Pages

Thursday 29 January 2015

Sight-Seeing and Making Daub


Blickling Hall, Norfolk, UK
1, 2, 3, 4, 5...6... Well I'm back and all of my cats are accounted for! To be honest I think my brother quite liked taking care of them whilst I was away. I absolutely loved it in the UK and spent many an hour entertaining my four month old twin nieces with funny voices, even funnier faces, and just all round games. I also enjoyed exploring the county of Norfolk where they live and visited country houses, tea shops and book stores to name a few. I must have taken a couple hundred of photos to boot and when it came to packing my bag in preparation for the flight home, I have to admit it was a squeeze! I'd gone a little crazy in the DVD shop and treated myself to a few sweet treats I can't get back in France. I'd picked up a few supplies for my needle felt creations too.
Southwold, UK
Now I'm back home it all seems so far away and to top it off it's raining. But I'm doing something rather unusual today. The property in which I live is hundreds of years old and in need of restoration. Part of that work includes the rebuilding of a wall in wattle and daub. For those of you unsure what that is, wattle is a weaving method using oak staves and then hazel withes. You then cover this is daub- a messy mix of mud, sand, lime, straw and horse hair. It's very eco-friendly and a method that would have been used in the building originally, but as I said- very messy! I have been up to my ankles (in riding boots) stamping the daub mix for good chunks of time. I suppose it must be a good work-out but the cats are gathering round and looking at me as though to say what on earth are you doing!? In fact it reminded me of a scene in The True Story of a Not So Crazy Cat Lady in which Harriet and Dan get stuck in some mud. Unfortunately I didn't have a handsome man to rescue me today, as she did, but at least I won't feel so bad about eating that cream egg later!

An English Country Pub

**Don't forget ** This month, The True Story of a Not So Crazy Cat Lady is in 'Your Cat' magazine and there are five copies to win for readers in the UK. Don't miss out on your chance to take part!




No comments:

Post a Comment