Little Altars at Home

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while will know how much I loathe housework, but these are strange times! Today found me actually wanting to give the bathroom a thorough going over!

As I was putting things back on the windowsill, I realised that every item has a special memory or significance to me.

Left to right:

There is an Umbrella plant, that I grew from a root cutting given to me by a dear friend who I see only rarely nowadays. She is currently staying somewhere in deepest India, unable to return home due to the transport system in that country being under lockdown. The glass bowl it sits in, has been with me since I got married in 1972, nothing special, not beautiful, but it has become an old familiar friend.

In a little pot next to it are some honeysuckle cuttings, waiting to see if they grow roots, so that I can give some little plants to my daughter as requested.

The fish shaped little dish holds a bumble bee that sadly died in my bathroom, I know Little Miss M (7) would love to see it, so I am keeping it for when she is able to come into my house again.

The clay dolphin was made by Miss E when she was about 8. I took her to some wonderful sculpture and stone-carving worshops when she was being homeschooled.

I bought the brass incense burner with the Ohm symbol when I was travelling in 1994 and visiting Buddhist communities all round the world – such powerful memories. It reminds me of chanting in the echoing valleys of the Himalaya Mountains.

The scallop shell was given to me by my neighbour, who is a diver, and brings me yummy scallops in the summer. The shells it holds all come from the beaches of my beloved Pembrokeshire, collected on my month in a treehouse by the sea.

Sea glass, collected on my local beaches, in times gone by.

A collection of tiny white pebbles – there is something so beautiful about them.

The twisted piece of wire with beads: this was a spiral Christmas decoration I had been making with my grandchildren

One of them sat in the bathroom, and after the twins came to stay – I found this one had been just too tempting to resist – I rather like the resulting tiny wire sculpture.

The jam jar has more honeysuckle cuttings,

and the shell on the right was given to me by my Mum when I was a teenager.

A whole lot of family, friends and memories on that tiny windowsill.

Do you have similar little collections about the house?

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Knolling, Flat Lay, Assemblage Art

As you can see I’m learning even more new terms.

The honeysuckle in my garden is having a second flush of blooms and the scent is heavenly in these sunny Autumn days. It inspired this Flat Lay piece of Assemblage art which includes a few verbascum blooms and birch leaves.

And did you know about Knolling ……… no? Nor me ….until I was enlightened by Instagram

knolling is “the process of arranging like objects in parallel or 90 degree angles as a method of organization”.

I’m so fascinated by the markings on these leaves

Leaf love!

Yellow and grey are In!

(Mini birch forest)

Yesterday’s spiral of leaves were drying out but still looking gorgeous enough to adorn with some Marigold petals and Honeysuckle

Oh! Ah! Oooo! the morning dew on Marigolds!!!!!!  I’m just loving this Autumn.

I’m not a fan of yellow flowers in the garden as a rule, but couldn’t you just dive into this buxom bloom.

Why not add some honeysuckle berries

I did 3 hours of digging in my garden yesterday in the Battle Against Bamboo (and bindweed!) So I could enjoy some guilt free playtime with petals and leaves.

A Flat Lay extravaganza!

Not In a Vase, but all from my garden, I am once again joining in the IAVOM Garden Party this week.

and

Cee’s FOTD.

Strawberries and Wine

Going out to supper on Saturday night

I took a posy of honeysuckle, lavender, both purple and white, and Lady’s Mantle, along with a bottle of Pinot Grigio (my favourite), strawberries and a bag of salad from our local Farm Shop

I had written to The Watercress Company (also local) asking about their packaging see below, with their reply

 

Sent: 28 June 2018 13:17
To: info@thewatercresscompany.com
Subject: packaging

Hi,
I love your products and like to buy local produce when I can.

Please could you find an alternative to plastic for your packaging.
I understand there is a clear film made of a vegetable product that is fully biodegradable.

Many thanks

Sandra Dorey

On 28 Jun 2018, at 13:22, James Harper <james.harper@thewatercresscompany.com> wrote:

Good afternoon Sandra,

Many thanks for the great feedback. We have just moved into a fully biogradable bag this week so your timing is spot on!

