Talk & Tea

Darkness, Exhaustion and Rain

It is very very late at night. I would usually be asleep by now. I wish I was: my eyes feel like balls of cotton wool, the lids are lead shutters that keep dropping closed, and yet I cannot switch my head off. There's something fascinating about the burst of activity the brain undergoes when it would usually be relaxing and re-ordering.

Lots of things have happened today. Mostly miserable - the kind of things that make you want to curl up in a ball with a fluffy blanket, combined with those that turn the most placid of us into screeching banshees. I have been working all night, (on and off, mostly trying to concentrate), completing a last minute final draft that has to be in tomorrow. Only when I had done that did I discover half had to be changed and ... I could go on. At any rate it made me want to follow this advice:

This is a poster I made months ago thanks to another procrastination station sent to me by my new flatmate, Daisy-Chain aka. VEGAN! Give the website a try: it is terribly good fun, as well as a terrific time-waster.

 
Anyway, I have luckily found a way to process, relax and keep my thoughts busy without waking the entire household. The name of this mystical cure?

Music.

I am currently listening to the little known artist, Emmy the Great. She is one of those alternate performers who makes me fall in love with music again and wish that I had an acoustic guitar (complete with limitless talent and lessons) to hand. So often now songs are over endorsed, commercialised, synthesised and pumped out to the masses for the highest gross profit available. We forget that music is another glorious form of art, evocative in a way that little else is. Beautiful music has a way of speaking directly to the soul, of making our very bones feel they are soaring.

So without any more ado here are two of my favourite examples of her work:

Cassandra (a song inspired by the Greek legend of Cassandra, a prophetess who saw the horrific future but was fated never to be believed)

Paper Forest

I hope they brighten up a small corner for you too.

Good night,

Love Amy

The Dog Ate My Homework, Miss...

 

Warning: This post contains an apology, rambling and an awful lot of images. Be prepared.

Hem-hem. Right.

Anyone who has taken even a cursory glimpse at this blog will have noticed that I am not one of life's prolific bloggers. You might not be mistaken in thinking I am in fact one of the worst.

I have not blogged since Easter this year, so my blog, which began so tentatively in the Spring, has managed to hack out an entire month from it's record. Am I to blame for this?

Yes.

Sadly, (or perhaps thankfully) there are no extraneous circumstances to excuse me - just my little lazy self. Although there was more to it than that. After all, the blog was initially set up as an act of procrastination (did I just admit that out loud?) to avoid academic work; and get me out of the nation's compulsive move towards Jeremy Kyle when boredom beckons. For the record I have only ever watched one episode. I am too scarred to watch again.

So what have I been up to since we last met? The answer is, pparadoxically, not a lot and too much to mention fully. Further update blogs on the important  updates will follow, but for now here is a quick picture-show catch up.

Baking ...

A ridiculous, hilarious, humiliating & extravagant photo-shoot with Holly Edwards ...

Staring at Willis, shuttling him to Liphook and back and wistfully wishing we could jump again...

Also, I had the privilege of doing some work experience at the Chichester Observer. They were terribly friendly and helpful, which made my time there wonderful. Mostly it was great because they gave me a desk along with permission to chain myself to it and write and write and write. I wrote things for a magazine and for their Youth Matters column.

Added to this was the wonderful roving reporting opportunity I had for the Valley Diary. It is a local publication serving the villages of the Lavant Valley, keeping residents up to date with the events happening near them. There is nothing that spices up a summer quite like press passes to:

The Weald & Downland Museum - Rare Breeds show

And the Festival of Steam

And West Dean's Chilli Fiesta

And ... well, you get the idea.

So - that is what I was up to, along with other things such as dog care (which I will cover later. There is news in this), reading, horse care, reading, babysitting and more reading. I believe Doctor Who featured too.

Regardless, this blog has rambled on for far longer than it was meant to. If you have made it this far I salute you. Go and treat yourself to a nice biscuit and a hot drink - you deserve it. Mostly I just wanted to say: I am still here. Behind, forgetful, excellent at procrastination, but still here. I do intend to blog more, I just need to remind my brain of this fact.

