The Broad Beans Are Sleeping In Their Blankety Beds

Autumn has definitely set in. Even though the sun has still been doing its best to shine through the London London smog, there is definitely a chill in the air, and there are plenty of goldeny orange leave on the floor.

Although the lovely British berries are slowly declining from the supermarket shelves, there are plenty of earthy root vegetables available, and I got very excited when I saw these massive Broad Beans in Sainsburys recently. I got especially excited when I opened them up to discover just how fluffy the insides of the cases were and just how large the beans themselves were. Mmmmmm

Whilst shelling these, to add them into dinner (an exciting combination of singapore noodles and bubble and squeak) I couldn't help but think of the Autumn song we used to love in school assemblies: Cauliflower's fluffy, and cabbages green:

Cauliflowers fluffy and cabbages green, 

Strawberries sweeter than any I’ve seen. 

Beetroot purple and onions white, 

All grow steadily day and night. 

The apples are ripe, and the plums are red, 

The broadbeans are sleeping in the blankety bed. 

Blackberries are juicy and rhubarb sour, 

Marrows fatt’ning, hour by hour. 

Gooseberries hairy and lettuces fat, 

Radishes round and runner beans flat. 

The apples are ripe, and the plums are red, 

The broadbeans are sleeping in the blankety bed. 

Orangey carrots and turnips cream, 

Reddening tomatoes that used to be green. 

Brown potatoes in little heaps, 

Down in the darkness where the celery sleeps. 

The apples are ripe, and the plums are red, 

The broadbeans are sleeping in the blankety bed, yeah!

Nautically Nice

On my various summer holidays, I ended up in Lymington, a gorgeous place in the New Forest, full of very quaint little shops. One of the shops: The Forest Mill Shop http://www.theforestmillshop.co.uk/ (website coming soon) has the most beautiful selection of seaside inspired fabrics. They were all gorgeously think cotton blends and although I knew I had to buy some for some sort of crafting, it was a very hard decision to decide which prints and patterns to go for!!

I settled for these three designs, all with the same colours but with beautifully different patterns and set about making some cushions. Oh and a doorstop. 

I absolutely love my finished cushions and door stop, every time I look at them they remind me of happy English Summer Holidays :)

Beach Art

Entertaining myself on the beach near Lymington earlier in the summer....it's amazing what you can do with some seaweed, shells and drift wood!

Autumnal Seaside Adventures & More Beautiful Beach Huts

One of the more confusing parts of my jobs is mixing up my seasons. In order for the catalogues to launch in the correct seasons, we have to shoot them 6 months before, which means shooting Spring in Autumn, Summer in Winter, Autumn in Spring, and Winter in Summer. Confusing.

So off we went to Dorset last weekend to shoot Spring but clearly the weather did not get the 'Spring' memo and it was decidedly Autumnal! Now I do love being on the beach in the bitter cold, when you're all wrapped up warm with the salty sea air blowing in your face, making your cheeks pink and stinging, but I do not enjoy being in said conditions, with torrential rain. Not so fun!

Lovely sunshine in Studland, Dorset

An essential for an English summer holiday

Very choppy sea. There was a very large onshore wind which made the ferry crossing to Mudeford Sandbank very bumpy!

Little ferry to Mudeford Sandbank

Beach Huts looking lovely in the sunshine

Safely tucked away inside a beach hut waiting for the rain to pass

The rain was blowing horizontally so the beach huts shielded parts of the sand - you can see a clear line here of wet and dry sand!

A rainbow over the Isle of Wight

My favourite beach hut! Gorgeous stripy blinds, a lovely weathered look and an amazing display in the windows.