Lotus Pest

It's been difficult to get anything done lately....

Olympic Torch Right Up Our Street

Brian and I haven't really watched much TV since the School for Stars series came to an end. I used to catch up with a bit of local gossip on Capital Radio, taking Ed to school but as we now don't have a car we've become a bit out of touch. So, it was news to us when we had the Lordship Park residents get together at the Brownswood Tavern last night that a hosepipe ban will come into force at midnight tonight. Oh Dear! AND, on the 21st of July the Olympic Torch is being carried down our road, yes, Lordship Park, on the final leg of it's journey to the stadium. The event is being celebrated with a huge festival in Clissold Park and the whole shebang will be televised worldwide. OH DEAR!!!

Spring Pastels

Of course I like Spring: I love Spring. It's just that when it finally arrives it can be just a touch.... gaudy, vulgar. All those garish, yellow daffs and pink camellias. It's a bit of a shock after a soft, monochrome winter. Last year we planted the palest, lemon-yellow magnolia: the flowers are just opening and it looks like faded Chinese silk against the duck-egg blue sky.

This evening on the dog walk a dainty, white blossom tree was magical with a backdrop of pale sky and sliver of new moon.

Off With Their Heads

Goodbye Wintery Garden...

Hello Spring!

I had earmarked today as THE DAY for cutting all the brown, papery heads off the hydrangeas...

The dogs and I were in the garden, secateurs at the ready, when we heard that today's celeb was bringing a "very small, well-behaved dog" along. We had to bring the whole operation to a halt: couldn't risk the whippets accidentally nipping the head off a tiny chihuahua. Easy mistake to make in all the excitement. "Let's snip the head off this Hydrangea!/let's snip the head off this Chihuahua!"  
Enzo wouldn't need to be asked twice.

Misty Autumn Garden

The garden has decided to put on a fabulous show of colour - just in time for Dark Weekend... how very annoying.

Hello Capri

Who's that having her piccie taken with Capri?....

 Una Healy from the Saturdays and England rugby player Ben Foden in the Hackney Chateau autumn garden, for this week's HELLO Magazine.

1/11/11

November 1971: Bonfires, mittens on string, roasted chestnuts, knitted scarves, hot baked-potatoes, seeing your breath, frost, Stone's Ginger Wine, watching Blue Peter - the one where they put Freda the tortoise into her box to hibernate, hot-water bottles, Bay City Rollers switch on Christmas lights dressed in tartan trews, kids asking penny for the Guy. 

November 2011: Pink Camelias in bloom, Pret sandwich in the park, Toy Story sky, cascading geraniums, driving with the sun roof open, TOWIE sun tans, chilled Rose, sunglasses, Saturdays switch on Christmas lights dressed in swimwear, kids asking who the ****'s Guy Fawkes?


Lordship Park Garden on 1st November...

A Lott of Apple Pickers Wanted

After being cruelly slashed from Respect La Diva, Ed and Ryan have decided on a career change and are trying their hand at apple picking. "Hurry up boys! Pixie Lott and Nathan from The Wanted are waiting to say goodbye to you. Get a move on!"

Christmas Flowers in August

Marks & Spencer have been shooting their Christmas flowers and gifts brochure here this week. On Monday a refrigerated truckload of perfect poinsettias was delivered and ferried into the house. On Tuesday, huge boxes of exquisite lilies and amarylis arrived, followed by roses, orchids and potted azaylias. On Wednesday, exotic waxy anthurium, splashy tropical leaves, fragrant gardenias and spiky protea turned up, fresh off the plane from South Africa: it's been a delightful few days (whippets and box of foil wrapped M&S choccies incident aside. Thank God Joe and his mates didn't manage to break into the 'Indulgent Collection' - a wooden box containing Champagne truffles, Champagne bubble-bath and, well, Champagne). This morning the house is full of Christmassy smells as candles are lit and ladies snip branches of fir tree and twist bunches of cinnamon sticks for table decorations. Stylists fiddle with crystal glasses and sparkling pine cones and there's a beautifully just-out-of-focus Christmas tree waiting in the wings.

