A long weekend

I think I've discovered the key to a long weekend which makes it actually feel like a long weekend... It happened purely by chance (as discoveries often do) but it's so simple: stay at home.

Well, stay local anyway. All too often we end up racing all over the place visiting relatives and trying to cram all kinds of things into our weekends. This time we just, well, didn't. 

Instead we went for walks, enjoyed picnics, visited the farm and a car boot sale (one purchase: an enamelware coffee pot) and generally pottered about. We baked (and ate) a big carrot cake. We had buttermilk pancakes, which were like ordinary pancakes only thick and fluffy on the inside, and crisp and golden on the outside. Brunch perfection.

We got lucky with the weather despite forecasts to the contrary, so there was much garden activity to be had. Jay made a miniature herb bed in an old (lined) wooden crate. Contents: sorrel, sage, heartsease (dinky little pansy-type flowers), oregano and two varieties of thyme. I also took some rosemary cuttings. Joe played with watering cans and mud and stones and even helped tidy up. So sweet, my helpful little boy.

I have an old gate leg table which has been stored in Jay's mum's garage for a few years; yesterday we went and collected it. It belonged to my stepdad's mother and is probably 1930s or 1940s; I used to have it by the vestibule in Bond Street and it's varnished in a red-brown colour.

Anyway I decided to try sanding a little area and see what the wood's like underneath. It's actually a really lovely pale colour so we got sanding and I can't wait to have it done and buffed up with beeswax. It'll take a while - not least because we ran out of sandpaper - but I'll share the before and after pictures.

Finally, I haven't abandoned my dressmaking project. I made my bias binding and - fingers crossed - it should be plain sailing from here on in. Touch wood...

Hope you had a lovely long weekend.