foxgloves | The Little Room of Rachell

Eating: Mackerel salad with homemade honey, lemon & mustard dressing, sprinkled with 4 different mixed seeds.

Reading: The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves it’s the first in her Vera Stanhope series. Far, far too good. I’m bleary today as I stayed up reading until 12:15 this morning. Oops!

Looking: at all the colourful photos I took during a recent visit to Waterperry Gardens

Baking: cinnamon buns in May, a few times. It was a very, very tricky month and they were needed to bolster and treat a few special people.

Anticipating: paddling in the sea, eating Cornish pasties for lunch, walks, a cream tea, cold lager shandy, ditto cider, toast & salted butter with marmalade for holiday breakfast, ice creams, chatting to strangers, taking flowery and coastal photos, visiting a favourite garden, zooming down the motorway to sea views and sand!

Watching: Everything I Know about Love on the BBC iplayer. It’s one for when he’s gone fishing!

Smelling: the scent of the Ambre Solaire I’ve just put on. It’s such a nice smell. It’s 25° today. Lovely.

Wearing: shorts & t-shirt

Drinking: cold filtered water. A glassful has just thoughtfully been brought to me outside.

Planning: a return visit to the Cotswold Sculpture Park. I bought May’s issue of Gardeners World magazine from Mags Direct after hearing about the 2-for-1 card, it’s valid for a year. It’s given us a couple of really nice days out, to places we’ve never visited before. We’re planning to take the card away on holiday too.

Repeating: this superb recipe with cod, butterbeans, canned cherry tomatoes, rosemary & parmesan breadcrumbs on top (with my twist of lemon zest.) It’s so tasty and healthy. Recipe from Olive mag website

Buying: my first pair of prescription sunglasses.

From now on I won’t be screwing up my eyes through lenses of cheapy plastic sunglasses and making them tired from lots of reading. I have also bought some better quality sunglasses from Boots.

Visiting: my Aunty with my Mum next week. I love being ‘the young one’ and seeing them together. It feels special. There’s also something that makes me laugh about it too, but I can’t tell you. Sorry.

Loving: the new to me Czech gin Tōsh which was sent to me in a surprise free gin box on Saturday. It’s strongly flavoured, citrus with rosehips and works really well with Fever-Tree original tonic. I’m not a massive fan of it usually, because it’s quite bitter with strong quinine, but this gin complements it well.

May’s box – given free to me in June. Whoop!

Recommending: Craft Gin Club yes I know – again! But every time I include a referral code it’s used. If you also love gin and live in the UK this is for you. The offer is £15 off a box, free delivery and no further commitment. I love it.

Use my referral code to get this offer.

Visiting: a new National Trust property. We went at the weekend. Well, it was completely new to Someone, only new as an adult to me. Chedworth Roman Villa has changed as a visitor experience since I had to complete a worksheet and “Pay attention!” on a school trip.

All from the 4th century. The FOUTH century!

But it was these that made the hairs on my arms stand up:

I recognised and remember liking the dog and cat paw prints which were captured as they wandered around while the tiles were drying, either at the site of the villa, or in nearby Cirencester. But I remember feeling regretful that the cat’s print was not clearer, since I always preferred cats to dogs!

What have you been up to lately? I hope June is being good to you, so far. Please tell me three things?

The plan for Sunday was meant to be shopping for an expensive, boring-but-sort-of necessary thing, but I totally subverted that by lobbying for a day out. It was another lovely sunny weekend and Saturday had been spent in the sunshine at a family BBQ. I wanted the good time vibes to continue. Admittedly I didn’t have to try very hard! So we went to Croome courtesy of The National Trust.

I love the view of the Malvern hills in the background (seen in the first photo.) The parkland is stunning, with a long lake to walk alongside, while waving to grazing cows on the other side.

Who wouldn’t want to explore a walled garden, rescued from the clutches of a property developer, walk around the first parkland designed by Capability Brown, learn more about a house with a rich history, stand on a Chinese bridge spotting fish leaping, and walk along a wild flower meadow. There was a cup of tea and slice of chocolate and orange cake at the Walled Gardens too. That cake was so good that I’m going to make my own version on Friday. I’ll share the recipe I’ve found, if it’s a goodie.

We actually ran out of time; I don’t think that’s ever happened before. There was no chance to explore the RAF museum (they were based at Croome during WW2) and the parkland has lots of other paths leading to temples, statues and follies. Croome part two will happen sometime.

Moon (or oxide) daisies and poppies together are such a pretty combo. I keep seeing them at the side of our roads and on roundabouts, though the best place has to be like this; en masse in a meadow.

Why, hello!

Spot the chickens in Croome’s Walled Gardens? So lovely to see them wandering around although, according to one of the NT volunteers, the head gardener is not so impressed as they scratch around in newly dug flower borders and mess up the hard work!

Spot the bee?

Croome Court has been through quite a number of changes. You can read about its fascinating history here. If you’re Dutch you might find a sentence or two about the 1940s interesting.

I believe that one of my family members may have spent time visiting Croome, during one of its incarnations as a Hare Krishna centre.

There is a replica of a decorative, eighteenth century Chinese-style bridge which has been reinstated, more than 150 years after the original disappeared.

Days out are some of the best kind of days. Do you agree?

I saw my physio for my first treatment yesterday, after the initial assessment the week before last. Want to see his thumb bruises around my elbow and wrist?! It’s definitely improving, though I did point out that twisting the lid off my food processor, while making falafel, caused quite a lot of pain yesterday. He visibly tried not to laugh. He didn’t hold back when I asked if I would be able to kayak again someday, as it’s been years since I last did. I’m glad my appointments keep him so entertained.

Anyway: I’m still banned from all craft for another two weeks. It’s nearly two months now. (Italics for sympathy, folk!) Argh!

In the meantime I’m reading, as always. The above novel is one of my favourite reads of the year and I’m only halfway through. I’ve read most of Maggie O’Farrell’s books, but the writing in this one seems tip-top. My current audio book is still The Boy on the Bridge by M.R Carey. It’s ok, but as a prequel to an already familiar dystopian world I’m waiting for something to happen. I’m not nearly as gripped as I was by The Girl with all the Gifts.

Joining with Ginny’s Yarn Along again, regretfully there’s no chance of sharing yarn of the woolly kind, but I’m sure no one’s going to object to flowers and rolling English countryside instead.