Latest windswept Lilac Tree news

Me battling with canvas... the canvas won.

Our Sue and Col inspired home gallery (part of)

More pics and a new lamp

Even more pics

My secret door contraption made from a bell cast, a lathe spool and a large wheel procurred from a washing machine.

Tunisian rug and, strangely, a pool cue.

New and old in the new dining room.

Our new unit, doubling the space in our kitchen

The orchids new home (we've bought two more since)

Unmissable moon scape, I couldn't resist.

Before the gusts began

Battling the elements

If only pictures could portray the ominous creaking noises...

Apart from dead wood, all survived the Hurricane Katia remnants

Although the wind-vane cum tv ariel did not.

Hi everyone. A pretty boring picture filled blog this time as we are incredibly busy with Penny's book launches (all three paperbacks out in mid-november. See www.pennygrubb.com), house renovations, gardening, painting, paperwork and various other time consuming monsters.

Hopefully, we'll win quite soon and we can start blogging more regularly.

Lots of love to all our dear readers until the next post,

The Lilac Tree Posse.

Wow, mission complete.... for now.

Ok, so it's been a while dear friends so this should be quite an extensive blog covering everything from the last few days.

Taking what seemed like forever has been the new roof/living room creation project that has, at long last, been finished.

After battling the roof on (see previous posts) we started sorting out the walls and fixing the ceiling.

Me rubbin'

Wife scrubbin'

Me in my anti-itch insulating garb

Insulation in.... mmm... toasty warm

Wife surveying the plasterboard situation (we ran out and needed 2 more boards than I'd calculated)

Lovely finished ceiling

Once we'd done that, we started battling with the decor. Filling holes, smoothing walls, touching up, repainting where necessary, you get the idea.

Once we'd done all that, and shamelessly stealing inspiration from Sue and Col's beautiful Littlehampton flat, we began hanging the art. It's mostly ours for now but there are a few pics from Grandad and some really old stuff that we've collected over the years.

Finshed without art

Finished with some art

The final result is a brand new room that doesn't leak and has been upgraded from windy-corner-of-the-house-to-be-avoided to living room/largest room in the house.

Father not quick enough to hide face, unlike wife

We're both extremely happy and extremely knackered in equal measure. Well, maybe a little more happy.

During the course of the renovations, wife had the wonderful idea of restoring an old 1930s (I think) school teachers desk and using it as a computer table.

Before...

During...

Et Voila!

Of course upgrading to a new living room left us with an empty room in the house which we have turned into a dining room.

No pics of dining room yet as the battery on the camera is dead. Suppose that'll give us somethin to blog about next time.

Yes, we now have a dining room, hooray. So we've been amusing ourselves by talking to each other in very plummy voices whilst sitting at opposite ends of the dining table (wonderful gift from friends in Brstol, Tom and Suzie). 'Pass the pepper darling, f'nar f'nar', etc. It's a non mass-manufactured piece from the Netherlands (where Suzie hails from) and fits beautifully.

The calm after the storm, if you will, feels kind of strange to us both. We do both have a few irons in the fire but getting to the end of another big project does feel a little bit like we've got to the end of a very short pier. We're kind of in freefall, trying to relax but feeling like there should be something huge looming up on the schedule to get started. I think it's because we're both wired that way. Spare time is so often spent planning the next infringement on our spare time!

So, hope you all like the pics and you'll hear from us both real soon.

Leftovers from summer

We were so tired yesterday we didn't manage to post the new blog. But the roof is finished, the ceiling is done, all we have to do now is paint the room and move the furniture in. The Big Project is near its end. Hooray!

Nearly there!

Danny is currently working his way through a clients garden so I thought while I have an hour or two by myself on the computer I'll write a blog.


Yesterday I had a really bad day with my back, which has been injured for a week now, and Dan didn't let me work too hard. So I picked up a camera and had a wander in the garden.

Majority of plants are done for this year but there is still a fair few flowers and obviously the fruit trees.

We have used lots and lots of plums and crab apples and we have made some jams and jellies and chutneys. Yet you can't really tell when you look at the trees. This years crop has been enormous.

Here's some pics I took yesterday.

Last one standing

Very busy Bee (there's a milion of them around the garden)

Where there's a pear there's a wasp

Nasturtions overtaking a part of the garden

Clematis flower

Lovely Pansy

Bee in flight

We need Cols expertise on this one

And again please Captain B

Crab Apple

Hope you enjoyed the blog.
Till the nex time...

I'll just pop up and finish the roof, won't be a tick...

Ok, so today I decided to finish off all the tiny little things that you have to do after creating a new roof. Fitting little strips of wood to hold down the felt, attaching a sticky weather strip, that sort of thing. I estimated about an hour so I thought I'd get stuck in around 9am and get it all polished off.....

One boring shot of a slightly pitched roof...

It's 8.15pm now and I've just finished. Still, the roof is set, dry, sealed and looks good as new so there we are. A few extra hours here and there and hopefully a good few years of protection from the elements.

Shiny new guttering and wood work

Tomorrow we begin turning a chilly ex-glass room into a warm cosy new living room, with plasterboards, wooden framing and insulation to boot!

Wife has been covering all the neglected household duties and has done a magnificent job getting us back up to speed with everything and topped off the day by baking the most amazing layered Polish cake I have ever eaten. It is called Karpatka (after the Polish mountain range Karpaty) and is basically a sweet yorkshire pudding for the base, lashings of thick vanilla custard and a top layer of the same sweet yorkshire pudding. When finished with a little icing sugar, the final effect is that of a snow covered mountain range (hence the name) and is damn tasty as well. Think rugged vanilla slice without the icing.

Afraid there's not this much left anymore.... mmm

George made one of his amazing curries for tea so we're all sitting bloated by the telly wondering what to do next.

Made an unexpected link today with an old friend of mine from Thailand. He's coming to live back in the UK (Colchester I think) so that was nice.

I feel a Guiness coming on!

Oh, and Col, you're welcome to some grapes if you fancy a visit to help us press a few. (squidge, squish, no socks, you get the idea). Looking at the growth from this year, next year can't fail to be a huge crop.... oh dear... counting chickens, etc....

Hope everyone's happy out in the real world. Until tomorrow...