The day after....

Despite being utterly exhausted and falling in to a gin and tonic stupor for most of the evening.. I couldn't sleep last night for thinking about the Vintage & Handmade Fair II....
It was a FANTASTIC day for want of a better word... The hall was brimming with people five minutes after the doors opened ... and yes.. we had queues!!!!
I managed to leave my stall for five minutes throughout the 6 hours to whizz round and say hello to all our lovely ladies.. who all did a sterling job of making their stalls look so appealing and enticing...

I met many friendly bloggers and tried my hardest to remember names and faces so if we meet again... I will not draw a blank. It was so good of you all to travel the distances you did, to come and say hello and do a bit of shopping of course!Cowboys & Custard Stand

We even had our own resident photographer .. thanks to Mr Country Cottage Chic.. who snapped many great photos which can be seen on our Vintage & Handmade blog... and captured the essence of the fair perfectly.. from arrival.. empty hall.. to throng of people and all the colours and mood of the fair..Our team of tea ladies.. (sorry Jack) Miss Country Cottage Chic and friend, did a splendid job too of keeping the hungry and thirsty throng fed and watered throughout the day.
Thank you SO much ...to everyone who came along to support our fair and to meet us and fellow bloggers.. I would love to have known just who was milling around the hall.. and was delighted to have met quite a few new blogging friends.. and old...such a friendly lot of faces!
It was a wonderful wonderful day.. and the only low point of the day, was realising that I had left my camera in the car that had gone home with Mr Custard .. so no snaps from me (other than the one I took on arrival of all my 'stuff' waiting to get in) ....but lots of great memories to hold on to until the next fair..... coming in 6 months time!

P.s Photos added courtesy of Mr Snippets iphone.. to the rescue!

Two go mad in Suffolk...

Actually.. we didn't go mad.. quite the opposite.. we were really quite restrained and Lavenham.. where we were staying for a few days ... soon had us under it's spell. ...lulling us into a gentle stupor for our brief hols..
The village is a gem.. truly picture post perfect.. and stuffed full of historical buildings that seem to defy gravity...
Take a look at these chocolate box charmers...Candy colours are all the rage... sugary pink..Thick custard ochre..glowing in the evening sun..

Curious windows from floor to ceiling...

Tweedle Dum an Tweedle Dee.. twinned school houses...


I love this one.. with the herringbone brickwork and ancient wooden door..

There is a house to suit all tastes here.. as long as you like 500 year old dwellings..The National Trust Wool Hall.. ghostly white..I quickly fell in love with this charming village and the sleepy atmosphere...
I especially fell.. hook line and sinker for our little cottage home for three days..It was tiny but perfectly formed and packed full of cosy corners and a dream bedroom...It was such a joy to wake up in this bed every morning and have this view to gaze upon..Especially when this dear lady came to visit...blissfully unaware that I was only feet away..The highlight of our mad dash to the lush and leafy East of England... was meeting up with a wonderful lady.. and her equally delightful boy....
I knew that this friend would be just as I had imagined... meeting for the first time was so easy and reassuring and I was showered with her generosity and warm hospitality.... scrumptious orange cake and chocolate brownies .. consumed.. sitting in Kitschen Pink's ab fab home and receiving a goody bag of homemade gifts... it was the whipped cream topping of the hols.. a wonderful brief encounter... Thanks so much T.... The cowboy hat butter dish was inspired!I am wearing my lucky necklace tomorrow.. I may well need it!
Well.. I am sorry that I a woman of few words tonight.. but it is an early one for me.. as I am up with the birds again tomorrow and off to the Vintage & Handmade Fair....
The last six months have flashed by and the moment is upon us ..
So.. see you on the other side...Cowboys & Custard signing off... see you at the fair.

One fine day...

Today has been the best of days..
Waking to this..a misty promise of fine weather ahead..The mist slowly evaporating as the mercury rose...I was up with the birds and set off for our local boot sale to find a small city of people roaming with intent around a field.. At 8.a.m they were already wilting in the heat of the day as some sat in their cars trying to escape the sharp sunlight..
There was a lovely buzz to the place this morning.. almost a carnival atmosphere and of course the usual acres of 'tat' which sadly have no homes to go to any more..I wonder where this general rubbish will end up.. one of my many concerns..though I suppose that one man's treasure is another man's dustbin contents..
Luckily amongst the lurid plastic and obsolete C.D's.. there were still a few gems to be found..
Alas I did not take my camera with me to catch the flotsam and jetsam on display.
Clutching my swag... I was eager to get home and catch the best part of the day.. early morning in our garden.. The light so intense bouncing off the stone terraces and Cotswold stone walls..Sitting on the garden bench and just soaking up the bird song and gentle hum of insects and fauna all around is the stuff of life... I love my garden.. truly, madly and deeply!I could happily sit and stare into the middle distance and just 'be' amongst the cloak of fronds and flowers.. maybe I was a garden gnome in another life... that or a snail!
My biggest joy in the garden this week was the arrival of my oriental poppy.. I had been watching it closely for days waiting for the moment it would unfurl like a silk parachute.
They are magnificent flowers... bold, brassy... the Barbara Windsor.. no.. make that Shirley Bassey of flowers..They certainly know how to attract attention amongst the melee of other plants..

