4Tt0rv4Uh-LLbVI4P_K5WncFVZ_gbNSVwr_O7fpLc_vGz-GKwTg/s1600/20160116_094724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrXkxLbUksNrnS3g5567tkqK-ppYQ8JdTrAHvep5wHVQ8S1Iv8J2bOHGKY8szd6RVgWX91Z9P0VSxxaGD5fUUPbm7x4Tt0rv4Uh-LLbVI4P_K5WncFVZ_gbNSVwr_O7fpLc_vGz-GKwTg/s400/20160116_094724.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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We walked through beech tree avenues, and across farmland where only recently deep ridges of mud would have made it difficult to walk through. Now they are frozen hard with puddles now sheets of ice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqTIkD7sGZkh8AvVgXFgOYQFCUBPtZK1ZWfRlAag-ciBp4X1c4Z89szey4VmKCZ8pMOZEb-98EXeB8kv6llojIBBUelWmtf34OuI-zKG2kdwR4CwTp1IQnQYAAMysSJ_K1FH7jJbbZ04s/s1600/20160116_104124_Richtone%2528HDR%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqTIkD7sGZkh8AvVgXFgOYQFCUBPtZK1ZWfRlAag-ciBp4X1c4Z89szey4VmKCZ8pMOZEb-98EXeB8kv6llojIBBUelWmtf34OuI-zKG2kdwR4CwTp1IQnQYAAMysSJ_K1FH7jJbbZ04s/s400/20160116_104124_Richtone%2528HDR%2529.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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There was a lovely light through the trees, and we saw a number of robins, finches and blackbirds along the way and possibly a bird of prey far into the distance. We also saw a yellow headed bird which I think was a siskin on the edge of the woodland.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMIZXzA0iMZN9amA98wjm-zMhFnxhijMeyJFtf06kDKnvsXt0Mpc3Ph0ZqlOLg1pCEWez05ugDsM946FCfG0DZaXO7e3gs4L4BjymV8lXel4vctFHRJBka0wkzn6atsl9ekjKr-1CrTA/s1600/20160116_095552.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMIZXzA0iMZN9amA98wjm-zMhFnxhijMeyJFtf06kDKnvsXt0Mpc3Ph0ZqlOLg1pCEWez05ugDsM946FCfG0DZaXO7e3gs4L4BjymV8lXel4vctFHRJBka0wkzn6atsl9ekjKr-1CrTA/s400/20160116_095552.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The hedgerow was filled with plenty of berries, often seen to be a sign of a hard winter. I read recently that it is more a sign of a warm autumn, so I'm not sure what is true now!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-bfFT6U0bXellvg_LECHgccZBAo-Y_j_Hxz-10wUVFVVO3Z0Fp3-Eyn8T7-nuf9as13MigDIrgJhq8cMp3JXC-haA8xBUyH-ew-qheCamtcxQe_-qYJeqBn9HFNosrl89C46k02E8A4/s1600/20160116_102954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-bfFT6U0bXellvg_LECHgccZBAo-Y_j_Hxz-10wUVFVVO3Z0Fp3-Eyn8T7-nuf9as13MigDIrgJhq8cMp3JXC-haA8xBUyH-ew-qheCamtcxQe_-qYJeqBn9HFNosrl89C46k02E8A4/s400/20160116_102954.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black;">The walk has made me feel quite enthused about perhaps doing more painting although trying to recreate the frost and ice is somewhat beyond my talents...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWcIXFRKzhSvVctR_il3eR3WoeS7DL7f6wruogDkcr_24Q3MdYIXlSn6MQwgAWy14RGlnuEzqWrALwJIWsdvpv4mtlUbDWpYnOLb-PLpi9aCPabWZuXqEARBXKvScV3JXztyTnu4e7aNw/s1600/20160116_113926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWcIXFRKzhSvVctR_il3eR3WoeS7DL7f6wruogDkcr_24Q3MdYIXlSn6MQwgAWy14RGlnuEzqWrALwJIWsdvpv4mtlUbDWpYnOLb-PLpi9aCPabWZuXqEARBXKvScV3JXztyTnu4e7aNw/s400/20160116_113926.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>‘King Winter is now in the land. </strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>He reigns with cold and freezing hand. </strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>He makes Jack Frost touch nose and toe, </strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>and brings us bright and shiny snow.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><strong><em>M. Meyerkort</em></strong></span></div>
<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-54465778581334326472016-01-02T14:19:00.001+00:002016-01-02T14:27:04.711+00:00A New Year and a New Project!It may be having all this time off, but I've been really very creative lately. I started making a patchwork star the other day as it is almost Epiphany. I had no real notion of what I would be doing with it...<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X_WlvrANmm8/VobRc9fg6tI/AAAAAAAAC2s/36ENjFH7S44/s1600/20151231_173124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X_WlvrANmm8/VobRc9fg6tI/AAAAAAAAC2s/36ENjFH7S44/s400/20151231_173124.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I then started painting a very small acrylic picture of Charleston House in East Sussex. I always sketch in first so I have an idea of what I'm doing. It was based on a photo I took during the Autumn when we popped in on our way home from Rye. It isn't perfect but I was happy with it as I haven't painted for a little while and the size of the canvas was rather small!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1mJlcwmZmecaZRXrOfcmT4Zr-JgjfyxN0O2fRshM_qPm-Jf7lLNen4hl3N03NYAdHtb0pbELXCMgxReJgDw2tQi-8RTtktlVRe2pzIdZ1Iq6vm6OpCnZJAZEYY8-Vd5THZtXq4hx8JeM/s1600/20160102_121028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1mJlcwmZmecaZRXrOfcmT4Zr-JgjfyxN0O2fRshM_qPm-Jf7lLNen4hl3N03NYAdHtb0pbELXCMgxReJgDw2tQi-8RTtktlVRe2pzIdZ1Iq6vm6OpCnZJAZEYY8-Vd5THZtXq4hx8JeM/s400/20160102_121028.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I was still keen to do something creative, and thought about Mr C saying to me about making a patchwork quilt. So I got out a huge pile of materials, made a lot of mess then had an idea about using bits and pieces of unused material to make a patch with applique in the middle.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YCEzAjtSHKZ16m58oNDttcvel41zWkUOu2OccqyezNZ5dD9uJqAtVvlSK0D98j8NsA_mJlxnjxL2i0FC_ubCqd27C4lJZMiUFXZlc_z_ZsAcHozbvnRfpSuKHW7U2RghTvy0okhtBbc/s1600/20160101_132712.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3YCEzAjtSHKZ16m58oNDttcvel41zWkUOu2OccqyezNZ5dD9uJqAtVvlSK0D98j8NsA_mJlxnjxL2i0FC_ubCqd27C4lJZMiUFXZlc_z_ZsAcHozbvnRfpSuKHW7U2RghTvy0okhtBbc/s400/20160101_132712.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
