Vintage lavender bag giveaway!

To celebrate completion for my lavender order I am giving away a lavender bag in a draw. The bag is made using vintage blanket and embellished with ribbon and backed using changing of the guard fabric. The lavender bag is filled with lavender from Provence France.

 All you have to do is leave a comment at the end of the post . If you would like a second chance of winning then pop over to facebook and " like"  my Tales of Mrs H page and also leave a comment . The draw is open until 10th May and I am happy to post worldwide!. Best of luck!!!!

Lavender bags

I haven't been posting a lot recently as I haven't been feeling a hundred percent- having a flu like virus over Easter and migraines this week and now I feel I'm going down with something else! It must be bad if Mr H notices!- His comment this morning was "You looked wrecked". Always a good start to the day I find!!

I digress - I really wanted to tell you about my order for the Long Barn in Alresford who wanted a Jubilee theme lavender bag and the fantastic people there gave a me  a lovely order.  I finally finished the order in the second week of the hols and have taken some photos for you to see:

My lavender bags in the basket

Red white and blue! 

Blue White and Blue!

Standing to attention

I am really delighted with with how they turned out - a lot of hard work but so worth it!
.If you are near Alresford in Hampshire you should really give the Long Barn a visit. Long Barn are growers  and distillers of lavender  which is grown locally in Hampshire. I understand that they are opening a coffee shop towards the end of May. There are no parking problems as they have their own car park and its within walking distance of the town. So why not pop in for some lavender, beauty products or some of their other lovely items? Who could resist?

Easter Sunday in Portsmouth Part Two

I left you down on Southsea seafront by the beach huts in my last post. I soo love beach huts. I think these are rentable but think they are quite expensive. I would just love to own one - particularly the ones you can stay in overnight like the ones at hengistbury-head in Dorset.

On with our day trip- having had the cobwebs blown from us on our shore walk we headed down to the old part of Portsmouth, funnily enough called Old Portsmouth. It is very quaint down there. You can walk all the way from the far end of the seafront along the promenade  all the way to Old Portsmouth, we didn't on this occasion as our eldest's leg was just out of plaster and he was still limping a bit.

We mouched around and took photos and stopped at a very old haunt of ours -The Still and West, for a half pint! Of course that was  diet coke for some!

The promenade at Southsea- the quiet end!!

 We parked our car here and wondered- there are lots of interesting buildings old and new!

Aren't these gates amazing?

The little teashop which you can see in this picture was once student accommodation for several of friends many years ago!

 And one of many faux pas pictures with the spinnaker tower appearing to come out of the top of the boat. The views from the top of the tower are amazing!

 My daughter wanted us to set up a teashop here: Its a shame there was one a few doors away already!

 Lots of little alleyways:

 and heading round to the Still and West past Spice Island!

 Nearly there now! and a view over to Gunwharf Quays

At last !

Hope you enjoyed our trip!

Easter hols

I know the holidays are over but it all happened so fast and disappeared in blink of an eye. It didn"t help that I seemed to go down with a virus- not as bad as the flu virus I had  the  Christmas before last but  not good none the less. All chicks were home in the nest and lots of possible changes going on regarding their plans for the future but it all keeps us on our toes!!
On Easter Sunday some of the family visited Southsea- we have such a lovely time there and when we parked our car , several cars ahead one of my husbands cycling buddies and his family were parked . How coincidental was that!!

  And photos of the young ones:

 They are meant to be over exposed- Arty?

Anyway I thought I would post some photos of our trip . I took more than usual so will post more next time.  I have become more obsessed with flora an hence the photos so far. We had a lovely time- I love being by the sea- and having spent a number of years in Portsmouth, this area has a lot of fond memories for me. More photos to follow!

 I love these ice-cream coloured huts! Until the next time and more photos!!!

Catching up on the allotment

Yesterday I took full  advantage of the lovely weather and spent the morning down at the allotment. Bliss!  The last two weeks have been busy enjoying being with the young people and yesterday it was me time.

I have to say its been a while since I was there so it was with mixed feelings when I headed off. Where was I going to start? Was I going to be dismayed with all the weed growth? I really didn't want to feel demoralised at how much there was to do- I just wanted to start !
With time ticking on in the growing season I remembered that I really needed to get some potatoes in the ground. Good Friday ( I think!) is often given as when the potato planting begins. I am sad to say that my potatoes this year chitted in the bag. Usually I place them carefully as soon as I buy them ( in January) in trays in the utility in bright light so that they can start growing their shoots. This year I took the reduced labour method of chitting them in the bag- well I just didn't get round to laying them out. They seemed absolutely fine.

On arrival to the allotment I set too. I had dug the potato area over and covered it with enviromesh ( a long lasting fleece type stuff) to prevent any cats visiting the area, earlier in the year. All that I had to do now was remove the mesh and lightly dig over.
 I have used a method over the past couple of years which is a variation on an Australian method of planting potatoes which involved planting the tubers in the base of trenches with mounds on either side. As the shoots grow up, earthing up is done by using the soil from the mounds on either side of the trench . I often end up putting grass cuttings in a thin layer on top too, but only on a dry sunny  day so that the grass clippings dry  and die- so  that there is no chance of growing more grass!!
I then use garden compost in addition if needed.

 So I dug my  first trench. Added a light sprinkling of well rotted manure to the bottom of the trench and gently mixed it with the soil in the base with my fork. I placed my potatoes spaced out in the bottom the trench

Oops- thats not very straight!

 Then I made a deeper hole in the bottom of the trench with my trowel and placed the potato in it - so that the potato appeared to be nestling in the base. I did that with all of them and then gently pulled the soil down onto the potatoes so that they were covered with several inches of soil. I also placed a layer of garden compost on top. In the picture below, the potatoes are planted in the trenches- with the mounds ready to cover the new growth as it appears.

 I had a lovely time down there and I really enjoyed the company of my little friend too - I apologise for the photo  and video quality-

Mr Robin sitting on the compost bin

I'm off to the allotment this morning, so hope to see him again. Enjoy the weather today as rain is set for later this week!

Post Easter

The holidays are about to end and I'm looking forward to updating everyone ! Sorry no time now but tomorrow I promise. I look forward to reading everyone's news too! Hope it was a good holiday for you and see you tomorrow!!!

Spring blossom

Okay as promise photos of my spring fruit tree blossom:

Last year I planted very hurriedly an apple and a plum cordon next to each other and lost their tags. I think this is the plum tree:

 I also bought a nectarine mini tree from homebase in the sale- just look at all the lovely blossom:

 This is the blossom on my espaliered pear which was a birthday pressie several years ago:

 and last lastly blossom on my James Grieve tree I planted last year!

I just hope the frost doesn't get them. It would be lovely to enjoy their fruits this year!