#Sproutmovies with Sky Movies

. It’s been a funny old week.   In amongst the usual emails and life at Barrow Towers there have been two stand out moments.  One involves a trip on January, the other involved sprouts.  Talk about two ends of the surreal spectrum. If you follow me on Social Media you will have seen me talking about sprouts this weekend, and in particular #SproutMovies.  Why you might ask.  It is

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A mooch round The Vyne — HDYGG

Mooching is my new thing.   New favourite thing.  I love a good mooch. A couple of weeks ago, with no plans, I decided it might be nice to get out and play with our cameras again.   And since Mr B has had a National Trust membership for 20 odd years and rarely goes to any of their properties, we should visit our nearest property. Wallet checked to ensure

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Renting Cameras

. You may be having a Peter Kaye cheesecake moment here…”rent a camera ?……cameras, to rent? Renting? Cameras?” Why would you do that? As it turns out, quite a few reasons. Let’s ignore, for a moment, the chap who borrowed his son’s camera to record the trip of a lifetime to Las Vegas and spent the whole trip taking his own picture, and let’s talk about why you would want

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Doing Christmas when you have divorced

Well it is never going to be easy is it, doing Christmas when you have divorced?  Though actually I remember doing Christmas just after I got divorced and hoping that it would always be that straightforward. I split from my ex five weeks before Christmas about twelve years ago.  Out of the blue, it just happened.  The reasons don’t matter now but I found myself thinking “what on earth am

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Christmas at Barrow Towers

. I am not a huge fan of Christmas.  There.  I have said it. Out loud *waits for the world to end* If I am honest it exhausts me.   Well at least the build up does, it seems to go on forever.  It feels like Christmas is marked by the fact that Easter Eggs on sale and children returning to school in September is the cue for retailers to

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Ranty Friday — George Osborne

. Well it was only a matter of time really.  Though I swore I would never discuss politics on my blog because it always divides opinion, gets heated, and well, earlier this year I lost friends over politics so I am not prepared to open myself up to that again. This week though George Osborne said something that made me rage more than any other, and with one fell swoop

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So now Janet Street Porter wants to ban children from restaurants

  <sigh> I am beginning to wonder if the sight of the Coke truck on TV triggers something in Janet Street Porter’s mind that means she has to suddenly become The Grinch.  Or maybe it is the thought of having to spend money on presents that means she needs to write another click bait newspaper article. Four years ago JSP declared that working from home made you mad.   I

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My Week — 22nd November

A week overshadowed by world events wasn’t it?   Where nothing else really seemed to matter and where events on the news really brought things closer to home into perspective. The photo above was taken on Monday morning as Mr worked from home and Bob decided to curl up and sleep in the empty fruit bowl and use Mr B’s mug as a foot rest. You can see who rules

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HDYGG — Amberstone Greenhouse

. Who doesn’t love a greenhouse?  I find them hugely romantic.  A place to shelter from a sudden spring shower.   A safe haven from a blustery afternoon when there are jobs to be done in the garden but there is also a cuppa to be drunk.   A place where you can get organised.  Piles of empty pots ready to filled jostle for position with trays full of seedlings

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Oh Charlie Sheen

. Oh Charlie Sheen where did it all go so wrong for you?    I feel like I have grown up with you and today the news breaks that you are indeed the actor rumoured to about to announce to the world that you are HIV positive.   You are the chap who had to sit down on camera yesterday, after weeks of speculation in the press and confirm that it

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How Does Your Garden Grow — Amberstone Manor

. It won’t have escaped your attention that last weekend I was in sunny murky Devon on a blogger retreat, staying in a beautiful manor house called Amberstone Manor.  It used to be a rectory and certainly has that grand imposing style of being “the big” house in the village, coupled with a homely and welcoming feel as you close the front door behind you and enter into the hallway.

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The one where I think I have had an epiphany

. I don’t know if it was just because we were away from home and I was super relaxed, or if it was fact it was 10pm and we had been drinking wine since 3pm, but something happened on Saturday that I think might have been a bit of an epiphany. A bit of a life changing moment of “actually do you know what, you can do that and if

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