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Above is the background, which I've used a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine. I will then hand sew some embroidered flowers from badly stained old linen onto the top of that. I can't embroider myself, but I like the idea of reusing something that was made years ago.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWhh7yLT3yJlMtSN_fJHouV6VaKNaubQ-Z1zFYnYmfY6L-OY0MCl3ZYMObv_17MtDVzfOUyrehStV_hTkg9pnCoUVzaFXK2MWUBpGaykfpVTbc8Xh3FABZgOVjSejNzrhP9muZdBO7Eko/s1600/20160101_130443.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWhh7yLT3yJlMtSN_fJHouV6VaKNaubQ-Z1zFYnYmfY6L-OY0MCl3ZYMObv_17MtDVzfOUyrehStV_hTkg9pnCoUVzaFXK2MWUBpGaykfpVTbc8Xh3FABZgOVjSejNzrhP9muZdBO7Eko/s320/20160101_130443.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This will then make the second patch. I expect the quilt will take about 25 years to complete, but I like the idea of doing a patch at a time and seeing where it takes me. Wish me luck!</div>
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I can't quite believe it is January already and we only have three more days of the Christmas season. Work is looming again on Monday, but I'm trying not to think about it too much.</div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”<br /> <b>Mark Twain</b>.</span></div>
Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-33476105803070799482015-12-27T22:27:00.005+00:002015-12-27T22:31:58.305+00:00The Other days of Christmas...Today is the day that everyone asks that annoying question. 'Did you have a good Christmas?' they enquire and my answer is always to state that it is <strong>still</strong> Christmas! To a large number of people in this country, Christmas starts when the shops start advertising their wares (if you are lucky in November), and ends with Boxing Day. Many people are busy taking down Christmas trees, stripping their house of all decoration, moaning about having too much food leftover.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1o_1GmeNVGQhA8XU9XuuNUCa6JW5l8kEG0PCKjjekUCxAuSPRq60t_cP4TUjQWNJFFyFXQDUfAmx9np8YDQO9rsPuaD97diVwBeF85IeC05Zk67jWdbDDYhVU9JIQO4xo8mxxLcPi4c/s1600/figures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1o_1GmeNVGQhA8XU9XuuNUCa6JW5l8kEG0PCKjjekUCxAuSPRq60t_cP4TUjQWNJFFyFXQDUfAmx9np8YDQO9rsPuaD97diVwBeF85IeC05Zk67jWdbDDYhVU9JIQO4xo8mxxLcPi4c/s400/figures.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Whilst I understand the need for businesses to start Christmas early, I don't understand the need to start Christmas celebrations a month in advance. Before you think I am being rather humbug, it isn't that I don't love Christmas, I really do. I love all the preparation, the making of the mincemeat, the hanging of the holly and ivy, the choosing and wrapping presents and writing cards. What I don't like is this long pre Christmas hysteria followed by a cutting short of the Christmas season. For it IS a season. Christmas starts on Christmas Eve and runs until Twelfth Night. In some traditions it even lasts as long as Candlemas on the 2nd of February.<br />
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I'm a great believer in Thoreau's saying that we should 'Live in each season as it passes'. Enjoy the beginnings of Autumn and the leaves changing colour, then celebrate Halloween, Bonfire Night, Stir Up Sunday and so on. If we rush onto the next thing too quickly, we do not savour what is happening at that moment. Rather than spending the whole of the Autumn celebrating Christmas, leave Christmas to its proper time at the end of the year, at the darkest time of the year.<br />
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I do understand that a lot of people don't work in the same industry that means they can take time off between Christmas and New Year, but even those who have to return to work can have those days brightened by coming home to a lovely tree with its sparkling lights or a candle burning.<br />
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Thank you for your messages on my Christmas Day message, I do hope that you are able to enjoy the other days of Christmas too. We are only on the third day of Christmas now, many days left to celebrate the light in the darkness.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;"><strong>“A good time occurs precisely when we lose track of what time it is.” </strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;"><em>Robert Farrar Capon</em></span></div>
<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-39968819886216951582015-12-25T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-25T09:00:14.535+00:00Christmas Wishes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">We would like to wish all those reading our blog </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!</span></div>
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<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-19704988645256879862015-12-19T23:03:00.000+00:002015-12-19T23:03:43.531+00:00Marchpane Cake and Crochet SnowflakesSince my last post we've been busy with Christmassy plans and trips. We went to Devon to see the family and spent a lovely day at Buckland Abbey. It is one of our very favourite places, the great barn was filled with a wonderful flower display based on the Twelve Days of Christmas.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nine Ladies Dancing</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ten lords a'leaping</td></tr>