Outside the garden is in no hurry to change seasons but is very gently turning ever-so-slightly autumnal. In the evening sun we picked apples and today I've been peeling, slicing and cooking them. I made a batch of apple and blackberry muffins for the crew and I'm going to attempt... wait for it. Toffee Apple Ice Cream! I'll let you know how I got on.   

Hackney in Bloom

                                                Got back home to our own tropical garden.

Summer Breeze

Brian just opened the back door to let the dogs out for a pee and a waft of jasmine-perfumed air flooded the kitchen. I took my glass of wine and had a wander around the night garden. Capri was lying on the trampoline looking at the moon and Enzo was studying a snail. The jasmine is in full bloom and although it's not a balmy evening (I have a coat and scarf on) it is very lovely out there, with all the flowers glowing ghostly white in the twilight. Its more breeze than summer but it still makes me think of my favourite song of all time. (Don't switch off before the guitar bit.)

Stokey Taverna

I'm feeling a bit more positive concerning the garden... I had it out with the garden centre about the copper strip snail deterrent.
'Yeah, it's useless' the bloke agreed with me. 'The snails parachute in from the trees' he added helpfully, slamming an £8.99 tub of organic, pet and wildlife friendly pest control pellets onto the counter.
'This is what you need; chuck a handful on the ground, then sit back and be amazed.'
I pictured myself sitting back and being not the least bit suprised at a daredevil troupe of performing slugs and snails tumbling and somersaulting into the garden; slithering along tightropes, walking on stilts or linking antenna and whizzing through the air on the flying trapeze - all to sound of rapturous applause.
I handed over a credit card unenthusiastically.


To further enhance my up-beat mood Brian has strung up some festoon lights over the seating area by the house. When I say 'strung up' I make it sound like a 5 minute job. It took all day, involved two ladders, a hammer, a drill, quite a bit of swearing, a lot of those plastic cable-tie things, a plaster and several hours of my help. It was getting dark as he screwed in the last of the forty light bulbs. One or two weren't working and a couple of others flickered on and off but that all added to the charming Greek Taverna feel.


I forced the kids to sit outside and we ate...

    
Sliced cucumber, with feta, mint and a squeeze of lemon juice....

...followed by moussaka...

... and flat peaches for desert.

This is my version of moussaka. I don't know if it's anything like authentic but it always gets a thumbs up.

Slice two aubergines into 1cm rounds. Lay on a baking tray and brush both sides with olive oil. Bake in a hot oven until soft and slightly brown. I don't like coming across an al dente bit of aubergine so overcook rather than under. You may have to do two batches. Once cooked, the aubergine can be left until you need it.
In a large pan fry one large, chopped onion. After a few minutes add a couple of teaspoons of ready chopped garlic from a jar. Stir around for another couple of minutes and then add 800grams of lean minced lamb, 2 tins of tomatoes, 2 chicken stock cubes and a glug of red wine. Once it's bubbling hot reduce to a simmer, put on the lid and leave for an hour or so.
Switch the heat off and leave until you're ready to assemble the moussaka. 
Make a bechamel sauce by melting 50grams of butter in a pan. Add 2 tablespoons of plain flour. Mix to a thick dough and then slowly add semi-skimmed milk, beating all the time to create a smooth sauce. Add 2 bay leaves and some salt and pepper. Leave to cool off before removing the leaves and adding a dollop of Greek yogurt and whisking in 2 eggs (the eggs make a lighter, more stable topping for the dish.
At this point I add as many herbs to the meat sauce as I have growing in the garden or lurking in the fridge. Yesterday it was a bunch of roughly chopped mint, some basil, parsley, thyme and rosemary. I like to romantically imagine that in Greece the sheep and lambs wander around the rocky terrain nibbling on any herbs and plants that take their fancy - so don't worry too much about what 'goes with' lamb - just as long as the sauce tastes aromatic.  
Then peel 3 large potatoes. Slice them thinly - about half a centimetre. Lay them at the bottom of a buttered oven-proof dish. I have a paella pan that works well but anything big and about 8 cm deep will do. On top of the potatoes ladle a layer of meat sauce followed by a layer of aubergines, then another layer of sauce, more aubergines, more sauce and finally the white sauce. 

     
Cook in a moderate oven for about an hour. Just check the potatoes at the bottom are cooked by inserting a knife to make sure they're soft. Once out of the oven the dish will keep hot for ages. The boys waited for about 30 seconds. Scoffed the lot, then went back indoors to watch The Apprentice, leaving Brian and I almost alone in the magical twilight garden. 

