Nearly Christmas

I had a brief moment of festive creativity at the weekend and this is what I came up with:

A table centre piece - I added some pheasant tail feathers from a recently butchered (and delicious) pheasant


A conveniently placed bunch of mistletoe by the front door so I can pounce on unsuspecting house guests


A pheasant feather, holly and mistletoe wall hanging for my kitchen


All very enjoyable to make and so much nicer than tinsel!

I'm not a church goer but I do love a nice cathedral

It's true. Last weekend we went to Worcester for a day out with a good friend. There was a Victorian Fayre in the town which was PACKED. So after fighting through the crowds, riding the carousel and munching on a hog roast bun, we decided to have a look around the cathedral. King John is buried there! I took some photos (obviously!) but didn't realise that you had buy a permit to do this until after I left the cathedral and saw the teeny tiny sign. I hope I shan't be smote. Will do something suitably holy to make up for it.

Amazing stained glass window which shows the story of Genesis. Obviously, it is better viewed close up.


Stunning ceiling


Another lovely window


Arches


Organ

I haven't blogged from my bubble for a while!

This is probably because I have been stuck in my car waiting for one of the many temporary traffic lights in the area to change. Poor Herefordshire has been plagued by these journey delaying nuisances for months and it shows no sign of letting up any time soon. In fact, one of the roads I use to get to work has a sign up warning that road works start there tomorrow for the next few weeks so expect queues. Sigh!

Do you like sunflowers?

Would you like to look at 80+ pictures that I took of some?

Farmer Phil's Sunflowers

Go on, have a look. They will make you happy.

5 Reasons To Love:-

The Courtyard Theatre, Hereford

1. They show the sort of films I want to see. Sorry Hereford Odeon, I love your smallness and 60s interior but your one screen means you have to show the one film a week that can make you the most money. I respect that but The Courtyard shows a wider variety.

2. The yearly pantomime. The kids love it (the whole school goes). Always fun.

3. The clubs/workshops. I spend every Thursday of the school term there while the boy attends a film making club. He loves it. It is quite expensive but it is secretly educational.

4. Just hanging around! I can sit around reading a book and drinking coffee or I can go and get something nice to eat. Very handy when you have two hours to kill waiting for kids to do their clubs!

5. The art. The Courtyard show various exhibitions which are completely free to look around. You can even buy the art if you like it.

The final point brings me on to Own Art. I only found out about this yesterday while I was looking in the gallery. It's a 0% finance way of owning an original piece of art priced between £100 and £2000 with the cost spread over 10 months. I personally think this is a fabulous idea. I have space over my fireplace that needs something special and I have always thought of getting an original painting or sculpture but didn't think it would ever be affordable. Now I can think again and seriously look for something lovely for my home.

September 19th 19.20 hours and it's starting to get dark

I survived the school summer holidays which included a massive house invasion by relatives and friends that lasted for 10 days! Came out the other side with an Xbox 360, a new TV and a puppy. 10 days of madness indeed.

Back to the normal routine and looking forward to Autumn: wearing scarves, going for walks through crunchy leaves at Queenswood (followed by a hot chocolate and a chip butty) and eating a lot of baked apples from my Ma's garden.

Before I go, I must mention the most important discovery of the holidays which is Ethos Trading http://www.ethostrading.co.uk/contact.html which is a fair trade shop in Tarrington. Found by accident and I feel deserves a little bit of free advertising.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Yesterday we packed a picnic, our buckets and spades and headed off to Wales. We went to Ogmore by Sea which has a lovely sandy and rocky beach. It was a hot day but the sea was still cold. But that didn't matter to the kids, they don't feel cold when it comes to playing in the sea.

Children don't get bored at the seaside. We made sand castles, looked in rock pools and went fossil hunting followed by sausage sandwiches, ice cream and a failed attempt to fly a kite (there was a piece of frame missing).

Will definitely being going to Ogmore again. It's only just over an hours drive, it would be rude not too!



Fossil hunt

Do you like owls?

I DO!

This week I took the kids to Kington Small Breeds Farm and Owl Centre I took my camera and brought home some lovely owl photos. The kids wanted to bring home a pygmy goat each. Actually, I would probably like one too they are extremely cute.