The light was almost too intense to capture the subtle palette of colours that ripple through our main border..Looking down the garden it seems to go on forever but ends abruptly with a rather unruly patch of wild garlic and weeds.. happy to coexist under the shade of the Hazel trees..One certainly has to have a head for heights, it wouldn't do to suffer from vertigo.. it is very steep and after a recent flight off a garden terrace belonging to a friend of mine.. I am very wary about stepping too close to the edge.. I should be wearing a crash helmet whilst doing the weeding.. just in case!

Well if you haven't wandered off by now.... I would just like to wish you all a wonderful week ahead..if you are on your hols..or even if you are not!
I will be off the radar for a few days... I will of course be back soon as there is something happening next weekend that I think I should attend...
Don't forget the Vintage & Handmade Fair.... as if you could!
I look forward to meeting those of you who do make it to the fair.
Happy hols x

S.O.S

Occasionally.. the gremlins rise up and cause mayhem in the world that is Blogland.. and this is just what has happened to Jayne of Country Cottage Chic. For any of you who are familiar with her lovely blog.. you will have been met by a warning that this blog is .. basically off limits!
In the meantime.. Jayne has set up another blog at http://vintageandhandmade.blogspot.com
Keep in touch and up to date with Jayne and the Vintage & Handmade Fair whilst those pesky gremlins are dealt with!

Sunday's Child....

When I was a child there was reliable rhythm to my life...
Weekdays were school days.. Startrite shoes put out the night before for my father to polish, breakfast around the red Formica table with Noddy smiling at me from the Sugar Ricicles packet and my darling mother dipping her toast in to her coffee and being admonished by my father for her continental habits that didn't die when she moved to old Blighty..
Saturdays were days when my father went to work at the bank until lunchtime when he would come home with a bag of sweets to share between my brother and I..
It would be Milky Ways one week, the next, Mars Bars.. or Maltesters..
Saturday evenings were predictably.. a tea of egg and soldiers, or cardboard sandwiches ( my mother insisted on buying hard as nails brown Hovis from the local baker who delivered to our door with a large basket of bread and biscuits each day) Fondant Fancies and Swiss roll... the entertainment would be Dixon of Dock Green or if we were lucky.. Doctor Who..and always a visit from my grandmother who looked just like Mrs Pepperpot and always smelt of Devon Violets and would give me a shiny sixpence from her little brown purse and a Callard & Bowser butterscotch lozenge..
Sundays were my favourite... The smells of a roast dinner wafting through the house, Gardener's Question Time on the radio and a dive for the sofa after lunch to snooze along to a black and white film.. preferably a weepy!
These days.. my Sundays don't have quite the same gentle rhythm..It is a day of catching up all I didn't achieve during the week.. tidying up loose ends, ironing a small mountain of shirts for my boys to put on their best for the week ahead, a lie-in if it is raining and there is no hope of a local car boot sale , Sunday lunch once in a while with my in-laws.. and the certainty that the whole pattern of life will resume the following morning... not with Noddy or Formica.... more of a grabbed piece of burnt toast.. forgotten under the Aga lid, accompanied by cup of cold tea discovered next to the bed.. served at 5.30 a.m..and drunk at 8 a.m..
Sundays are still my favourite day .... which is yours?

Our four legged friends...

Don't be fooled by this sweet little furry face.. and 'butter wouldn't melt' expression...
Just seconds later.. with that glint in his eyes.. It was an all out attack on the duvet and anything that happened to be under it... my feet!This cat has no shame!Though I suspect that Pickles was just venting his anger at the arrival of another four legged.. or should I say 'wheeled'.. friend..
Oh yes.. his nose has been put out of joint somewhat by the arrival of this curious parcel ..A very curious parcel indeed.. and the packaging worthy of an art's award...
I couldn't wait to get my paws on it and discover what or who... was inside..
It didn't take long to reveal this handsome little face..Looking a little forlorn after his long journey.. It really was love at first sight..
I would like you to meet Basil...
He is the best of pedigrees.. A Lines Brothers fox terrier..1950's... Early Triang toys..Now the big question is.. do I adopt him.. tempting tempting.. or take him to the fair and offer him up for adoption???
He will be accompanying me to the fair so you can come and say hello...
As far as Pickles is concerned... the sooner he goes the better!

Tulips in my garden May 2009

Perfection is pink.. and tulip shaped..
Oh what a beautiful beautiful day it has been here... I hope you had the same. x

Flights of fancy....

Usually I wake to the gentle twittering of birds each morning and the occasional rasping cry of the seagulls that dominate our city and are beginning to emigrate from the heart of the city and take up residence in the more rural areas of our neighbourhood..
However.. this particular morning the twitter and chatter of birds was replaced by a familiar roar.. a sound that always has me running to the nearest window or garden.. whichever is closer..
Pulling back the curtains I was met by this extraordinary sight...Not the usual shape we are so familiar with in these parts... as balloons are very much part of the summer landscape here in Bath.. with regular ascents in the early mornings and evenings..A chorus of dogs barking accompanies these graceful craft as they float over our houses.. something to do with the high pitch noise of the burners... our cat doesn't seem too bothered by them.I remain fascinated by these huge galleons of the sky and love to wave and say hello if they are close enough. Sometimes they become perilously close to the buildings below and on one or two occasions have collided with rooftops in town... which is terribly exciting to watch but must be terrifying if you are a passenger!I often wonder what it would be like to fly like the 'Nimble' girl over our fine city and wave back to the people on the ground for a change..
I would love to hear from you if you have flown in a hot air balloon and what it felt like.. and did you have the customary glass of champagne on your maiden voyage?