The bee auction

It's been an usually active social life here at Nelson House over the last couple of weeks. Easter saw us in London, followed by Andrew's birthday and then last weekend visiting friends in Surrey. Roger is an amateur bee keeper and Saturday coincided with the annual West Sussex Beekeepers bee auction. Now I have always had a soft spot for bees and have secretly harboured a desire to keep them, so thought this would be an ideal opportunity to learn more.

The auction was held at the Brinsbury campus, part of  Chichester College, near Pulborough. There were over 300 lots, all spread out over the car park. Lots were varied as you can see from the photographs (apologies to any apiarists if I've used the wrong terms!)

Smokers

Bee hives

Skeps - used for collecting swarms

Used for melting bees wax

Bee hive 'extensions'

Inspecting the lots

Mortimer on bee look out duty

The auction underway

In the end we bought nothing, apart from a lovely pub lunch and some honey flapjack, but I was quite enthused about bee keeping and had a good look at Roger's bee hives. He also kindly sent me away with a bee book and some catalogues.

Roger's hives (and yes their garden is gorgeous)

Apart from bee related activities we did a lot of walking with the dogs. Ben was happy (almost) to share his space with Mortimer.

Move over!

And yet again Mortimer found more water to splash about in.

Water dog

So once we returned home I did some bee related searches and have put our names down for a taster day in the summer. Watch this space!

Rescued

I promise this isn't another upholstery post, honestly. In fact if anything it's a bit of a rant. I needed a new chair for my desk. Andrew and I share an office and at one stage we both had proper black office chairs. Andrew broke his. Then broke a second and so I donated mine as I really wanted one that would disappear under the desk, one without arms. So I swiped one from the kitchen table as a short term fill in. Given the choice I will always buy an old piece of furniture, helps my pocket and the planet. I'd been scouring the charity shops and second hand furniture stores for a  while but hadn't found anything.

A couple of weeks ago we were driving back from the farm shop and I spotted some furniture that had been dumped in a field entrance. Here's the rant - why do some people feel that the countryside is their own personal waste disposal tip? This time it was several pieces of furniture. They had to have had a vehicle, so why not drive to our town refuse site? It's only about three miles from where they dumped, is open 364 days a year, takes almost anything and accepts vans? They even sell stuff that people leave if it's in good condition. Failing that we have a number of charities locally that will collect furniture and sell it on. Anyway rant over. I made Andrew pull over as I had spotted something, a dining chair.

Discarded

It had lost the drop in seat but apart from that was perfectly sound if not a rather nasty colour. But a quick rub down and three coats of paint changed that. I then cut a piece of plywood for the drop in and made a seat.

1/2" ply for the base

Several layers of padding

Et voila! A new desk chair.

New chair and office intern

And on a completely different subject could my French speaking readers help? You may remember that I have daily email alerts from French estate agents sent to my inbox. I'm nowhere near fluent but I do prefer to get the non-English versions as quite often things get lost in translation, and I'm pretty good on estate agent speak. Occasionally however you get recognised as being a British computer and get the English (or probably the Google translate) version, as was the case this week. We were fine downstairs, we got the stone sink, magnificent fireplace and oak staircase. But then it went a bit haywire as in the upstairs hall was a 'porky'. I've no idea what this is! I managed to get on the French site and found it was a 'bolet', which is, I think, a type of mushroom but in the back of my head I also have it as an exterior stone staircase which also makes no sense as we'd already ascertained that the stairs were interior and made of oak. Anyone any clues?

Not ideal at the top of your stairs

Confessions of a snow lover

I make no apologies for the photographic nature of this post. I just love snow. I know it causes disruption but it's just gorgeous. Last Wednesday we woke up to minus 13 centigrade and a light snow fall but heavy frost. By the time we walked Mortimer it had warmed to minus 9 and didn't get warmer than minus 5. There was a freezing fog which had it's own type of snow which I nicknamed 'frizzle' a sort of freezing mizzle.

Freezing fog

At times the fog would clear and we could see the beauty of the ice. I loved the bright burst of colour from the copper beech.

Copper beech

Remember this place? It was only a couple of weeks ago that Mortimer was retreiving sticks from here!

Where's my pond gone?

We were promised a lot of snow on Friday but it didn't amount to much although we did have more on Sunday. Sadly they were both at night so I couldn't sit by the fire with a hot chocolate watching the snowflakes.

We've been making sure the bird feeders are topped up but the rabbits are making their own arrangements.

Rabbit stripped bark

Waiting

One of the reasons I like snow is that it unifies everything. We walk past these sheds everyday and they are a muddle of shapes and materials. Here they just look charmingly rustic.

Small holders work

Tractor tracks

Some times it was sunless and the world became monochrome although with a beautiful light. But then there were also hours of brilliant sunshine.