And... aha - it is still Hallowe'en. I hope you have all been terrified down to the very marrow of your bones. I hope you have read something scary and seen some fabulous costumes (maybe even worn some too). I hope we meet again soon.

Love Amy (the late and hardly organised)

Horses and Caravans

No, I am not talking about travellers/ gypsies/ anything else you wish to fit into this category. This is instead a rather belated post about my glorious Easter holiday with my mother!

Camping: I like it a lot more than a teenage girl probably should, there is something quite wonderful about staying up late and reading by firelight. 'But you mentioned caravans!' I hear you cry. You would be right there, my girly week of camping was, in fact, the kind of which has been affectionately dubbed as 'glamping'. That is sleeping in a field with a roof and a duvet. Although for my mother, the dog and I the glamping was not quite up to the expected standard: a caravan generally promises electricity for one thing, but sadly as we had no generator so we had to go without. The battery would not have lasted if it was overloaded with laptops, i-phones and hairdryers. Hence, the reading by firelight. OK, by candlelight really (aided by a torch). It was nicer that way I feel - we got the Romantic flickering light along with a sofa. Tents are lacking in the sofa- department. Other glamping errors included: the gas-fuelled fridge breaking down & semi-cooking half of our food instead;and the hob packing up for a day, effectively bamboozling several self-proclaimed 'camping experts' who played around with the wiring and left shaking their heads in despair.

If you are a very hard-core camper no doubt you despise me right now, but in my defence it is good to have variety in life: and that includes a variety of gl/camping experiences!

Anyway, on to the second (and best) feature of my week in Gloucestershire: the horses. Unlike other camping holidays where you have to try and find 'things to do' each day, we went to Badminton Horse Trials. It is the best part of the eventing calender in my eyes, a CCI **** four star international three day event held in the parkland of Badminton House. This was the first year that we have been lucky enough to watch the entire competition live, and I adored every minute of it. Being there in the flesh is a thousand times better than receiving the event through the TV. Every day included something wonderful, be it the humorous radio commentary from Carl Hester during the dressage phase; the labyrinth of equine and country themed trade stands; the joy of walking the cross-country course both before and after the competitors have ridden it (when you are able to get right up to the fences and realise just how scary and difficult they would be to ride); eating strawberries and clotted cream in the sunshine; and sitting with the buzzing crowd during the final showjumping rounds.

 (All the Photography thanks to mum's skill - not mine)

Unbelievably Mark Todd galloped to victory this year - thirty-one years after his first Badminton win. Extraordinary riding, which left us all gob-smacked and in awe.

This was possibly one of the most enjoyable holidays I've had, unashamedly as it included one of my greatest passions in life. A fully-catered-villa-by-the-beach holiday hasn't got a patch on one revolving around horses. Admittedly, my opinion was swayed by the beautiful weather. Sun, sun, and later more sun, which led me to burn tomato red and made my ears peel. Quite literally. Still...there were horses.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                               I could go on about the Easter vacation: including visits with friends, walks by the sea and a Royal Wedding Family Feast, but if you've managed to make it this far I think you deserve a reward. I'll stop rambling now.Go back to whatever you were doing. As you were.

Oh alright, I'll give you these two snapshots of the patriotic build up (just don't tell....Shhh!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Amy x

Ps.  I hope your Easter was as fun as mine! Did you do anything exciting?

Grow A Wall

I just adore this DIY project I found on Miss Modish's blog - it looks like such a wonderful thing to do. A living, breathing mural rather than another painting? Who'd have thought it! Anyhoo, here's the article as posted by her. Sadly I can't say this was my idea...wish that it were. I suppose I'll just have to settle for giving it a go this summer and when/if I do I can tell you about the many ways I did it incorrectly. Enjoy!

