Hello stranger. I know, it’s been a while. Forgive me.
You wouldn’t believe me if I told you that in the last 10 days we have had two deaths, a stroke and some heart surgery in our immediate family. Crazy, heart-breaking, stressful and all true.
So, I’m afraid this is a quick one. I was just very conscious that I hadn’t popped up to say hello for a while and in between all the bad moments, there have been a few glimmers of good stuff…
I have serious shoe envy over Country Bebe’s sheepskin slippers. We’ve spent a lot of the last week in our respective flannel pjs, curled up in bed, with CB enraptured by the original 80s Fireman Sam. I am secretly loving revisiting all my childhood favourites – Postman Pat, Ivor the Engine, Danger Mouse…
Talking of bed, I’m so chuffed with our thrifty DIY headboard. For the princely sum of £27 the OH and I had a sheet of MDF cut to fit our super king bed, padded it and used this beautiful dove grey Sanderson fabric that we picked up as a remnant at our local Haberdashery. The Art Deco ‘Cloud’ mirror is my stand-out, favourite piece in our house. We spent months, years even, lusting after the beautiful (out of our price range) ones at Alfies Antiques in Marylebone, then serendipitously one popped up at a fraction of the price at our local rural auction house here in Devon.
Last week was the OH and I’s 3rd wedding anniversary. We don’t do gifts but he did surprise me by filling the house with our wedding flowers (anenomes, hyacinths, ranunculous, roses). It was a good day.
Last weekend was an epic foodie weekend. The OH and I dropped Country Bebe with the grandparents and ventured into our new Big Smoke, aka Exeter, and wandered around the cobbled street in the cathedral’s shadows. No agenda, no pressures on our time, just meandering like tourists, hand in hand. BLISSFUL. We popped into Cote Bistro for a leisurely lunch (the cassoulet was the perfect sub-zero, belly-warming fodder) and got rather tiddly on a good Merlot, reminiscing about our wedding day.
If Horsegate has reminded me anything about the way we eat, it’s how incredible our local butchers and farmers are here in Devon. Not a token ye olde butchers that you might find in central London with an average product at an astronomical price but proper, locally-sourced, blood under the finger nails, thoroughly knowledgable professional butchers. I’m so chuffed to have discovered The Rusty Pig, a couple of miles in land in Ottery St Mary. They rear their own pigs on a small holding in East Devon (free-range, natch), then in their simple, pared back butchers-cum-open kitchen-cum-cafe, sell homemade sausages, brawn, terrine, chorizo, salamis and a knock-out Full English breakfast. No frills, no menu, no fuss. We had a chat, a few nibbles and walked away with some smoked salami and ham hock terrine that blew my mind. The salami was not the chewy, grisly, dried sausages you find in supermarkets. It was buttery, delicate and the centrepiece of our Saturday night home-made pizzas.
So, that’s it for now, just a brief update. Tomorrow I’ve got a beauty review of the nude lipstick that has me swaying from my devotion to a bold, red lip… I am seriously hooked.
Till then,
CF x
[…] including fly fishing and shooting; as well as the butchery course with Robin Rea (I wrote about his AMAZING butchers-cum-delicatessen-cum-restaurant, The Rusty Pig in the spring) but in the end plumped for the full-day foraging course with Chris […]