Another auction buy

Further to my previous post on the chair, here is my second auction purchase. It actually didn't get sold during the auction, but I put an offer in at the end which was accepted. 

An early 20th century cupboard with drawers. Solid oak but covered in the usual dark shellac.

This is the top part, with its shelves.

The underside of one shelf.

Can you see the feet marks of a small person? I've decided not to paint over these when the inside eventually gets a treatment.

The bottom drawers, hmm what a lovely colour! No wonder nobody wanted it but me.

A couple of hours later, together with a lot of elbow grease and its looking better already. 

A few coats of wax with a good buffing and the drawers are finished.

The top was a longer job, but here it is today, fully stripped and waxed, all golden and mellow.

Its been moved now into its final resting place and I love it. No idea what to put on the shelves yet but my wool is definitely going in the drawers, rather than big bags hidden behind chairs!

We've been foraging!

Just around the corner and look whats growing!

Cherry plums - Tiny little plums growing in abundance.  These ones aren't quite ready yet.

But these ones were, a quick shake of the branches and there was a lot more to be had and they taste delicious.  We gave up at 6lbs (2.8Kg) for now anyway.

So I made this... A wild cherry plum jam

And today I also made a spiced cherry plum chutney.

I've made other preserves too this weekend. A red cabbage and beetroot pickle, all home grown of course and so pretty.

And some more black currant jam, i'm actually quite glad we are at the end of the black currants for this year now, they have seemed never ending, we've had about about 11lb (5Kg).

We also somehow found time to go out for the afternoon on Sunday and went to the The Living Rain Forest. 

I'm sure this is a place we should have known about for a very long time, but it was only when I was looking for the nearest butterfly house that we found out about it. Unfortunately, there were only a couple of butterflies around and as it was so hot, even for a rain forest, everything was hiding, but a lovely little place for a visit none the less.

Welcome to the ugly bug ball

I am loving my new camera and being able to take some proper close ups. 

The problem now is I really, really want some additional lenses.....

New camera!!

Yesterday for my birthday I got a new camera!! How lucky am I ?

Yep I was going to go out and take the most fantastic photographs ever! Err no, I think I'm going to have to practice a lot. It's very different from my previous camera and will take some getting used to, but hey practice makes perfect, or so they say and now I can save up for some new lenses, or perhaps wait until christmas?

Low light indoors

Tomatoes, early days

After a few shots at home we went for a walk in Virginia Waters, its part of the royal landscape don't you know, how posh are we living 15 minutes down the road...

Anyway, here are some of the pictures, the others may be destined for the bin, got to start somewhere though.

The totem pole

The heather gardens

The burning bush

We took Bertie with us and left Arthur at home as his poor old bones just can't handle the long walk and boy was it long. We walked all the way around the lake and even Bertie gave up just after half way around and had to be carried for a while, otherwise we were never going to get home...

A nice peaceful evening though, especially for Roy, with both me and Bertie fast asleep and completely worn out on the sofa...

Off to Peru....

18 months of planning and the day has finally arrived, Jourdan is off to Peru. 

It's a school trip with Wilderness Expertise and he will be gone for a month. I know that it's an experience of a lifetime and that it is aimed to improve young people in lots of different aspects, team work, self confidence, responsibility and will look great on his Uni application form, but I'm going to miss him oh so much. 

He has had to raise the £3500 himself to go, as it was all part of the whole experience and has worked hard to get there, from fund-raising to actually getting a job to pay for it, although saying that it has cost me a small fortune this last couple of weeks to make sure all the kit he actually needs was there and the kit list was very long indeed.

Obviously everything was left to the last minute and obviously left to mum to sort out, but finally yesterday I did get him to make a start with me sorting the kit, well at least getting it all together in one place. Unfortunately that one place was all over my living room!!

At this stage the large rucksack was overfilled and we still had a lot to pack.

So this morning we started again and finally got there

Finally ready to leave

And into the car

To say that leaving him at school was upsetting is an understatement, but I did it and now just have to wait for a month until I can bring him home again. I think the hardest for me will be the no contact, worrying all the time, hoping everything is ok, but they say there will be a group email half way through with an update on how things are going, so at least I've got that to look forward to. I'm already so lonely sitting here on my own, it's just so quiet, but guess I will have to get used to it as next year he will be going off to university somewhere. 

I just want him home safely, after all he may be a tall young man but he is still my little boy and a month is a long time.