Kitsch, yet cool

I still love Cool Britannia x

Bringing The Outside In

Last night we dropped into local shop Bringing The Outside In for a preview of the owner Martins exhibition "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" a series of beautiful photographs taken up and down the North Norfolk Coast (a huge canvas of a deserted Brancaster beach being my favourite) I wondered around the shop trying to work out where exactly on our crowded walls in our cottage I could find a space to hang one - still pondering on it.
The shop was teeming with beautiful bits and pieces - all coastal and relevant to our corner of the world. From a gorgeous mounted toy yacht with Union Jack sails (I REALLY want it) to Mounted Artist Proof prints of Photographs to interior  design books, hand painted signs and beautiful wire letters of the alphabet. (a steal at £3-00 each)
I fell for this beautiful little light pull with 3 little metal fish hanging on it that now hangs in the bathroom - the perfect spot for it!

Lime and Yoghurt Cake with Rosewater

This cake has healing properties, I'm sure of it! Its one of the easiest cakes in the world to make - foolproof even. Every time I have made it and shared it (this does not happen often as it brings out the selfish in me), whoever has some loves it as much as I do. One of my 'nieces' Meegan would crawl over broken glass from London to Norfolk for a slice. I don't often bother with the nuts and rose petal decorations as the cake is never around for that long. Give it a try, be warned though, it's VERY addictive.

Cosmos = Home

The best way for me to 'take myself home' to South Africa when I'm here in Norfolk is step out side with a cup of Rooibos tea and tend my little patch of Cosmos, I do it most mornings before starting my long commute to London, but with a cup of coffee. It gives me a minute to think of home and my family so never a day goes by without them crossing my mind. My two 'nieces' (extended family) both moved here to the United Kingdom from South Africa couple of years ago, they both visit us regularly and I always try and have a little bottle with some cut Cosmos in next to their beds to make them feel at home too.....I think it works - they visit often and its not just my Yoghurt and Lime cake that gets them here (recipe to follow)

Elderflower Fizz....mmmmmmm!

Last night I had a couple of glasses of Elderflower Fizz I made a few weeks back on a whim, I searched the recipe online and found this ..... beyond yummy and very, very easy to make. I'm not sure it's supposed to be cloudy, but it fizzed everywhere when I popped the lid and I wasn't prepared to wait for it to settle again - it was still delicious anyway. Well worth a go!

The allotment bears 'fruit'

So the allotments proving worthwhile and is abundant with all sorts of treats, I can't help feeling that if only we knew more about what we were doing things might be easier for us. The one thing we seem to be professional at growing is weeds, weeds and weeds. But, amongst the varieties of weeds we've grown, amazingly these beauties have appeared (pictured).

An explosion of bright colours that have shown us we must be doing something right...

Our brassicas have proved disastrous and apart from a few pak choi, they have only been good as food for the multitude of insects that demolished them - with gusto!

So we've agreed to give them a miss from now on and have convinced ourselves we'd rather buy Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts from our local shops anyway! It means more space for Sweetcorn and Potatoes that we have hopelessly under-planted.

Next year we will be so much more informed and organised!

The Story So Far...

A year ago last month we made the snap decision to pack up our belongings and move to the North Norfolk Coast and change our lives dramatically. The idea was to rent a beautiful cottage we found online and see how the change of lifestyle suited us before committing and buying a house that had become our goal.

The cottage is divine, white walls, wonky wooden floors painted white upstairs and duck-egg downstairs, large fireplace in the sitting room and wood burner in the kitchen (a lifesaver in the cold Norfolk winter)

The garden, although a bit over run with weeds had beautiful rose bushes, huge rosemary bushes and two huge lavender bushes that over run the front door and make the kitchen smell heavenly every time some one enters the house - the bees adore them too and only today we had 3 different types buzzing about collecting pollen along with the butterflies and hummingbird moths. They are due a trim but I can't bring myself to do it till the last insect has had their fill.

The sun beats down into the front garden which makes it a haven in which to grow plants easily (I confess I haven't a clue what I'm doing) And this years additions to the garden have been various Rose bushes, an assortment of Lavenders, a Eucalyptus tree, an African Lilly, Strawberries, Potatoes, Beans, Sage, Thyme, Basil, a wide variety of Chilli's, Peppers, Sunflowers, Hydrangeas, Gooseberries, Blackcurrants, a Crab Apple tree, a Lemon Tree and may favourites - Cosmos(its my patch of South Africa in Norfolk)

We also took on an allotment and are slowly working out how to grow a variety of things which will no doubt be documented in this blog, along with our every day lives here in our tiny village and busy lives in the city.