Lazy Saturday

Sometimes you need a completely lazy day just for some respite from the manically busy lives most of us lead. Today was blissfully unwinding: a bit of a lie-in, a leisurely breakfast, a morning of pottering and re-planting the hanging baskets and some herbs, a slightly indulgent lunch out and a bit of retail therapy with my good friend L, and an at-home afternoon and evening.

These chive flowers, against a backdrop of the warm-coloured West Hoathly bricks that our house is built of, caught my eye this afternoon.

When we first moved here, I took a curiosity trip down to the village of West Hoathly in West Sussex on the edge of Ashdown Forest, to see where our 1907 house's bricks originally came from. Almost every house in the village is built of the same bricks as ours, from a time way back when many villages had their own local brickworks. West Hoathly bricks were - and still are - made from prehistoric Wealden clays fired in traditional clamps. I just love the deep rich colour and dark flecking of these lovely old bricks.