A beautiful storage chest

For quite a while I've been looking for the perfect storage solution for our spare bedroom. Nothing has quite been right. Back in October I'd seen a lovely wooden chest in the same place I was wowed by all the crockery, but it needed work and they weren't up for budging on the price and so I walked away, reluctantly. On our recent visit to Norfolk I headed back down there to see if it was still there, it wasn't, and I didn't feel as sad as I thought I would. 

There was another chest there, this time tin rather than wood. Again though it was tattier than I'd like and I wasn't sure how we'd repair it. This time I'd gone armed with measurements and it was the right size for the space I had. We did a lot of umming and ahhing and once again walked away. 

But a seed was sown. 

It wasn't long before I was looking on eBay for tin storage chests, and I was amazed at what I found - as I so often am when I discover you can buy almost anything on there. I mean you can buy bricks, as well as lovely storage chests...

And yesterday I arrived home to a very large cardboard box. Inside was this:

Yes, a beautiful storage chest, sold as a 'second' on eBay. 

It's newly made, but made to look slightly more lived in. And that's a great compromise for us. I was keen for something that wasn't too pristine, while MOH preferred something brand, brand new. I didn't tell him until it arrived that it was sold as a second and it came with some added character.  

And it fits perfectly in the spot too. 

I'm really pleased with it, it was just what I wanted but wasn't able to articulate. The inside is lined with a plain brown material, which means it won't need any work and can be put straight to use storing the bedding for the spare room.  

That means no more lugging the pillows and duvet down the stairs each time we use the room, and you don't know how happy that makes me. It's just a small thing, but it's often the small things isn't it... 

And filling it with the bedding will start off a new batch of Spring rearranging, as the space the bedding is taking has already been earmarked and the new-last-December Christmas tree will be moving in. 

Yes, I'm finally getting my act together! Well, almost... 

Inside the Potting Shed at Mottisfont

On our way back from our Dorset break at the end of March we stopped off at the National Trust's Mottisfont in Hampshire. It was my first visit there and it certainly lived up to its romantic billing in the NT blurb. I'll share more from our time there over the next few weeks, but today I'm concentrating just on one quite small part of it, and that's the Potting Shed. Which is, as its name suggests, a shed.

And yes I know, it's a vast estate - we walked around a lot of it - and I'm showing you a shed. But, it's a very nice shed!

IT'S A VERY NICE SHED!

You're starting to believe me now aren't you?  

It was the kind of place I could happily have spent a good hour or two in, but I didn't think I'd get away with that so I spent as long as I could. It was also the kind of place that had the right mix of being a real space, but also carefully orchestrated, and I couldn't work out which it was more of. My head said the orchestrated side, but my heart just wanted to pull up that stool and get my nose into one of those books. I'd have preferred an easy chair over the stool, but I think that's probably why there wasn't one!

And is it just me, or do those tools say G & T? 

I like the wooden box for seeds, and make use of some wooden wine boxes in my own greenhouse and they're a great modern day equivalent. I always look out for those on our French trips and so far, have been lucky twice.  

I wanted to rummage through the seed box and sift through the papers on the desk but held back. Just. The notebook telling part of the story was a nice touch and a tactic that Mottisfont used in the property too, where if I'm honest I found it a little too forced, but also the handwriting a little too small and too wordy when the place was much busier. It worked here in the shed though as there was time to read it without someone hovering at your shoulder willing you to move on. 

The rose paintings on the wall were beautiful and reminded me of a herb book I have, a present from  my nan, with its botanical style illustrations. And it's true, I think, the best roses do survive and quite often we rarely know their names, just how they flower, their scent and of course their colour. 

It's hard to believe isn't it, that this is just a relatively normal sized shed, perhaps a little bigger than most of us have, but definitely somewhere to ponder and learn, experiment and succeed. And for all kinds of roses too.  

The "in tray" made me smile too. Not just the old tobacco tins no doubt used for storing seed, but also because it's just the kind of in tray I'd be happy with. I've still seeds to plant right now and so it's a job I  must get on with this weekend. 

Yes, it really was a fascinating place and jam packed with information and treats for the eye everywhere I looked. Even down to what must surely be orchestrated dirt... 

Quite a shed, and it's easy to see why sheds are often a safe haven and places for pottering isn't it? My pottering place is my greenhouse, while MOHs is his shed although lately neither of us have had enough time for a decent potter - we'll need to put that right, won't we? 

Tulip-mania in Dad's garden

We've been in Norfolk for some of the Easter weekend visiting family and clocking up a second visit of the year to one of our favourite counties. I was expecting bulbs to have sprung up in dad's garden but I didn't expect there to be quite so many tulips. The garden was full of red and yellow tulips, everywhere. Even among the chard.

They certainly knew how to find the sun in the garden too. Their petals were glistening in the sunlight, even this one that looks as if it should be in the shade.

Masquerading amongst other flowers - or vegetables - or even jumping over the flower bed edges seems to be a speciality of dad's tulips.

I was keen to see how the "top down" photography angle would work for tulips, and both red and yellow varieties obliged, boldly showing off their dark centres

In one part of the garden, it looks as if some cross-fertilisation has gone on. The red tulips have yellow edges and the yellow one red tinges, and I quite like the look of these. I'm assuming they've done this themselves as these were the only ones that weren't true colours, but who knows for sure.

And a trip around dad's garden is never complete without seeing any pink flowers, and this time is no different. Dad's columnar apple tree is laden with blossom, very pink blossom. There's so much the lower branches are almost touching the ground. And look at the colour of the soil, it's such a different colour to mine, and way less stony.

Out the front the clematis that I spot all over Norfolk is already in flower, and I think it'll be in flower for a long time yet looking at the amount of buds looking as if they're about to burst.

Like many gardens, mine included, the foliage is growing strongly even though there's been less rain than usual. The leaves below are from a poppy, which looks as if it's going to be huge!

The lupin leaves with their distinctive shape are also springing up around the garden. I'd love to be able to grow lupins in my own garden, but my snail population are rather keen on them too. I've tried growing them in pots, but then invariably there'll be a hot spell and I'll lose them through lack of watering.  The toads in our garden do help to keep the snail population down, or at least I hope they do - I have a mental image of being knee-deep in snails without the toads which isn't a great image, but maybe there's just too many snails for my toads. 

This weekend I saw a couple of flowers I'd not seen before, one in dad's garden and another in his neighbours. And just so you know I spotted the neighbours flower when I went to my car and not because I was loitering with my camera ready - just saying.  So here's the pretty star shaped flower in dad's garden, I'm not sure I've seen it before, and I'm not sure what it is either, so if you know please leave me a comment and let me know what mystery flower number 1 is.

MYSTERY FLOWER NUMBER 1

The neighbour's flower is mystery flower number 2 and it's a lilac and egg yolk yellow combination, which is unusual enough anyway, and a combination you might question if you didn't see the picture. But it seems to work, but again I'm not sure what it is. So if you know what mystery flower number 2 is then please let me know.

MYSTERY FLOWER NUMBER 2

And if you know what both of them are, I'll be super impressed.