Author Archives: pennygj

Excuses, excuses…

I was always quite good at those ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuses when I was at school – my mother will vouch for that! But for quite sometime I have been without a four legged friend at which to point the finger. Not any more! So now, without further ado, I will introduce the reason why an exciting, colourful and in depth post about Great Dixter has not yet been forth coming…

A teeny tiny spot on the landscape, called Higgins.

He’s very sweet…

…in fact completely adorable. It’s a shame about the noise like a crateful of seagulls when put to bed at night! So we’re working on that, and the five am starts!

He’s keeping very busy…

…and helping me with my diary, so I’m sure we’ll be back in the swing of things very soon.

Heading South

Our usual trips to visit the French branch of the family involve driving along featureless motorways packed with cars as we head towards the Channel Tunnel. This time we decided it would be nice to actually see some of the south coast of England on the way and so booked a few nights in Hastings at Cavalier House.

Tim had left me with the Country Living Guide book so I had drawn up a short list of interesting places to go, only thirty four of them!

Once we had left the nightmare that is the M25 we headed south on real roads, with scenery. I have really fallen for East Sussex, a bit hilly, a bit windy (as in winding, not blowing) and lots of leafy green tunnels. Very picturesque villages, roadside farm shops full of fruit, and then as we approached Hastings, glimpses of the sea. Our B & B located, we unloaded the luggage and set off into Hasting Old Town to explore. Just a few steps from Cavalier House was George Street, hung with bunting and with the tables and chairs of small bars and restaurants spilling out on to the pedestrianised street. Very European, very inviting!

We filled in the time before an evening meal with a spot of window shopping…

I would have quite liked to have taken this vintage sign home, along with this tea set…

If I couldn’t have the tea set, I did have a wonderful pot of fresh mint tea at the end of our meal at Latham’s Brasserie, and, to the music of the seagulls(?) we wandered back for a good nights sleep. My plan for the following day? Top of that list of thirty four places of interest was Great Dixter…but that’s for another post.

A recipe search and getting lost on the blog trail

So there I was, looking at the blogs I like, then looking at the blogs that the blogger whose blogs I like, likes and then finding that those blogs have links to other blogs….well, I’m sure you get the picture. Anyway, I have twice found blogs I really like, and have wanted to follow, and got distracted, and ..lost it. I’ve gone back through the history, but … So that’s why I can’t give you a link to the site where I found this delicious and incredibly easy biscotti recipe. I do feel duty bound however to pass on something so yummy and simple to make so I think Planet Penny needs a recipe page…Hmm, resident geek is away, can I do this all alone….?

In which we Head for an Exhibition, and eat Cromer Crab on the Way…

face on a bollard top

Well, we didn’t expect to meet HIM on a Norwich street! I know nothing about him, who he is or where he came from, but it’s a really good way to top a bollard! We were ‘up the ci’y’ today combining hair cuts with a Louise Richardson and Andy Campbell exhibition. (It’s Thursday again!)

The arcade in Norwich

Our hairdresser is situated in the Royal Arcade in Norwich, which is a pretty good place to start to the day. While Kit was in the chair, I went off to the market where the nice lady on the wool stall was, as usual, able to supply exactly what I needed.

yarn, needles and sock pattern

In this case, the wherewithall for portable holiday knitting, and a start on Christmas presents for nearest and dearest!

Our intended destination was the King of Hearts, to see an exhibition by Louise Richardson and Andrew Campbell. It was a really inspiring exhibition. Although their work is very different in execution, the overall effect in an exhibition situation blends beautifully, and the space at the King of Hearts works very well.

Gotto Collection

Some of the pieces were displayed behind glass, making it difficult to do them justice with a photograph,but I do have some particular favourites. These by Louise… Moth Dress by Louise Richardson

Detail of Moth Dress by Louise Richardson

Dress made of nails by Louise Richardson

detail of nail dress by Louise Richardson

and these by Andrew…

Andrew Campbell piece, 2009 Exhibition, NorwichUK

As well as an exhibition space, The King of Hearts has a music room for lunchtime concerts…

I would point out that the wonkiness is due, not to a faulty camera or even a liquid lunch, but to Tudor builders! A shop full of beautiful craftsman (craftswoman, craftsperson?) made pieces…

And a sunny courtyard..

Where we ate lunch.

Refreshed, both in body and spirit, we headed up Magdalen Street in search of the Park and Ride bus, but were distracted by a bargain set of curtains in the Oxfam shop anda wonderful Emporium of vintageness in the old Looses building…

At this point I would have been grateful to find a pair of Louise Richardson’s shoes to take me home, rather than a bus!

winged shoes

Garden Volunteers

I’ve aready confessed to having lost the plot in the garden this year. But it does carry on regardless, doesn’t it? Last year I battled through with tomatoes, staking, watering, feeding, pinching out, and had to contend with splitting, blossom-end rot and terminal green-ness so I vowed I’d only grow them in my mother’s greenhouse in future, or not at all.

Of course this didn’t happen, due to my mother’s new knee saga so, succumbing to a rush of blood to the head, I bought two hanging baskets of Tumbler tomatoes thinking they would be ornamental as well as useful. Once hung in a prominent position by the back gate, all the leaves shrivelled up and died. I’m not going to insult my post with a photo. They were so hideous I removed them from sight, parked them by the shed and ignored them. There, watered by the rain running off the shed roof and without a drop of Tomorite, they produced a good crop of tasty unblemished tomatoes.

I did manage to sow a few salad leaves in the raised beds, where, in amongst the rocket which had been sadly decimated by something unidentified and voracious, I found the offspring of all those disasterous tomatoes of last year. These are now tall and healthy and just beginning to fruit.

I am now watering them and pinching out etc, but will my intervention now mean they are going to turn up their toes? Where’s Alan Titchmarsh when you need him? If they start sulking now I may well be on here in a few weeks time showing the world my little pots of green tomato chutney.

Jamming Session

Plum blossom

Some years ago I received a wild plum tree from Country Living magazine which we planted at the edge of the garden. I’ve always loved the delicate blossoms of the sloe trees which froth along the road sides in early spring, and I thought that wild plums were sloes, only really useable in sloe gin, being small and rather bitter. It was quite a surprise to find that my little tree had produced beautiful sweet miniature plums.

Even more surprising was being able to harvest two and a half pounds of them.

Since Tim is away at work , I felt that eating that many plums single handedly might have a slightly problematic effect, and I didn’t want them to end up as a UFO (unidentified frozen object to you organised people out there who never create them) at the bottom of my freezer. Jam is the answer… I had a sweet and sweaty session in the kitchen with David Tennant (Oh, all right, it was a rerun of Doctor Who – a girl can dream can’t she?) while testing and retesting for that scarily elusive setting point. Eureka! That’s it, and the jam is in the jars.

One for Tim and me, and one each for Thomas, Will, and Aimee. Now, where’s the toaster….?