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We also spent a lot of time wandering around their beautiful kitchen. This year the theme was a Tudor Christmas and I was enchanted with the spices and herbs and food displayed.<br />
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The open fire made it rather special and made us hope and yearn for cooler days so we can light our fire at home more often! The next weekend we spent a day in Brighton, having a wonderful lunch in the Blackbird Tea Rooms which was beautifully decorated in 1930s and 40s décor.</div>
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We hadn't come to drink tea however, but to see Kate Rusby. For those of you who aren't aware, she is a folk singer from Yorkshire and every December she does special Christmas concerts, singing Yorkshire Christmas carols - to the tunes that are sung in the pubs in South Yorkshire. We just love her voice and I'm sure my description doesn't do her justice. I also loved her huge crocheted stage decorations!</div>
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And to continue our busy weekends before Christmas, we also popped to Hinton Ampner in the north of Hampshire. They had a lovely Victorian Christmas wedding theme to their decorations. </div>
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Now we are back home again and looking forward to the festivities. We've even found time to put up our own tree.</div>
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As usual we've covered it in our motley collection of hand made, Germanic, Victorian and folksy decorations. <br />
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Tomorrow is the Candlelight Carol service at the church and then the last couple of days at work before Christmas begins. We do really hope the weather will cool down soon, it's been rather warm for the time of year.<br />
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Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-39547866755634910472015-12-02T09:47:00.000+00:002015-12-03T19:35:49.673+00:00Living in the past<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I live in a modern world filled with computers and fast cars and constant change. I appreciate modern medicine and technology and the huge choice that is available, I wouldn't be without any of that which makes life better for all of us. Without technology you wouldn't be reading this blog now!</div>
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However my heart and home belongs somewhere in the mid 1930s, where tea is made
in a Beryl ware teapot served with homemade scones and jam. Where every
wooden tray has a cotton or lace doily on it, and there are always
flowers on the table. A room where Al Bowlly is singing softly on the
wireless, and mantel clock is ticking steadily. Where the dresser has
coronation cups with the King and Queen on them and and sofa has home
made patchwork cushions and an antimacassar on the back. </div>
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Where there is a larder stuffed with home made chutney and jam and marmalade and where the christmas pudding sits waiting on a shelf. Where old jars are filled with rice, currants and sago, with pulses and lentils and flour.</div>
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A place where books are in every room, books old and new nestle side by side and the telephone rings with a bright 'bring-bring!'. A place where candles are lit, the seasons are marked and the house is filled with things that bring back memories of trips taken or of people we love.<br />
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<span class="st"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Home, the spot of earth supremely blest. A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest”</span></b></span></div>
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Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-40113023608993852072015-11-29T14:29:00.004+00:002015-11-29T14:29:39.569+00:00Advent CandlesToday is Advent Sunday, the beginning of the season leading up to Christmas. As you may know we love marking the seasons properly, so we always have an advent candle of some kind. This year we have two! One is the usual slim one with numbers that we've put by the fireplace to light each evening.<br />
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The other candle we have in the middle of our table. I had made the wreath last week at WI, and started wondering whether it would last until Christmas<br />
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Then we had the idea that it could be our advent wreath. So today we lit our candle at our Sunday lunch. We shall light it at each meal until Christmas, then it shall become our Christmas centre piece.<br />
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I think I've probably posted the following poem before, but I do love Betjeman and it is rather apt with all the black Friday nonsense that is swirling around.<br />
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Advent 1955<br />by John Betjeman </h3>
