Hello everybody!

Back again after a very exciting few days.

My birthday was shared with Gabi's beautiful God-daughter Alex in Melton Mowbray.

We travelled around a fair bit and saw some lovely places such as Stamford, a medieval town that is best described as a micro-york.

It has a wonderful centrepiece in this... erm... I suppose spike?

The spike is around 2 feet wide at the base

It's covered in these beautiful engravings

Although small, around 30 feet, it makes a beautiful centrepiece to the town

Now to the birthday girl, Alex. 

Happy Birthday!

 We were wandering around Stamford after stopping to admire the central spire and found ourselves being brought back around to the same place via lots of lovely, cobbly, twisty streets. I commented to Alex that here was 'another spike' and we continued.

Later we returned to a lovely pub that, coincidentally, was right next to the spike and I said to Alex 'Hey look, that's three spikes we've seen today'. She replied, 'silly Uncle, that's the same one as before, there's only TWO spikes here!' I asked her what was the difference between the first and second. She said, after reverentially surveying the area, 'hmm, the second one had less shops.' Bless her little cottons.

And I'd be in real trouble if I didn't give mention to little Philip, Alex's younger brother, who has a birthday in the next few weeks.

 

 

 

Philip, who is a very polite boy... usually

Some of you may remember these kids from our wedding. Although they did spend most of the time racing around at top speed so if any of you remember a couple of shock blonde streaks passing by, that was probably them.

After parking in Stamford, we mooched around a huge antique store and was very tempted, although fiscally incapable, of buying a large proportion of their stock.

So onwards to Stamford. We found a lovely restored 14th Century church with some amazing carvings.

The wall tops (battlements?) look almost art deco in style

Me and the kids decided that this was a 'famous dead guy'

Presumably the final resting place of the inventor of rolltop, claw footed baths?

The rest of Stamford is beautiful too, and a lot is set around the amazing River Welland.

We checked guys, a small 2 bedroom on the river comes in at around 400k, but thanks for having the same thought as we did

This passageway in particular made me think of York. I wonder if people of York see something there and think of Stamford?

So after a wonderful few days away we headed home loaded with presents of cheese (of course), lovely memories and, in my lucky case, the most stinking flu I've had in years...

Back home to find somebody had stolen the crops

And replaced them with mud and stones... rural crime, know the dangers...

 

 Ok so that's it for now. But before I go... (HONK HONK! Shameless self promotion warning)

We have just stuck a load of books on Ebay so if you know any Pratchett or Rowling fans, point them our way please.

Our books link, click here!

Cheers. Hope everyone is well and happy out there in the world (thinks... what a wonderfully wide spread family we are!)

Blog soon I hope,

D and G x

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...