Where do you normally buy our salads from?

Kind regards,

James

 

I was so delighted that I just had to take this biodegradable bag to my friends so that they could sample the salad.

Now to tackle the strawberry suppliers!

Do you have any flowers from your garden to pop in a vase – if so why not join us at Cathy’s weekly garden party over at Rambling in the Garden, where her Vase is reflecting the heatwave we are currently enjoying in this part of the world.

In a Frida Vase on Monday

My son-in-law was helping with a house clearance this week and he rescued this vase for me, isn’t that lovely of him!!! And my daughter said – “a Vase for Monday!”

I immediately thought the vase had a Kahloesque look about it. You might already know I am a big fan of Frida!

An opportunity to get those candles out again.

Does anyone know what the mauve flowers are – they seed themselves freely around the garden?

I am thoroughy enjoying the heady scented mix of honeysuckle and philadelphus.

And philadelphus is my entry for Cee’s Flower of the Day.

There is a Frida Kahlo exhibition on at the V and A at the moment – I hope to go and see it, but it is hard to think of getting on a train and travelling to London whilst we are enjoying such glorious sunny weather.

Do you have anything to pop in a vase this Monday – if so do join in with Cathy over at Rambling in the Garden – such a fun gathering of gardeners.

I must just share another beauty of a sunset we had last night

Venus

Honeysuckle and Rosehips

The scent of honeysuckle floating in a dish, glowing in the morning sunlight

so beautiful to wake up to.

Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden

and

Cee’s Flower of the Day

 

And just because I love lichen …… I found this in the woods when I was gathering material to create …. well it turned out to be Mrs Moss 

Purple Loosestrife

One of my Welsh second cousins came to stay and I put some flowers in her bedroom:

Self sown Purple Loosestrife and Honeysuckle, grown from a cutting, in a small ceramic cube vase from Chive.

Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden

and

Cee’s Flower of the Day

The vase sits next to a little Cathedral Window patchwork sampler that I made about 30 years ago. If you want to know how it is done here is a You Tube tutorial.

The tablecloth is a charity shop find that I’ve had for about the same length of time.

I wanted to take my cousin on my favourite walk and as it was a glorious day we joined my daughter and her children. If you remember Little Miss M recently said that she wanted to walk 500 miles with me, we decided to make a start:

 

Little Miss M had brought along the walking stick she had made when I took the 3 of them to Kingston Lacy and they did a woodworking workshop there.

 

We contemplated the walk ahead.

We all set off singing the Proclaimers Song at the tops of our voices

Currently one of Little Miss M’s favourite songs.

A wonderful walk ….

stopping at St Catherine’s Chapel for a snack and to enjoy the view

and then walking across the top of the hill to look back at where we had come from

We walked back down to cafe near the beach for some lunch and then to the beach for some pebble decorating. After that, a bit more walking along the beach to a huge drainage pipe that the children love running up and down inside, splashing in the water and hearing the echo of their voices.

When we got back to the car, according to the App on my daughter’s phone we had walked 4.7 miles …….. it’s a start!

Related Posts:

In a Vase on Monday in Japan

Magenta with a dash of Lime

Beach Clean with another cube vase

Silly Seaweedy Saturday

This little chap was made by my son-in-law.

I have recently returned for a week’s holiday in Solva, with my daughter A, M and their 3 children.

Wales is always wet and windy, but we did have a glorious time with masses of sunshine, days on the beach building sand dragons and rock-pooling, wild walks, meeting up with family and friends, and relaxing in the evenings with a glass of wine – and seaweed.

A Wild Food Foraging walk with Julia of Wild About Pembrokeshire, gave us the information that all seaweed in the UK is edible, so long as it is still growing on the rocks. So I gathered some, washed it and marinated it in SoySauce, piri piri, black pepper and lime juice, garnished with edible honeysuckle florets.

The seaweed was crunchy and delicious to nibble with a glass of Pinot Grigio or a tasty Malbec. Go on try some!

