bits and pieces

...a bit of a pick & mix posting today! Last week was eclectic to say the least...it included...

a visit to the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair. 

This year's event was held at Hole Park, Rolvenden, Kent.

Favourite stands included Foxhole antiques...

...and Chloe Antiques.

Favourite products...

...I fell in love with Pearl & Queenie jewellery...especially the Love Story Collection, check them out here or visit the shop in Hastings Old Town. This ring is my most coveted item of the day.

...I was extremely impresssed with Olivier Baby too. Beautiful cashmere knits for babies and little people.

...I was smitten with Court & Hunt's Shepeherds hut and Wantsum, oh and yes I do! Want them both!

I was lucky enough to squeeze a flying visit with Virginia Griffith-Jones, she is working on a huge new canvas, it's already looking wonderful...I suspect it is going to be a triumph...here's a sneaky peak at her studio...

I was thinking about running away to join the circus later in the week, then I discovered that mon ami Gigi had been to Giffords Circus and I was wild with envy until she asked me to go to the beach...

Giffords Circus / Rasa Zukauskaite by Ellen von Unwerth for Lula Magazine

 

 ...I soon forgot all about the circus...

I was accompanied throughout by my trusty side-kick Boodle...

seen here happily sleeping it all off!

Sarah

-x-

Dad

Happy Birthday Candy Man!

find out more here

-x-

Cornwall "dressed over-all"

Yachts may “Dress Overall” in the UK on special 

occasions such as Trafalgar Day, Navy Days, or in the presence of a Royal Standard or Flag of the Head of State or a foreign Sovereign. 

Also on these days...

6th February  Accession Day 

2nd Monday in March  Commonwealth Day 

21st April  HM the Queen’s Actual Birthday 

Saturday in June (ICW DCI's)  HM the Queen’s Official Birthday 

2nd June  Coronation Day 

10th June  The Duke of Edinburgh's Birthday

It was so exciting to see all the boats dressed over-all for the Flotilla.

There are so many Regattas held in Cornwall during the summer months, you will often see nautical flags flying but over the Jubilee weekend, my goodness me the boats looked fantastic and so did all our favourite haunts...brilliant effort considering the rather unsporting weather!

In summary, 

wellies ~ essential. Flowers and flags abound.

The land of Trelawney dotted with thrift, laced with valerian, daisies for buttons.

Bunting and boats, pasties and street parties with all the pomp a Cornish village can muster.

Rain, rock-pools and rosy cheeks...I give you my postcard from celebratory Kernow...

 Sweet honeysuckle let me linger here

Among thy fragrance issued in a shower.

How blissful thus to muse where Nature pours

Her incense forth in hollows watch'd with hills,

And roof'd with stars, and floor'd with living flowers!

0 what a temple is the leafy wood,

The rude old carn, the ocean's solemn shore,

The valley's bosom, and the meadow's lap!

I love thee, Nature, with a fire unfeign'd,

And ever at thy feet thy child would sit

In pleasant meditation, where the eye

Of selfish man beholds not my retreat,

In storm or calm, when heaven is blue or black,

Learning thy lore, and treasuring up thy truth.

Could I have had my choice, my home would be

Among the rocks and rivers, fens and ferns,

From human hives as lonely as a crag.

Here, hermit-like, I'd pass away my hours,

Drinking at Nature's fountain, undisturb'd

By trump or tumult, writing simple song,

excerpt from "A story of Carn Brea", by John Harris

Gone fishing

Hope you are enjoying the festivities? 

We are off to Cornwall for a while...can't wait to smell the sea again...and see the Cornish villages I love all be-decked in their finest...flags and flowers everywhere...

See you when we return.

Sarah

-x-

* the amazing painting is called Helford Flags and Flowers by Joanne Short

Elizabethan

The second great Elizabethan age....or so some commentators are calling it and who am I to disagree?

It staggers me to think that parts of this house date back to the first Elizabethan age...woah!

And so we are bedecked and ready to flag wave in celebration of a magnificent 60 year reign.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has reigned over this nation with great heart and unquestionable commitment for over half a century...A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.

When she was crowned MIL was a little girl and she stitched this sampler...

I really love it...all those stitches...my favourite part are those Beefeaters.

Last night I managed to catch the end of a programme showing the original Coronation footage...wow...what an event...so moving, I hadn't really appreciated it before, she was such a young woman, all this stretching ahead of her. Tonight the BBC plans to show a programme made by Prince Charles as his tribute to his mother...family films never shown before, the clips look amazing.

~

Much memorabilia is produced of course and lots of it is rather dubious but this treasure, fished out of a skip by Mr.Lane when MIL was moving, is a wonderful thing. Made in 1977 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee by "Tims Telescopic Views".A marvelous pink sleeve featuring the Golden Coach, inside a cardboard telescopic view of the carriage procession down the Mall with Buckingham Palace in the distance.

Quite difficult to capture it as all concertinas out, my photos don't do it justice but you get the idea?

 Once again I adore all the Grenadier Guards and the Cavalry.

The most brilliant commemorative product I have seen thus far is the limited edition Marmite jars, re-branded as Ma'amite and all decked out in a Union Jack!

Liberty has been busy opening a new store in Stratford which is chock full of British Brilliance too.

In her Majesty's Coronation broadcast she said....

" I thank you all from a full heart. God bless you all."

60 years on and I thank you from a full heart, what an incredible woman you are.