  

Copper Load of This!

Right! That's IT. I'm having the garden concreted over. I can't stand the stress of coming down every morning to witness a new disaster.

There! That's better.

I hadn't seen a single snail or slug this year (must be the hot, dry spring) so I thought it would be safe to plant some lupins - not in the ground, that would be asking for trouble but in a pretty fluted urn near the gazebo. Just to be on the safe side I ran a strip of copper slug tape around the edge. The idea is that the creatures get some kind of strange buzzy sensation that they don't like when their slimy bodies touch the copper (how does anyone know this?) so they turn around and slither off. Now I like a bit of functional copper but not sure it works so well in the garden but am prepared to overlook the aesthetic if it means my lovely violet-blue lupins are protected.

Seems the copper/snail theory is an unproven one as this morning the lupins were chomped and sparkly trails criss-crossed the copper boundary.

Tonight I'm going to stand guard by the urn and catch them in the act. Brian and I can exchange morale boosting banter as he waits beside the Annabelles with a golf umbrella at the ready.

Lowdrangeas

I'm gutted! The gorgeous Annabelle Hydrangeas that I've been waiting ALL YEAR to admire have been battered to the ground by the stupid torrential rain. Sob.... 

Flower of the Month

My mate Tom is shooting at the house today. He's worked here a lot; slogging away day after day, photographing Page 3 girls for lingerie catalogues or calendars.

Evenings and weekends are idled away feeding the chickens and tending to the vegetables in his country garden with his wife and young children. He's really excited today; he has just taken delivery of one of those lawn mowers that you ride on!

Tom likes this place; it's perfect for the shoots he does. Starting in the opulent French boudoir, with elegant chaise and silk-covered bed, then moving onto the Barbarella basement, complete with metal 'parrot-cage' hanging chair, he can easily squeeze Madamoiselle May through to Dominatrix December into an afternoon. But what he likes most about working here is the garden. He always has a stroll around with a coffee while the girls are in hair and make-up. Today we stand at the window, overlooking the hydrangeas. 

One or two have turned bright white but most are still a creamy green. Hydrangeas do so well here; they've grown into huge bushes forming a high canopy over the path.

The Annabelles are my favourites - they're just on the turn. Still like spheres of pale green coral but in a week or two they'll be fully blown puff-balls of delicate white petals. Tom is very interested in the hydrangeas and wants to know all about them. One of the models trots in wearing impossibly high shoes and little else. 
'I'll be with you in a minute.' He says, barely turning round. 'So when is the best time to prune them?'

Hackney Flower Show

If you cba to get down to The Chelsea Flower Show this week why not come for a wander through our backyard instead.....

May

It was my plan to change my background picture every month: moving through the seasons with a new image to reflect the time of year, my whims, the weather, the new black, the mood of the country, whatever.... each one carefully chosen to enhance the photos and create a visual diary of life in the house. The idea being that you would be able to scroll back through previous blogs, travelling through the mists of time, perhaps lingering over a particular photo that evokes special memories, reminisce about .....
Anyway, you can forget all that because when I change the background picture it changes it for every previous blogs too - so, I need you to imagine all the posts for April with this wallpaper..

..good

Right, May. This month's background is going to be this photo. It's our back room. The big old Dutch doors were brought back from a previous trip to Holland. Imagine the kids delight to discover that just a few streets away from Efteling there is the most amazing architectural salvage yard. I can easily pass a day there, wandering around the 18th century room settings. This year they have added an entire, salvaged, art-deco bar complete with alcohol!  

          




    






The old Dutch doors (or slags as they are known in Holland) in the photo were shipped back a couple of years ago. There was much amusement, and endless hours of fun were had by all playing on the slag pun, ie. 'Brian spent the weekend screwing a couple of slags against the wall', 'My word! what a big knocker on that slag' etc - you get the idea.


Moving on, just as our wisteria is fading....

... Maria's is at it's best.


Oh, by the way, Arsenal won today. Drinks all round. More on that tomorrow.