<br /><span style="color: purple;">The Advent wind begins to stir<br /> With sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,<br /> It's dark at breakfast, dark at tea,<br /> And in between we only see<br /> Clouds hurrying across the sky<br /> And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry<br /> And branches bending to the gale<br /> Against great skies all silver pale<br /> The world seems travelling into space,<br /> And travelling at a faster pace<br /> Than in the leisured summer weather<br /> When we and it sit out together,<br /> For now we feel the world spin round<br /> On some momentous journey bound -<br /> Journey to what? to whom? to where?<br /> The Advent bells call out 'Prepare,<br /> Your world is journeying to the birth<br /> Of God made Man for us on earth.'<br /> <br /> And how, in fact, do we prepare<br /> The great day that waits us there -<br /> For the twenty-fifth day of December,<br /> The birth of Christ? For some it means<br /> An interchange of hunting scenes<br /> On coloured cards, And I remember<br /> Last year I sent out twenty yards,<br /> Laid end to end, of Christmas cards<br /> To people that I scarcely know -<br /> They'd sent a card to me, and so<br /> I had to send one back. Oh dear!<br /> Is this a form of Christmas cheer?<br /> Or is it, which is less surprising,<br /> My pride gone in for advertising?<br /> The only cards that really count<br /> Are that extremely small amount<br /> From real friends who keep in touch<br /> And are not rich but love us much<br /> Some ways indeed are very odd<br /> By which we hail the birth of God.<br /> <br /> We raise the price of things in shops,<br /> We give plain boxes fancy tops<br /> And lines which traders cannot sell<br /> Thus parcell'd go extremely well<br /> We dole out bribes we call a present<br /> To those to whom we must be pleasant<br /> For business reasons. Our defence is<br /> These bribes are charged against expenses<br /> And bring relief in Income Tax<br /> Enough of these unworthy cracks!<br /> 'The time draws near the birth of Christ'.<br /> A present that cannot be priced<br /> Given two thousand years ago<br /> Yet if God had not given so<br /> He still would be a distant stranger<br /> And not the Baby in the manger.</span><br /><br />
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Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-59007720121747828972015-10-23T16:05:00.003+01:002015-10-23T16:16:42.466+01:00Nostalgia and mince piesWhen I was talking to a work colleague recently I mentioned that I was planning to make my mince meat the following weekend. The reaction I got was almost the attitude of why bother when you can buy it easily enough. <br />
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I'm used to people thinking that cooking from scratch or making anything is too much effort. Each year I make my own mincemeat, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake and I love doing it. <br />
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It is part of the seasonal way we like to live our lives. In January we often make marmalade out of traditional Seville oranges, in summer I often make jam out of raspberries we grow in the garden, and in autumn we forage for berries and nuts and make things out of them. Part of it is loving growing things, cooking things and being creative, part of it is a form of nostalgia - a love of the past and the way things were done in the past. <br />
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Part of the reason I got into blogging was that there is a lovely online community (or lots of communities actually) where others are making things from scratch, loving reading and living in the past. Blogs are generally gentle, entertaining and wonderful places where likeminded people can congregate. I started reading Fading Grace's blog some years ago, and whilst Sophie has moved on to different projects I guess, she was very influential on me at the time and I miss her blogs. I've found a wonderful world of people who love many of the same things as me. Some of the current blogs and pages I'm loving are:<br />
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<a href="http://historyusherette.blogspot.co.uk/">http://historyusherette.blogspot.co.uk/</a> Sarah Miller Walters fab blog on old films<br />
<a href="http://prettynostalgic.co.uk/">http://prettynostalgic.co.uk/</a> A great project by Nicole who has published magazines, books and runs a society called the Nostalgianeers <br />
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Luckily I'm of an age where I don't really care whether everyone shares my interests - but I do think a lot of people do miss out by just living a very limited modern life where they miss out on very creative and interesting things because they are afraid to admit they enjoy it.<br />
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<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-32742883761042159822015-09-23T13:26:00.001+01:002015-09-23T13:26:39.385+01:00Autumnal equinox<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Glory be to God for dappled things –<br />For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;<br />For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;<br />Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;<br />Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;<br />And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.</div>