European Eagle Owlet

Larger owls like this one have orange eyes because they hunt at dust and dawn. They need larger prey like rabbits which are usually out and about at these times of day.

Snowy Owlet

There are two snowy owlets here, hatched in July. They are very funny and are just growing their adult wing feathers which are so big and heavy for them, they get really tired and sometimes just lay splatted out on the floor.

Burrowing Owl (named Spike)


Tawny Owl


The owls on display outside their cages can be stroked (by adults only!). The burrowing owl wasn't keen (he pecked me when I visited here two years ago so I didn't attempt it this time). The tawny owl was so unbelievably soft. There are many other types of owl here, some of them are so amazingly camouflaged, you have to look hard to see them in their aviaries.

Blackberries!

I took a stroll, ice cream tub in hand, down to my secret blackberry spot today. Almost filled the tub which I wasn't expecting. Over the next two weeks I shall be making a few more harvesting trips, occasionally with my child labour helpers. I say 'helpers'. The boy will only select berries that are absolutely perfect and reach his high standards. The girl will eat more than she saves. But it's all good fun.

I wish I could tell you I have an amazing secret family recipe for blackberry crumble but I don't. Instead, I use a Jamie Oliver one.

Hereford Library Ssssh!

I went into town today to return my slightly overdue books and pay my 50p fine. How I still manage to accumulate fines when I renew my books online is beyond me. I need to sign up for Library Elf to get reminders sent to my email before the books are due.

Borrowing books for free (minus fines!) is great. I love the library service. What is even better about Hereford library is that it has a free art gallery and museum upstairs which is child friendly. My little girl had a lovely hour playing with the puppet show, dressing up clothes, castle building blocks and Victorian kitchen. While she played, I looked around the artifacts.

Ales & Bales Music Festival 2009

Yesterday I had an absolutely fantastic time at Ales & Bales music festival down at my local pub The Plough Inn. Brilliant selection of local musical talent and ales. I did lose count of how many ales I consumed but I remember the names of a couple of them: Dognobbler and Pressed Rat & Warthog. Amazingly, I didn't have a hangover and wasn't ill after staggering home at 1.30am! Roll on Ales & Bales 2010.

The excellent Ragtime Ewan


Hilarious folky drinking songs supplied by The Compost Heap


One of the organisers of the event, Lou Richardson

I left my Herefordshire bubble yesterday...

...but I didn't stray far. I only went to Coleford in neighbouring Gloucestershire where my parents live. We all went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at Coleford's little Studio cinema. A nice small old fashioned cinema that still has a cinema organ down at the front and an intermission complete with ushers with ice cream/sweet trays! And they didn't bombard us with half an hour of adverts. Excellent.

Posh supermarket in Ross on Wye!

We regularly do our weekly shop in Ross on Wye. It's a lovely little town with a brilliant butchers and green grocers (you know, proper food shops like in the olden days). While we prefer to get most of our food from individual shops, we still need to pop to a supermarket sometimes for things like cat food and baked beans. Ross on Wye had a handy Somerfield right in the town centre but for some reason it closed. Ross also lost it's Woolies this year! This was a bit of a worry as, when the big shops go, off go the punters and the smaller shops often end up going out of business. So I am very happy to learn that Sainsburys have opened up in the old Somerfield store. I had been expecting a Co-op (I heard rumours) but a Sainsburys will do just nicely. I always feel quite posh in Sainsburys. It's not quite as posh as Waitrose but we aren't as fancy as Monmouth.

Dear potential blog readers, welcome to My Herefordshire Bubble

This may be my one and only post or I may carry on for years and years. Who knows?

I have called this blog 'My Herefordshire Bubble' because the longer I have lived here, the less inclined I am to leave it. I moved here from Surrey in 2002. I moved from a flat in walking distance of everything you could possibly need to a house in a small village with no conveniences at all. It was a huge shock to the system. I didn't know anyone and everything good/fun seemed to be miles away. What made matters worse was that my husband worked away during the week so I felt very alone with only my 3 year old son and cats for company. I cried quite a lot.

Seven years later (including the addition of a daughter and a rabbit), I am extremely settled. I hope to be back to blog again soon, possibly with the help of my new Nikon D90 camera!