A wee jaunt

Linda and I had lunch out today at the Peacock Inn in Newhaven, established in 1797,  before heading off over the Forth road bridge to Fife to do some shopping – for my room mainly!! We have this favourite store in Kirkcaldy, you see, and are always game for a trip over there!  They sell all sorts of things, furniture and furnishings, rugs, cushions and curtains, lighting, artwork, kitchenware, haberdashery, materials for craft-workers (plenty for scrapbookers and card makers), sewing and dressmaking fabric and accessories…… anything really for the home decorator, and beyond.  They also have a vast selection of very realistic artificial trees and flowers, that can be made up into beautiful arrangements, bouquets, posies and table decorations to be hired for weddings or special occasions, or sold to the likes of me who is hopeless keeping the real thing alive!  Houseplants and I just don’t do well together.  However, when I decided to open up the balcony by putting in the French doors I decided a bit of greenery wouldn’t go amiss and would make it look more attractive both from the balcony itself or from the Green looking up.  No-one below could really tell if the plants are the real thing or not, and I think they look pretty good from close up too.   So, to go with the artificial bamboo, the artificial ivy and the tub of a selection of artificial greenery, today I bought an artificial variegated ficus plant, which I will keep indoors till the weather is warmer (to fool folk into believing I know what I’m doing, and thinking it’s real!!!).  Looks pretty good, eh?  In fact I might just keep it where it is Oh I WILL put it in a bigger pot! !

I also bought a curtain pole,  and a piece of artwork for the wall beside the stove. The black background board is very sympathetic with the slate hearth and black cast-iron with the design, on a second layer, kind of poppy-like, with a raspberry red circle attached, dec-orated with wire and a flat backed glass bead in its centre.  The rest of the design is “dribbled” trails and blobs of paint with some more glass beads.  I love it, and the colours are perfect for my new room’s colour scheme.  They have loads of 3D artworks in the store, all of which were wonderful and seemingly very simple.  Another I liked had waves of a light green going across the short width of the picture, taking up the bottom third, with strips of the same green going straight up from the waves to the top of the picture covering the canvas altogether.  On the stripes, like grasses I guess, there was the occasional mottled green and clear flat backed bead, about five in all, giving the impression of uncurled fern fronds or flower buds still to open into bloom. I’d have loved to take some photos, but for one thing I probably shouldn’t, and for another, I had left my camera at home!  Bummer!

Actually that reminds me of the incredible sight we saw on route  to Kirkcaldy driving along the A92. I had to pull into a parking area to take a good look at something we don’t see often – a flock of about 1000 to 2000 birds flying in clouds, swirls and lines, crisscrossing each other and changing directions, sometimes stretching out in lines and shapes veering away from the main flock or all spreading out  to form almost pictorial patterns in the sky, then curling round into a dense cloud again before once again separating into small shapes and lines, yet always keeping contact with the flock.  It was wonderful to watch and we sat for ages just following their flight.  Why oh why did I leave my camera behind? – Because we were just going shopping!!!!!  Rats!

Talk again soon.

PS  The pictures of the Peacock Inn and Newhaven (up top) were taken on a previous visit!  Don’t you just love the fireplace in the restaurant with its peacock decoration?

PPS    Forgot to put this picture in for Mary! The carpet in my living room is the same as the one I got for the old living room several years ago!  Keeping it as the new bedroom carpet!