Back in the saddle

All excitement here for our forthcoming trip to South Korea in autumn.  We are launching a collection of ceramics in Seoul.  Here is a quick peek at one of the ranges, its very quirky and English and very much about life in our village here in Shropshire.

Preparing for home

Last bits and bobs to tie up before we leave on Wednesday, whitewashing house is nearly complete, kitchen more sorted with shelving for our favourite pots and utensils, bedroom windows painted (a bother of a job when its hot as the paint is particularly oily and runs). Fiendishly hot at 39 degrees, but there is a delicious quietness that goes with it.  A warm wind soughing in the pine trees, desultory bird song, and an occasional cicada rasps.  Then as the sun goes down a shimmering vision appears, one’s beloved approaches, carrying a drinks tray – near perfection! 

Supermarkets please note...

Why do we tolerate paying 70p and up for a single pepper in England, when instead of importing wildly over priced and inferior peppers from Holland we could be buying amazingly intensely sweet ones from Hungary.  These are about 73p - but that is for a whole kilo.  Food lovers, read this and weep.

Necessities of life

No week is complete without a trip to the market.  The produce comes from and is sold by farmers who grow on a very small scale.  This lady's stall I visit each week for a kilo of the very best cucs.  I love her scales, which are hand held from the chain you can just see.

mother of invention



 Just trying to wrap up a few last jobs.  I'm lime washing the inside of the house, the traditional mud construction means our house is wonderfully well insulated, so when it's in the upper 30s the house remains refreshingly cool.  But it needs a little tlc to keep it ship shape.  The lime wash settles in the bucket quickly so needs whisking to keep in well dispersed so first I had to invent a whisk for the job.  I found that mulberry twigs were the best, firm but flexible.

Disaster averted - twice over

Lilo is now mended.  Gave up on the super glue method and instead heated a nail head on the gas and welded a teeny patch of lilo stuff over hole.  All very promising, and given that its 37 degrees and clear blue sky the lake is beckoning. 
Yesterday, I confess we were both feeling a bit lacking in joie de vivre department.  Now all is well, we are back on mid season form, and the problem was we had to survive a day without watermelon.  I can now grasp how it is to be deprived of one’s favourite addiction, and the pure bliss of indulging anew.  Phew, thank goodness for the pink stuff.

Went to Gabi and Vince’s neck of the woods, Siógárd on the edge of the Hungarian plain.  We visited their Táj Ház – or village house.  This is a preserved, traditional house, it reminds everyone how life once was.  Ours is not disimilar, mud walls, but it does have the benefit of running water and electric.