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All things counter, original, spare, strange;<br />Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)<br />With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;<br />He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:<br />Praise him.</div>
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By Gerard Manley Hopkins</div>
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<br />Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-81456102179890879202015-08-30T21:00:00.003+01:002015-08-30T21:00:37.794+01:00A good day's foragingWe had a great day foraging today in the New Forest. We went specifically to find sloes for our annual sloe gin making. Sloes are one of those fruits that no one ever wants to eat but they produce a wonderful flavour when steeped in gin for a few months, not to mention a lovely red colour.<br />
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When we got to our secret foraging site we found a huge number of very ripe cherry plums.<br />
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We kept on picking for quite a while and eventually picked 17lb of the plums!</div>
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We did find a good load of sloes as well, luckily, eventually picking 8lb of sloes, enough for several bottles of sloe gin.</div>
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Of course we also found the wonderful blackberry although we got a smaller amount of them as many were still red.</div>
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We were also told of some apples we could legally scrump and got some apples to add to our haul.</div>
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Luckily tomorrow is a bank holiday so we can attempt to process some of this bounty. Other than sloe gin we are hoping to make plum jam and maybe even some plum wine. </div>
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Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-2822467456883265662015-07-17T21:50:00.002+01:002015-07-17T21:53:03.653+01:00Flying ant day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We termed Wednesday, 'Flying ant day' as hundreds of ants, flying and otherwise were everywhere. I expect it was the same in many other places this far south. The weather has been warm and close for a while, but with not very much rain. Mr C took some pictures of the flying ants. This one is of them mating. Sadly it seems after mating, the drone then dies...</div>
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This made me think of the hundreds of different insects in our garden. I can't even name a lot of them, but I find them fascinating. If the garden belongs to anyone, it belongs to them!</div>
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We found this one above, inside the house on some roses, but put it back outside.</div>
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Ladybird and ant combination!</div>
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Cinnabar moth sat in the grass. </div>
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Hover flies mating. A wonderful photo from Mr C.</div>
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The garden is looking slightly messy and overblown now. I'm entirely behind with deadheading roses, and the lack of rain is making the grass look yellow. Excitingly, we seem to have at least two hedgehogs in the garden, so hopefully they are eating lots of snails and slugs. Getting a photo of them is a far more complex issue without night vision goggles....Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3039894940010617510.post-24436265432535397382015-06-21T21:37:00.000+01:002015-06-21T21:37:19.679+01:00Summer Solstice musingsToday is the longest day of the year, the height of summer light and sunshine. I've already heard the jokes about how we are now heading towards winter, but it isn't quite like that yet. The roses are at their most luscious and fecund. I've brought several into the house today, the red roses are just stunning at the moment.<br />
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I'm not even sure the pictures show how deep and velvety the red is. Sadly you will have to take my word for it!<br />
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The raspberries are starting to ripen and we have redcurrants and gooseberries starting to ripen too. The last of the frankly disappointing rhubarb is just coming up. All of this is made possible by the bees that buzz around our garden. We usually see a large range of bumble bees and the odd honey bee. However last Sunday we saw this outside the back door<br />
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A swarm of bees! I'm reliably informed that bees swarm when they are looking for a new home. I don't know where these came from although they are centred in next doors garden. The garden next door is not cultivated at all and the people who live there rarely go outside so the bees have been using it for a home or whilst resting. I'm not entirely sure they've gone as even though they seemed to buzz off, we've seen them again since.<br />
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After many weeks of barely being in the garden and feeling somewhat distanced from all that is happening, it was lovely to briefly gather some flowers today. Everything is lush and twice the size it was the last time I looked... The insects and the birds carry on regardless.<br />
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Hazel Cottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02196032526250967362noreply@blogger.com0