It’s been a few days of flu, flowers for fashion and boat stuff. In the meantime, three things I heart today – there’s something very Grannie and Grandad and where’s my spacehopper about these, but don’t you just love polaroids?

xxx

Themes on the boat this week: A dash of dancing, and upholstery courses.

The flowery wallpaper dilemma and a request for a care sheet for a favourite flower
(peonies of course) from Sarah. I hope the below covers your pot ponderings.

We’ve also been doing a lot of snooping for furniture and bits and bobs – is it really too early for the Christmas present hunt? The owl and the pussycat say no.

Dear Sarah,

I had to look this up for as much as I love peonies mine have always been in the ground, in my hat or bobbing their heads through dutch buckets on Nine Elms Lane.

So…aparament, keyword is composting in to large pots with a loam based compost. Make sure it’s watered and give it liquid feed – replant if it’s getting too big between October and March. They also like to be propped up as their flower heads get heavy – a bit like sweetpea or bean frames!

Hope that’s helpful.

Tammy xx

Maybe it’s all those pumpkin seed bracelets my ma used to make me instead of buying me a pippa doll – or a week of bright orange child catchers nose shaped gourds getting to me, but I have a yen for a pair of orange juice jones shoes.

Spurred on by running in to my friend donning a pair in Sainsburys in (that neon – I bought satsumas) and an early morning trip to the flower market for the last of the orange dahlias I now, stand before you contemplating tangerine trotters.

Rather fun, but could we should we? Wonderings for a wednesday.

xxx

My day has mostly involved pumpkins, heavy ones, autumn hydrangeas, crispy ones and red red virginia creepers being twisted around swings. More on that fun soon.

Blackberries. We have a plethora of these buggers on the towpath and I’ve so far been stuck as what to do with them, apart from munch mid pick, twirl in to posies (too obvious but pretty hey?) and then do something fancy with them and Venison.

But really what could be sweeter than a cup of tea, creme fraiche, a raid of O’s Jazz and odd sock collection (orange, pink, and cozy please), and these?

It’s just one of those nights… Autumn fun xxx

We’re always cooking up feasts on the boat but generally it gets shovelled before we can either write down the recipe or take pictures. And that would be be a bad habit to get into anyway…this blog would never end.

Food photography really is a tricky one and I’ve yet to have seen it done as hip as this…and starring four of my favourite things.

xxx

I get asked about boat life a lot, how do you do flowers on it? Do you have mice, can the cats swim, does the boat move? The answers are squeak mainly yes.

What’s it like in the winter (effing cold my dears). How does it run? I can’t believe you have a washing machine! There’s even a kettle…Dah dee dah.

So, here for starters are some snaps of the boys pulling up in their blue barge on a sunny day and bringing our delivery of diesel, coals and gas. That’s how we roll.

A great deal of tea is drunk on these occasions and yup those really are Rosie and Jim style canisters. They are as obligatory for boat dwellers as one of these, mugs of tea, electricity cards, giant magnets and a pair of black and white collies.

And for those visitors – mainly boys popping over for a dance – who were concerned I am not in distress anymore, the flag is now the right way up swaying with white bunting, Cath Kidston style in the wind. Patriotic or just pretty?

xxx

Getty, Life and me x

You may well mock but is it a cat, is it a bear? We clearly need to talk. Today the chicken wire cats continue…much to the bemusement of mine.

Happy days, bloody fingers and music for a Monday.

xxx

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Announcements in the telegraph, chicken wire cats, homemade burgers and music.

xxx

Friday fever on the towpath and I’m ordering 12 foot silver birch trees and butterflies from Covent Garden, yup today is decidedly a non flowery day.

It’s also jolted me into digging out my favourite childhood book of the poem by Roscoe – how amazing are these cool illustrations by Alan Aldridge?

A bed time book this sweet little missy was always the page I longed to turn to …and this tho not as pretty or charming, in latter years was just the icing.

…to listening to the Beatles and butterflies birches and books.

xxx

As much as I want this blog to be about lots of lovely things apart from my own flowers sometimes I’m known to sneak the odd gratuitous Gypsy Rose ‘look what I made earlier’ vase on, this is one of those occasions. There have been others.

I love the fact that hydrangeas are still around now, pink, fluffy and Andy Warholesque in the summer, and now as they uncurl wonderful for drying. I really really hope I didn’t sound like Martha Stewart just then… but it’s true.

And as autumn unrolls we get these, luscious reds and burnt pinks – perfect for a charming film execs soiree or for us cascading out of buckets around the boat.

Check out some more heavenly hydrangeas here, and what would Wednesday be without a warble? xxx

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