Tea with Agatha Christie ☕

Hello! 🌱 I'm kicking off this post with some homemade pesto because LOOK at this green:

😍 definitely will be making pesto again, even if it's just to eat food that's my favourite colour. It was very tasty too, and Jethro was a fan!

Whilst we're on the subject of food I might as well show off some recent sourdough loaves - very handsome if I do say so myself! I've been leaving the dough in the fridge for longer before baking which makes the loaf easier to score, and adding flour to the surface beforehand makes the patterns more defined. I've also been experimenting with different ratios of white and wholemeal flour (oops I'm a bread nerd now).

I've levelled up my crumpet game by actually buying crumpet rings, they look pretty professional now! My sourdough discard repertoire has expanded to pizza dough, cookies, and crackers (not pictured but good for dipping in houmous!) 👌 On my list to try soon I've got focaccia, pitta breads, and cinnamon rolls...my brain is 70% sourdough at the moment hehe.

We made sourdough pizza on the King's coronation day so excuse my attempt at a patriotic flag design:

On the May day bank holiday we visited Agatha Christie's holiday home, Greenway, and were treated to glorious sunshine and blue skies 🌞 After a picnic lunch and armed with a big flask of tea we were set for an afternoon of exploring...

After recently reading Lucy's Worsley's new Agatha Christie biography it was exciting to be able to visit the place she loved so much and that inspired some of her writing. There's a boat house down on the water's edge which she used as a murder scene in the book Dead Man's Folly that I read last year. Surprisingly it was a lot like how I'd imagined it!

Even if you have no interest in Agatha the place is worth a visit for the beautiful gardens (especially if you can tag along with a family member's National Trust membership as we did!) 🌸 I think we couldn't have picked a better time of year either, the bluebells and wild garlic were out in full force.

Jethro had an afternoon nap whilst we ate ice creams, and we were quite surprised to spot this cat chilling in a car parked near ours. It had a french number plate so it seemed like they might be on holiday with their cat along for the ride, how sweet!

Speaking of cats, Jethro enjoyed getting a close up view of Tom eating his food, completely unbothered by the presence of a curious crawler:

The next day we fancied a trip to Teignmouth. We ate our lunch on a bench overlooking the sea (making sure to keep a wary eye out for seagulls), then had a look around the charity shops and finished up with a trip to the park where Jethro had his first go on a swing!

It feels like an important life change now that we can take our little boy to the park 😭

On Wednesday Jethro and I headed out for a walk to the bluebell woods nearby. To get there you have to walk through this field covered in buttercups 🌼

Wild orchids spotted on the grass verge:

We were stopped in our tracks by this friendly bunch of cows, I couldn't resist letting Jethro say hello as he seems to love animals!

The cows were just as enthusiastic as you can see 😝

Bye bye cows!

Off we went, finally arriving at the most picturesque bluebell spot (although they don't show up so well in photos):

Bright green fresh beech leaves 🍃

A bit further on and this little cow caught my eye with its bright white eyelashes, very cute! And once Jethro had fallen asleep I was free to pick a wildflower bouquet as I made my way back home...

Ferns unfurling:

Princess Juniper on her blanket throne:

And the same sofa deconstructed into Jethro's play area where he can climb around without falling from a great height:

A double corduroy outfit combination, and what a surprise! Juniper on another blanket pile 💕

Every little boy needs a dad to throw him up in the air 😄

I took this photo the day before Jethro turned 9 months old...he is definitely looking less and less like a baby these days, and he's getting so close to walking now! Do we have a toddler on our hands? 

Spot the leaf bugs on our twisted willow tree 👆😳 and the slug nestled in amongst the hosta leaves 👇 This hosta is actually doing pretty well despite the incessant munching attacks 🐌 but the other two which were in this bed didn't even survive long enough to produce any leaves this year as they were gobbled up as soon as they attempted to poke their head out of the ground! Never mind, they've been replaced by ferns which seem to be spreading like mad across our shady border.

Ed's ingenious moat system to protect the sweetcorn seedlings: 

Blowing bubbles, and exploring the contents of the watering can (he clearly doesn't understand the hosepipe ban and the need to save water!) 💧

I'll finish up with some pics from last Friday when I was enjoying a car knitting session and looked out of the window to see some wallflowers growing along the pavement which perfectly matched my wool! The sweater vest is going well, had to unravel a bit more but we're back on track again now I think 🙏

xoxo