Bank holiday TV

I came across this on the BBC website this morning and it makes me sad that people choose to spend their day off watching TV. I suppose if they weren't watching TV they would be shopping.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend and I've got so many things on my activities list:

• Met my sister and her man for lunch and drinks and hear about her holiday and have a general catch up.
• Cook pittas from scratch and store in freezer
• Visit my allotment for a digging session and harvest veg to give to my sister
• Hang new sash window in bedroom (if it's delivered on time)
• Eat long breakfasts with Dear Heart
• Go for a country walk and pick blackberries (and apples if they are ripe)
• Play with my sewing machine
• Sit around reading and drinking wine while my face pack dries
• Put henna on my hair
• Take some time to think about the next few months and plan out things I need and want to do

I hope I can fit it all in!

Lessons to be learnt from Henna

It was another nice weekend. The allotment continues to produce and I’m hopeful that in a few weeks the celery will be ready as well. I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with Dear Heart and also pottering around my newly decorated study. I so can’t bear the thought of it being cluttered and have sorted out a number of bags of things to be disposed of via eBay/Freecycle/charity shops. I can’t believe some of the stuff that I have carted from place to place with me over the years. For example, I was about to put a set of juggling clubs back on a shelf when I stopped to wonder when I last used them. The answer was well over 10 years ago!

I also found the time between picking produce and organising my desk to henna my hair. Getting henna to actually take on my hair is a recent thing. I’ve been using chemical dyes on it for over a decade. I usually go for a shade of red or purple. I did once dye it back to its natural dark brown but it looked so dull. I dye partly to cover up the grey hairs (my family all go grey very young!), but also because I feel more like me when my hair is a bright colour.

Every few years I used to read something about how bad chemical dyes were and I’d worry about the waste created by the variety of bottles and gloves. So I’d go off to the Body Shop and buy a packet of their henna and apply it with great hopes. It always made my hair look slightly redder but never covered the grey. This perplexed me because I’d also read endless stuff about people ending up with really fiercely coloured hair they’d acquired by accident.

Last summer I got quite into the idea of rinsing my hair in tea or coffee and herbs after reading this post and the discussion about it on Brocantehome. Although it made the hair very shiny and did add colour to some of the grey, quite frankly, I could simply not see myself shivering in the shower every weekend as I attempted to pour the brew over my head again and again.

My first attempt with Lush henna was just as disappointing as in the past. Then I realised that I had not followed the instructions. I had grated it and poured boiling water on. BUT I did not allow it to cool and then reheat in a Bain Marie. I’ve questioned Dear Heart over why this should make a difference from a science type person point of view and he couldn’t say. Anyway this has proved to be the missing link. I’ve also discovered that just doing a small amount and concentrating of areas of grey is just as effective as attempting to smear my whole head with it. I wrap my head up in a turban to prevent drips and then just glide around the house getting on with things for a few hours. No nasty smell. No turning the base of the shower pink. My little block from Lush has lasted for ages.

I suppose the moral of this story is that if things don’t seem to work out initially, go back and try again from time to time. If it doesn’t work out, well you’ve lost nothing and if it does…..

Have you been on holiday?

I haven't been away (accept for the briefest of visits to Dear Heart's lovely family), but I've had a lovely week and a bit at home. It's ages since I had more than I couple of days off in a row so I've been looking forward to time at home.


I finished work on the Thursday and Dear Heart and I went for dinner at the Italian near our house. We sometimes go out for a bottle of wine on a Thursday and then have a takeaway but we thought it would be good to try and have a meal with wine rather than a takeaway from time to time. I had the Caponata salad as usual but they make it so well.


Friday morning, I attempted to dye my hair green with Kool Aid while I sorted out my wardrobe. I seem to far fewer winter clothes than summer clothes. It was so nice to have the time to sort through and pull things out that needed washing or repairing. The dye didn't take which actually turned out to be a good thing when we went to watch the rugby the following night. I had no idea that South Africa played in green! I felt wonderfully domestic and autumnal pinning my clothes onto the line with scrunchy leaves at my feet and the sky a bright cold blue.