Easter Weekend

In keeping with tradition, the Bank Holiday weekend was mostly taken up with DIY. There's not much opportunity for decorating when the house is busy with shoots and the wooden floorboards are long overdue a repaint. They have been the same (perfect) shade of grey since the beginning of time but when we walked the dogs round to the paint shop (J's Decor8) to get the friendly owner to blend us our usual recipe we found the EEC have decreed that we can't have that colour anymore..... some hours and two extremely bored whippets later we struggled home with 10 litres of the closest match we could get, after J obligingly decanted half of our first attempt into a bucket and added a gallon more white to the mixture.

www.lordshippark.com

The reception rooms have 1000 square feet of floor to paint so that kept Brian busy while I messed about with the new camera and loaded the images onto the computer. Dragging the useless ones into the trash has taken way longer than taking the pictures in the first place but one or two are worth keeping. I think I need to slow down and read the booklet but I'm in a panic... the wisteria is dripping in delicate, lilac flowers which is a sure sign that gale force winds and heavy rain are on the way, giving me only a matter of hours to capture the tantalising blooms. 

Brian and I spend Saturday night drinking wine and composing clues for the egg hunt - making life difficult for ourselves by setting a 'musicals' theme to hopefully give Ed (full-time pupil at Italia Conti Academy for Performing Arts) a chance to get some before the 15 and 18 year olds steam through the house. There was no rush. Joe (15) texted me from his bed on Sunday afternoon to say his girlfriend Phoebe would be joining us and could I 'go shops and get lint bunny'.

Dog walking in Clissold Park is a stressful, unpleasant and potentially dangerous pastime in

hot weather when the grass is littered with picnickers. For some reason not everyone is enchanted when a refined whippet elegantly removes a half-eaten sandwich from their toddlers grasp so we decided to take a stroll down Church Street in search of a Lindt chocolate rabbit instead. I was rewarded in an unexpected way as outside Whole Foods Store was the cutest thing imaginable. A dazzling Mini Cooper covered in mirror mosaic. I loved it and immediately began mentally scrolling through my possessions to find a suitable object for the mirror-ball treatment. A 1998 Volvo estate wouldn't quite have the same cute factor... would be funny though.  

 www.mirrorballpaul.com

In much the same way as I like to slip a new toothbrush into the boys Christmas socks (to a. make me feel better about the packets of Haribos stuffed into the foot, and b. annoy them) I like the idea of hiding some nice healthy fruit in the garden as well as chocolate. As luck would have it I found a giant papaya in Wholefoods that would be perfect for Joe but got a shock at checkout as I thought the price was per papaya and not per kilo - it weighed several and cost more than some fancy egg with his name iced on. A coconut for Ed, a grapefruit for Phoebe and a sensibly priced apple for John. We hid them in the bush planted in the flying saucer (seating from Frankfurt airport circa 1960) in the garden. (clue:huge and white, clean and bright.)

... and here's the flying saucer.

By Monday evening I'd had enough chocolate and rich food. (Gordon and Lee had come for dinner on Sunday and I made paella followed by apple crumble with the last of the apples from the tree that have been in the freezer since the autumn. Anyway, there wasn't much food in the house but I'd found a pack of frozen broad beans while rummaging for the apples and we had broad bean pate on toast. I would like to pretend I'm organised and thrifty and thinly slice any uneaten French bread and freeze it in sandwich bags but actually the bread was left over from a shoot and someone else had thoughtfully left it in the freezer all ready to go under the grill for a few minutes. So, to make the pate bring a medium pan of water to the boil and empty a 750g back of broad beans into the boiling water. Bring back to the boil then strain and rinse under the cold tap. These beans were really tiny so I only bothered to take the tougher outer skin of a few of the larger ones. It's easily done by slitting a small opening with your thumb nail and squeezing the bright green inner bean out. I certainly wouldn't bother to skin a broad bean for a whippet.

With a handheld blender, smooth together the beans with a bunch of mint, the juice of a lime, a clove of garlic, salt, pepper and a couple of spoonfuls of natural yogurt.

Last night was spent putting furniture back and picking up chocolate wrappers ready for today. We have a 'Mother-of the Bride' style fashion shoot going on. Lots of pastel dresses and pretty hats. Joe and Ed have texted to say they're on their way down in search of food and are about to barge right through it - better go!