London town

So I am back from my trip and just sorting through all my photos (I took about 4,000 altogether...). Here are some when I went a bit snap crazy staying at my best friend's new pad in London. She will be both horrified and delighted to be mentioned here on Cornflakes & Honey!

Han and her fiance live on the top floor of a very old beautiful townhouse in Hampstead Heath. I was struck by the simplicity and calming colours not to mention thoughtful styling. It made me want to rethink some of my more colourful buys and declutter! :-) 

The H and A above the fireplace I like think stands for our initials - she will read this and laugh! Adore the vintage marmalade jar.

A weekend to remember

 

 

 

Some details from a weekend I'll never forget - our annual Family Weekend when my Dad's side of the family all catch up together in Wales. We;ve all just had a magical time catching up with one another and celebrating my Dad's impending 60th while staying in the most gorgeously furnished cottage with all our cousins, so much fun!

Seeing blue

From vivid greens to wide acres of blue. Summer sure does have a good way of reeling you in! This pretty blue plate helped us carry part of our lunch to the garden today - was super tasty :-)

In the garden

We spent a bit of time in the garden yesterday. If you're a local reader from Australia isn't it so very green! I dug up beds in preparation for planting a lovely greeny white hydrangea and Dad chatted with the gardner about the rose bed and how to stop the sheep in the field behind from grazing on them!

I also found a bit of time to shell peas for a traditional English garden pea salad with greek yoghurt mint dressing, yum!

Happy to hear you're enjoying this little tour of England. I am still posting on Aussie time as that is the setting for the blog so some of you might be getting this a bit early date wise sorry for any confusion! Also, I'll be putting up loads more photos on flickr soon so watch this space.

Postman Pat territory

Beautiful cottages, red telephone boxes, union jack bunting (seriously, its everywhere!) and fields and fields of hay bales. Just like the England we all know and love.

Flowers, food, family and friends

The four big 'f' words in our household which bring equal amounts of joy. It really is great to be home and spend so much time with the ones I love. Although it's hard when you live and have the other part of your life (career, home, friends, other half's family) the other side of the world it's still an adventure and makes me appreciate things a lot more.

I feel like Dorothy coming back from the Land of Oz (no pun intended) returning home. :-)

Wild beauty

Isn't this just the most beautiful sight? I think I spent about close to an hour photographing these beauties. Lush, lush, lush! My Mum thinks they might be a wild flower mix which you can buy over here - does anyone know if you can buy them in Australia? I love the poppies, cornflowers and daisies, so pretty!!

Summer time

I have to say not much can beat England in summer. It really is something else. I haven't been back home since I started Cornflakes and Honey so I'm a bit snap happy at the moment in the hope you can enjoy it as much as I am.

Here are some hay bales in the fields not far from us. I love cow parsley and have seen so much along the verges I just had to pick some to put in vases. I know I've picked dead ones but I really think they look great in a clear glass vase.

Will be back tomorrow with some amazing wild flowers I saw on a walk today, sad but true - I think I'm in love! :-)

Friends reunited

Here she is my little gorgeous bundle of fur. It's so wonderful to see her again. She's actually just by my feet right now trying to steal my attention from writing this - but I have a sneaky suspicion all she want is some food!

There is a big nasty tabby cat that lives next door that she's scared of so she;s spending most of her summer time just sleeping indoors or spying outside trying to get a glimpse of the naughty big betty that causes her so much grief! Anyway it's a bonus she's spending so much time around us and not chasing mice and rabbits outside.

From an English country garden

One of the many things I've missed being away from home is the countryside and beautiful flowers you can just find in the garden (I say find, my Mum has planted quite a few things!) Here are some we picked yesterday sitting in some vintage pots (I may have to take these back with me) of mine in my bedroom window sill. They really brighten up the room.

Where the heart is

Sorry for the long absence but can you guess where I am? I'm so happy to be home!

An English country garden

I remember way back when I said I’d post some photos (when I got them – thanks Mum) of my parents garden in Spring/Summer. Here are a couple taken a month or so ago. They have the most amazing mix of rhododendrons, lilacs, blossoms and foxgloves (amongst others).

So beautiful! Am a weeny bit jealous too as we don’t really get gardens like this is Oz, except maybe in the Blue Mountains where the climate and soil is right for growing certain plants. In Leura they have the most stunning row of cherry blossoms planted through the village – so pretty.

It’s a long weekend over here this weekend and boy am I glad of it. I'm doing n.o.t.h.i.n.g, no plans, nadder :-). Have a good one my friends! x

Postcards from home

My Mum just sent me these photos of their garden in Yorkshire. I love seeing the daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses in bloom at this time of year, particularly cherry blossom which I adore as it brings back so many happy childhood memories.

Still not any closer in our decision making over whether to relocate to the UK. It seems like a catch 22 in many ways as our careers here are thriving and I'm not sure the same could be said if we based ourselves in London given the economic climate and our lifestyle (minus housing affordability) would be hard to beat. But family and friends cannot be replicated in Australia. Oh, it really is very emotional and tough at the moment not to mention very distracting but I'm sure we'll find a good solution. Easter is our deadline for making a decision...

Reminiscing

Just sitting down with my morning coffee learning that it's snowing at home and it's reminding me of our Christmas there last year. For years England missed out on having a white Christmas and then the year I go back we had the first one since I think 1992! I was so over the moon!

Here are some pics when we literally had a white out across the UK last December. Some are of the fields around where my parents live and the last two are of their garden. They live in the middle of the countryside so everything was phenomenally beautiful covered in snowflakes.