Supplies: wooden soda crate in good structural condition, polyurethane, 21 small succulents plus cuttings from a large pencil cactus, well-draining soil mix (if you can find succulent mix, even better!), reindeer moss, plastic netting trimmed to the size of the inside perimeter of the crate (chicken wire would also work and look cute to boot!), picture hanging hardware, scraps of synthetic craft felt (to cover the handle holes), 5 or 6 tacks, staple gun, scissors, and pruners or wire cutters.

These are the materials I used, but get creative and use what you have on hand! Don't attach the picture hanging hardware and you have an ever-evolving centerpiece for the dinner table.

Look for an old soda crate with metal brackets on the corners and structurally sound boards.  A few days before Project Planting, polyurethane the interior of the crate. Give it a couple of good coats to prolong the life of the wood and keep water from soaking through the back and onto your wall. 

Flip the box over and attach picture hanging hardware. Add rubber bumpers to the back bottom corners so the garden hangs parallel with the wall. Remember, we're trying to defy gravity, not prove it. Go for heavy duty hardware, like if you were hanging a heavy mirror and don't skimp. With the soil and occasional watering, a vertical garden can be fairly heavy. If you have questions about how to hang it, this article has comprehensive instructions.

My crate had holes in the back so I plugged them with small scraps of craft felt. Craft felt is a synthetic material, so it won't wick the moisture from the soil onto walls.  I also used felt to cover the handle holes on the inside of the box, and tacked the felt in place to keep dirt from falling out of the bottom or sides.

Time to fill the crate with a nice even layer of soil then secure the netting over the soil by stapling it in place.

Layout the plants to get an idea of what the finished product will look like. Move them around until you have an arrangement you're pleased with. 

A good thing about choosing succulents for this project is they prefer very little water. . Lots of water + wood = rot. We're going for the opposite of that; this project is so pretty you'll want it to last a long time.

Let's plant! You can poke plants with small roots through the holes of the netting into the soil; same goes for cuttings. The hens and chicks I used had more significant root balls, so I took my pruners {wire snips if you're using chicken wire} and cut a slit into the netting and tucked the roots into the dirt. Finagle the netting flat again, to form a nice hold between the plant's crown and roots.

Once everything is planted,  fill in bare spots with a few more cuttings and cover exposed soil by tucking reindeer moss into the netting. {Reindeer moss is readily available at craft stores.} This step holds the soil in place while the succulent roots develop.

Try it upright. Lean the garden on a wall and give it an overnight test run. Check it in the AM. If everything is still hangin' out (har har) I say you're ready for mounting your garden to the wall! Again, refer to this picture hanging article to ensure your garden doesn't come crashing down.

 

Pat yourself on the back for another green job well done. Now, go pour yourself a tasty beverage, sit back and enjoy the view.

via www.modishblog.com

What I Do When The Weather Is Nice And I Have A Few Hours To Kill

So, it's been a long time since I blogged hasn't it? Even following my little rant about blogging more regularly - I suppose I don't listen to me any more either, which is probably a safe policy...

Summer. It's almost upon us. Well, at least I keep trying to fool myself that it really is just around the corner and that this year we will not be disappointed by an English weather system fail - where we have a wonderful spring build-up before the rain sets in throughout June and July. Basically I am hoping that England will not act like it is England. The past few weeks have been deceptively gorgeous haven't they? I think this might be our summer, only earlier than we scheduled it. Yet who am I to complain? Instead when the sun breaks out and the air starts to feel a little toasted I do what everyone else does - I get out in it and enjoy the day. Here are some pictures from one sun-inspired wander last week (I finally got around to uploading them. Finally).

 

 
My way of taking a walk in the country. Trust me, it is so much more fun.

 

Willis is such a handsome boy isn't he? (For any non-horsey people, the answer is yes. Although I am bias)

 

 

 

 

There. Some pictures of a ride in the spring. I hope they make your day a little bit brighter and sunnier.

Love Amy

Ps. How is it that a slow internet connection has the ability to turn me into a raging purple-headed monster within a matter of minutes? Damn you technology!