Cloudless sky

I loved this field, the weeds looked just like cotton plants in full bloom.

Snow cotton

Needless to say Mortimer just loves the snow and ends up covered with ice.

This is my best side!

Ice beard

Mortimer took credit for this snowman which looks remarkably like a painting we found under the wallpaper in guest room 2.

All my own work

Bedroom artwork

Which segues nicely into the fact that Andrew is cracking on with aforementioned room and has, with great timing, been putting up the insulation. 

50mm insulation

I just love this stuff, the difference it makes is amazing.

Detail round window

Tomorrow we'll be carrying sheets of plasterboard upstairs and it will start to look like a room again. And I can take over with painting and soft furnishings. Can't wait!

Last week at Nelson House

We had more wet walks with Mortimer

And again please!

as well as his friends.

Glad Bennett wasn't coming home with us

Work recommenced on the second guest room (panic ye not visitors - the other guest room is still intact!).

Here we go again!

By which time I'd decided I'd had enough of wearing wellies and steel toe caps and bought these

Gorgeous!

Spent some time on Pinterest and found Gascony Magic via Kalba at Grillou. Makes me want a holiday.

Slippery stuff piping

Made piping so that I could finish a long overdue upholstery project of mine.



And made this divine dessert for New Year.

Winter fruit compote

If you want to have a go:

Pour a bottle of Pinot Noir into a pan with 6 juniper berries, 4 cloves, 1 star anise & a vanilla pod. Simmer for 20 minutes, remove from heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of Cointreau or Calvados. Or probably any fruit based spirit.

In a non-metallic bowl put 250g. dried apricots, 200g. prunes (Agen if possible but softish ones if not), and 100g. dried cherries. Pour over the wine, cover and infuse overnight.

Remove the fruit and set aside. Put the wine in a pan with 125g dark brown soft sugar and heat gently until dissolved, making a light syrup. Pour over the fruit and add 2 oranges peeled and sliced, 100g. walnuts and some fresh figs.

Serve at room temperature with creme fraiche or cream and a glass of dessert wine.

Simple but utterly gorgeous!


Wonder what will happen this week?

Autumn

The last few days have been very mild and damp, some days the fog hasn't lifted at all. Dusk has been eerily quiet with sounds muffled and visibility low.

Misty morning view

The mushrooms have flourished in this weather so I took the camera out to see what I could find. I just wish we had the French tradition of the pharmacies identifying them for you. I don't think my Observer Book of Funghi is up to the job.

Under the willow tree

High rise fungus

Marching mushrooms

These seem so fragile

Before Mortimer decimated them!

Surely these would be good with some garlic & butter?

The apple harvest started late this year and although most of the Bramleys have been picked there are still a lot of Howgate Wonders on the trees. Because it is that bit later the leaves have started to turn giving some gorgeous colours.

Autumn 

Mortimer loves this time of year, cooler weather and an abundance of food!

Of course I wasn't scrumping!

Until next time


Sharon

Oxburgh Hall

I really don't know where the time has gone lately - it's just whizzing by. Andrew is still under the floorboards plumbing away. I'm trying to knock a door into shape and doing various sewing projects and haven't read any of my favourite blogs for ages let alone written any. But we did escape the confines of Nelson House when Andrew's brother came to visit.
The weather forecast was a bit iffy so we had Plan A if it rained and Plan B if it didn't. Somehow the weather sort of swapped about during the day and we did both.

Plan A (rain) was a trip to Oxburgh Hall, a 15th century moated manor house with a chapel and an enviable kitchen garden.

Oxburgh Hall

Walled garden

If you're going to have a walled garden it should have a tower! And a gardener's bothy to drink tea in during bouts of inclement weather.

Gardener's bothy

You're not allowed to take photographs inside the hall but you are allowed on the roof, I'm not great at heights but I couldn't resist looking at the chimneys and standing in the towers.

Onto the roof

Every chimney is different

From one of the towers

Back at ground level we wandered round the garden where there was this beautiful mixed border. Not only was it a mass of colour there were hundreds of bees.

Andrew & his brother hiding from the camera

A mass of colour

I want this border

We got home at about 3.30 and decided to do Plan A(dry weather) as well, so we grabbed Mortimer threw him in the back of the car and headed for the beach at Old Hunstanton.

You can see from the sky that it had been raining but our timing was perfect,

Passing showers

Although Mortimer sulked in the car,he was convinced he was off to the kennels, once he got a sniff of the sea air he was off.

This is nice

I think the French call it thalassotherapy

Can I have a biscuit now? Please.

We resisted the temptation of fish & chips and all returned home tired but happy.

And next time I'll show you more plumbing.  Can't wait can you?