Side-tracking from the season...

The garden at King John's Hunting Lodge Tea Rooms in Lacock

Peering into a private garden in Lacock.

 Images 3 and 4 from the cemetery in Corsham (The manor Corsham Court in the background behind the wall in image 4).

Dear readers,

I had hoped to offer you a bit of floral entertainment and interior playfulness this week, 

but the time monster seems to have gobbled up this week's ration... again!

So, above are some photos from October that I have played around with a little in Picnik (free editing program online). I just enhanced the colours a little, but even without any computer "tricks", these flowers could still hold their own, even at this late date in the season. Now, as we approach the end of January, I can't help but yearn for the delight of spring flowers, and even if Mother Nature is not quite ready, I think I might just sneak a few shop bought petals into the house, when I return from a couple of work trips in a few weeks...

***

Meanwhile, should you happen to find yourself in the lovely town of Bradford-on-Avon, just outside Bath, and your tummy starts rumbling, here is a place to change the rumbling into satisfied sighs:

Eating like a queen...

Well, I don't exactly know that the queen has ever set foot here, but the burgers at the restaurant the Castle  are certainly fit for royalty. The menu offers other slightly more sophisticated dishes as well, and lovely, characterful décor. I fell in love with the fish wall paper! But no, perhaps not something that would work in the Swenglish Home... (This is not a sponsored blog post, the Castle do not even know I am writing this.)

I wish you all a fabulous end of January and an equally stunning start to February, 

and I hope to see you all again in a few weeks time!

Love, 

Helena

Runaway spring...?

(If you click on the images, they look much better against the black background.

Above is the gorgeous view that greets me when I come out of our little town and look across the valley towards Bath.)

For the past two weeks, I have woken up to the beautiful symphony of bird song from some feathery friends in our neighbour's cherry tree. They were clearly singing serenades of spring, and looking around, this has not been surprising...

Trees have been blossoming, rumours of daffodils in full bloom....

 But my spring delighted senses stumbled and tumbled on Friday... 

What was this strange white dust embracing the world outside...?

The most vain sheep I have ever met posed happily for me in her frosty wool coat (doesn't it look just like she has been sprinkled with icing sugar?!). She made poses any catwalk model would envy, and I snapped away...

Two weeks have passed since my New Year's blog post, and time has just flown by. No time for decorating, creating, crafting or blogging, but an increasing itch to do it all! Perhaps some of us simply need to hibernate a little in the winter!

A huge and humble THANK YOU to all of you who have sent me kind comments and emails in the past two weeks - I have read and appreciated every single word. And HELLO to my new followers, I see you and welcome you to my world.

With a big work trip on the horizon, I foresee some serious blog hibernation for a few weeks again, but I shall try to pop in at least once next week with some floral joy.

Until then, warm regards to you all, and stay warm!

Helena