All sold out...

So sale day came, and we sold...and sold....and sold. I fully intended to take lots of pictures as more and more plants arrived and we filled the hall - but there were people coming in an hour before we officially opened and that was it - we never stopped until there was very little left, like these sad lonely onions!

 I had great helpers thank goodness, citygirl, Kgirl my oldest bud (not literally old that is!), BH, Freerangenan and the marvellous ladies from All Saints church amongst others made sure everything went to plan. Even ponygirl got in on the act...
                                                

We took over £300 in 2 and half hours. Not bad going when you consider most plants were under £1. There were flowers, veg, herbs and cake - what was not to love??? We had some amazing donations, compost bins, pots, even a mini green house! It was great fun selling and talking about plants and if i'm honest i'm already planning next years event...

by the end of it we were pretty tired...I caught these usual suspects napping on the lawn!

There was a glass of two of fizz to be had after all was tidied up...and a very very good nights sleep...

This Ideal Home...

You know what its like, you get some quality time with your girls and all they do is spend their time on the phone! To be fair Gardengirl and Citygirl had trailed around the Ideal home exhibition with me and were in need of muchio refreshment! Refreshment came in the form of champagne cocktails with gold bits floating in them...very fab and gorgeous as long as you don't think too much about where all that gold is going to end up!

Being anything but an Ideal Home Owner we decided to make this years Spring outing to the Ideal Home exhibition in search of inspiration.  I don't know what I was expecting - perhaps the secret to domestic bliss or at least a contraption to make children put their own clothes in the wash basket. Well we didn't find those...but we did find some very nice chandeliers...

Perhaps one day...

and we bumped into Greg Wallace from Masterchef! I managed to resist saying "this is where cooking gets serious!"

We were eating in his cafe when he popped over  to our table - Im ashamed to say that id just put a whole pickled onion in my mouth and couldn't speak or swallow the onion for shock! GG and CG did all the talking and then he moved on. I was so mortified by pickle shame that CG made me go and ask him to come back for a photo - which he did, very generously - i didn't tell him about my onion dilemma though - the horror!

We didn't buy much but came back with lots of brochures, just waiting for those lottery numbers to come up now!

Scarecrow fever...

We know how to have a good time in Yorkshire!

Not for us the monotony of the shopping mall and the carousel of consumerism, oh no...when we want to have a good time we make scarecrows!

Scaresheep in fact!



We had a family day out, a brief respite before work starts on the big build, and visited the Muston village Scarecrow festival.
This has been running for a few years now and lots of villagers get involved. I'm amazed by the effort that goes in and by the new ideas people come up year on year. We had a great time scarecrowspotting!


Citygirl was with us and I could tell she wasnt sure and her expectations werent high, but that was before she saw this!




The ScareSnowman!

The Village Green came complete with its own Morris Dancers...



and resident band, (i'm glad to see the moles that were digging up my lawn have found gainful employment!)



I even got to meet my heroes Tom and Barbara from The Good Life (although BH insists I'm more of a Margot - cheek!)





I think we might be in danger of converting Citygirl to country fun, particularly after she found these lovelies!

Urban inspirations (episode 1) ...

Wow we've had a busy weekend - our last weekend away before school breaks for the summer and i can get stuck into the garden and BH can start building things. Once we had watered everything and pegged down the netting we headed south to visit family and friends back in London. We stayed with my absolutely fabulous sister in law - the City Girl to my Freeranger! CityGirl has been up to her eyes in house restoration and gardening herself and we think shes done an amazing job!



CityGirls castle in the clouds is a restored chapel. The front is covered in this amazing Virginia Creeper which although it needs taming every couple of years is worth it for those too few weeks a year when it turns a rich beautiful red.

The country life has definitely made it to the City though as CityGirl wasted no time at all in getting raised beds built and getting her crops in! She had a few funny looks from her neighbours at the time, but now I think they're eyeing up her salad leaves - hands off!!!



I am amazed by the produce CityGirl gets from her front garden. We picked cucumbers this time, but shes also got peppers and lettuce bursting out all over the place...



But every CityGirl needs somewhere to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labour...



Space is limited around the house, but a visit to the Chelsea Flower Show gave us some great ideas for small space gardening. You can't believe the revamp this area has had - its unrecognisable from the yardspace that it was and is an awesome retreat from the manic city life surrounding it.



Theres not much room for pots so CityGirl has installed living walls - Its almost impossible to walk past these without running your hands through them. This square is repeated across the wall like a patchwork, it is interspersed with black grasses - tres chic!