Wardrobes also featured on Saturday when I cleared two and a dressing table out of a storage unit. They came from my grandparents house and are Victorian/Edwardian. A lovely lady who I found through staff adverts at work was going to take them home and use them.


Sunday was brunch club and it was a truly lovely day. I so enjoyed spending such quality time with my friends. The food was lovely with much cider to be drunk (the hardship!). While everyone watched the motor racing I read through The gentle art of domesticity. If you haven't read the blog by the author, Jane Brocket, do have a at Yarnstorm. with so many family changes this year (relatives moving house and moving on), I really do appreciate my friends and what an important part of my family they are. We've got a few more things planned for the coming weeks which I am anticipating with delight.


I always feel that when I'm not at work I should be doing all kinds of useful things and worry that I'm not be effective enough. However when I look back on what I achieved in between a few lovely pub lunches I've actually done loads (ordered composter for my allotment, dug part of allotment, repaired clothes, made sourdough bread, vegan brownies, chestnut soup, shelled and roasted hazelnuts, made a curtain for the utility room , ordered 90% of Christmas presents, ordered seeds for allotment, found new second hand jeans, dyed hair purple to cover grey, cooked a new courgette/carrot casserole recipe, sorted out more boxes from my parent's house to list on Ebay). I do really do want to clear all of the boxes cluttering my study though.


The end of the week was great as Dear Heart and I went to the Midlands to visit his Dad, Stepmum, brother and sister. It's been an age since I've seen them and it was such a nice visit. I really feel like one of the family and time just flew by as we chatted, ate and drank. Lovely stepmum also sorted my hair out for me. I just didn't feel entirely happy with my last cut - it was sooo nice and I don't want my hair to be nice, I want it to be funky. It's now the shortest it's ever been and I love it. She also told me the right way to apply Henna so watch this space for further adventures with dye.

And now it's back to usual routines for a month or so before seasonal festivities begin to interrupt. I've pulled wads of fabric out of the cupboard to begin making bags for Christmas presents to go in. I've made weekly and monthly job lists using the planner at Brocantehome. November here I come.

Time for a rest

I'm training for the Playtex Moonwalk once again. I did 8 miles on Sunday and got totally drenched. I only realised how wet I had gotten when the clothes were still wet yesterday. I took advantage of the better, although windy weather yesterday to enjoy a number of hours working on my allotment. The planting season will be here soon. I'm still finding potatoes from last year's crop as I dig the ground over. These are very welcome as the pantry at present only contains those too small to bother peeling.

I also did lots of cooking (and therefore washing up). I redyed my hair for the first time since I had it cut short (dyeing with Kool aid doesn't really count). I'm used to having a large porous surface (i.e. lots of hair) to soak up the dye so yesterday it was going everywhere. I looked like I something form a disaster movie. Hence the bathroom then needed lots of cleaning.

Anyway as a result of all that physical exertion I began to ache all over yesterday evening. Therefore I'm planning on a nice quiet evening with a book on the sofa. I've just finished World War Z : an oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. It's an amazing book, but one that does tend to stay on your mind (paranoid? me?).

Tonight therefore I will be reading Not buying it: my year without shopping by Judith Levine. I imagine that this will have no mention of zombies. I'm hoping it may provide further inspiration for my frugal quest. Additionally I've heard very mixed reviews. I read an extract in one of the weekend papers last year and I must of enjoyed what I read because I wrote down the title to check on the library catalogue.

I'll report back later this week (hopefully) on if Not buying it was worth the wait.

Experiementing with grey

I must confess that my hair has been going grey for many, many years. Normally because it is dyed some vibrant colour no one would ever guess that I am dying it just to cover the grey. I mean let's face it no one has hair the colour mine normally is naturally!

However I've become concerned about the environmental effects of both the dye itself and the containers it come in. Hence I am experimenting with more natural alternatives. Henna is great and I intend to use Caca from Lush to get gorgeous coloured tints. However I've also read good things about sage.

So over the weekend I made a very strong infusion of sage and popped it in a little spray bottle. I tend to spray my grey with it every night and see if it works as those on line claim it does. Watch this space....