 

IaVoM: Honeysuckle, Alchemilla Mollis and Feverfew

In my vase this week is honeysuckle, feverfew and a froth of Lady’s Mantle.

Pop across and Ramble in the Garden with Cathy to see her Vase and those from gardeners across the globe.

This honeysuckle pleases me hugely because I grew it from a cutting. The flower is not as beautiful as some honeysuckles but the scent is magnificent, especially in the evenings.

Look how it has grown! All from a cutting, isn’t nature amazing! I grows through a Clematis Montana, which flowers in the Spring.

Joining Cee’s Flower of the Day.

I have been having A-Good-Clear-Out in the kitchen, thus ticking off a few of my 17 for 2017 Aims/Goals/Challenges.

Goal: Sort out 13 shelves, boxes, cupboards or shelves. I have done 5 this week (that’s 12 altogether!) – Well done me! 😀

A. I have a 3 drawer filing cabinet with files stuffed with papers from goodness knows when  – I’ve been through all three drawers and discarded everything that is no longer needed, either shredding the paper for compost, (P) or rolling it into fire-lighters (P)

B. These shelves

needed painting, and so did the wall behind them.

Do you recognise some vases from previous IAVOM posts?

How was I going to get the shelves off the wall by myself?

(C. see that desk top – I could not have shown you the toppling heap of stuff that was on there – far too embarrassing  – number 3 surface cleared!)

I could have asked a neighbour to help, but I get a kick out of ‘The Power of One’ solutions! So ……

I put chairs piled with stuff to rest the shelf on as I undid the screws – it worked.

A clear wall, with a mist coat painted onto the raw plaster. I’m using some of my Mum’s old paint – Dulux Barley White, it must be ancient but it still seems ok. (P)

I have quite a few things that need sanding so I treated myself to a Detail Sander and sanded the shelves

I do love a gadget. It cost just £30, well worth it!

The sanding was needed to create a surface for the Dulux ‘Quilted Calico’ Eggshell to key in to

And then of course there was D. Under the Table to deal with – a whole tub of used flower pots – luckily I have found a Garden Centre, Groves, about 20 miles away that will recycle them (P) in the  Pot to Product Scheme. 

I used to live near there, so I can combine the trip with meeting up with old friends. (P)

And the last of the 5- E. The top of the filing cabinet which houses the paper shredder and piles of office related detritus (no ‘before’ picture here either!) A broken child’s chair is acting as a shelf (P)

There are several great ideas for using chairs as shelves on Pinterest – here’s one

 

And a vase of flowers – just the thing to celebrate the transformation.

I removed over 40 old redundant business cards from the letter rack. They have gone in the collage cupboard and might be used as collaged tags in journals – oh dear – not thrown away yet then!

Have you noticed a few (P)s  in the text – can you guess what they stand for?

Vase on Monday: Honeysuckle?!

Can you believe it! Honeysuckle in January – the weather has gone all ‘Pete Tong’!

The flowers are scented with a subtle, slightly sharper scent than summer blooms and sit in another charity shop find. I just love the design of this little mug.

In answer to Cathy’s question in her ‘Vase on Monday’ post, regarding the weather in my part of the world, this is the view out of my kitchen window: dark and raining…… again!

I had to play around with exposure settings in ‘Photos’ to get any decent pictures

As you can see the Kalanchoes are about to burst into colour again, I think it is due to giving them the proper amount of light.

An update on the progress of the hyacinths….

(This is my contribution to Cee’s Flower of the Day ; I Heart Macro ; Macro Monday, and Today’s Flowers.)…..don’t you just love that dusty mix of purple and grey-green…..

…..they seem to be stemless, but at least that means they won’t be flopping all over the place. The scent in my sitting room first thing in the morning is delicious!

Do you know what this is?

I’m making this my houseplant of the week, but I don’t know its name. A friend gave me a little off-shoot about 6 months ago and it has multiplied and now looks as if it is about to flower – very exciting!

Do you have a houseplant looking at its best at the moment?