This weekend: a drive to The New Forest

We went for a nice long drive on Saturday. We looked at the map and chose a direction we haven't been in yet which was west. I spotted a town called Cheddar which sounded interesting so we headed that way. Our first stop along the way was still close to home at this church above which we've passed before. It is very old. There was a sign saying that this community was recorded in the Domesday Book 1086.

We didn't make it all the way to Cheddar because we stopped for brunch in a pretty town called Bradford on Avon and then decided to change our route and instead head to the New Forest area.

It's really pretty there and there are lots of wild ponies just walking around in the forest area. This was really a bit odd to me, seeing them just doing their own thing, not belonging to anybody. And they weren't actually that wild, they were quite tame as you can see from the photos. Most of the ponies are the Native New Forest breed, but there are also some Shetland Ponies (the little ones).

"Cattle, ponies and donkeys roam throughout the open heath and much of the woodland, and it is largely their grazing that maintains the open character of the Forest. They are also frequently seen in the Forest villages where home and shop owners must maintain constant vigilance to keep them out of gardens and shops." -wikipedia

Wild ponies.

If you live here and you're late for work you can use the
excuse that there was a pony in the road.

Just strolling along the road.

This little one liked having his picture taken.

Aren't they just the cutest little mini-horses.

"Get a picture with the wind in my hair!"

 This one above came right to the car and would have probably stuck his head inside if I wasn't blocking his way!

There were also some cows. I don't know if they were wild. They were just there next to the road eating their lunch. I convinced Andre to turn around and go take some photos of them. I loved their curly fur.

Cadbury's top deck: white and milk chocolate in one.

You can read more about The New Forest here on wikipedia. Some interesting facts there. It's really not a "new" forest, but was new a long time ago when it was created:

"The New Forest was created as a royal forest by William I in about 1079 for the private hunting of (mainly) deer.^[6] It was created at the expense of more than 20 small settlements/farms; hence it was 'new' in his time as a single compact area.^{[7]" -wikipedia}

Wardrobe update

The drawers are done and looking lovely in white.

Last night Andre helped me take off the doors and move the wardrobe.
Here it is sanded down and ready for the primer.

Looking a bit pale with the primer on.

I was planning on getting the first coat of paint on today too, but after cooking and cleaning all morning and afternoon I've decided to end the week early and to do the rest of the painting next week.


Our part-time cat is keeping me company  :-)

Painting the wardrobe

I just started painting the wardrobe this morning. This is where I'm at now:

Sanded and wiped down all four drawers with white spirits and the first one has a coat of primer on already. Now to finish the other three off with primer and then wait 4 hours for it to dry before painting. With all the drying time between coats it will probably take all week for me to finish the entire wardrobe.

Painting the mirror frame

We have a dark wood wardrobe which I've been wanting to paint since we've moved into our new house. At first I didn't even want to have it in the house. It is just way too dark for the English sized bedrooms. In Switzerland we had a bigger bedroom in which we had all dark furniture. Bed with bigger headboard, two sets of drawers this wardrobe plus another single and this mirror too. Now it just doesn't go with the house anymore. 

Andre did put the wardrobe in the spare room again after we moved in here. He's getting super fast at building ikea furniture now. It's FULL of my clothes now so I can't do without it now that it's there! So I bought paint right after moving in to paint it all white.

As a practice run I decided to first paint the mirror frame white and see how that turns out.

Here's the mirror in our room before

See, it doesn't do anything for the room. I loved the dark furniture but it doesn't work here. (That's not the Swiss bed, it wouldn't have fit. We sold it in Switzerland.)

So I dragged it into the spare room which is nice and empty. An old shower curtain covered the carpet plus newspaper just in case.

Here's the tools you'll need to do something like this

masking tape (and newspaper), sanding block or fine sandpaper, white spirits (and cloth), primer, paint and brush. A clean brush to start with. Mine was clean. This was taken half way through painting when I thought maybe someone would want to do this too and want to see what I used.

Cover the mirror with newspaper and tape it down with masking tape. Make sure that the masking tape is absolutely right up against the frame so you don't get paint on the mirror. 

Sand it down with fine sandpaper. I used the block you see above to sand with. I only did some light sanding as this was pretty smooth, but you still need to sand some to get the paint to stick. Wipe down with a cloth with white spirits.

Apply a primer. The tin said to let it dry for 4 hours so I left it and went to gym.

And then just apply the paint. Pretty straight forward. I had to apply a second coat of paint as it wasn't quite even and the dark wood was still showing through in places. After the second coat it looked really pretty and shiny white. Andre approved and he also thinks it looks much better in our room now.

Oh, there's the wardrobe in the back ground. You're next buddy!

Paint tin said 16 hours to dry. Then put it on it's side on newspaper and check the bottom. The tin didn't say to do this and usually I will just be so excited to get it in the room to see what it looks like, but luckily I wasn't myself at that moment and checked. It was still wet where it was stuck to the newspaper. It dried quickly but I left it like that all day. On it's side. I certainly didn't want white paint on the carpet.

Before and after.

 So much lighter and brighter! Still lots to do in our bedroom to make it nice. I'll show you. It will take time. Going to try curtain shopping again this weekend!

I wanted to start the wardrobe today. I was going to start on the drawers inside it, but I couldn't get them out... Andre fixed them so they wouldn't come out all the way. He'll have to help me get them out. I'll show you pictures once that's done. Hopefully by the end of next week.

It's half term coming up next week and I've got some cupcake classes with the kids. Some sweet fun! Will show you some pictures of that too end of next week.

No more denying it

winter is fast approaching.

We scraped the first ice off the car this morning. It was 1C.

Time to get the winter clothes and boots out now.

How to get a wetsuit on a ten year old

We went diving last weekend and 'we' doesn't include me getting in the water. The wives get to drink hot chocolate while the husbands get themselves into all this gear:

The kids need to go diving too. Andre and I have decided that our kids one day will do diving too. We can't understand why all parents don't make their kids go diving. No talking back and no fighting under water!


But first you need to get them into wetsuits. If you're wearing a drysuit, the least you can do is give them a wetsuit or two.

Step 1: Have one adult hold child down.

Step two: Have another two adults force very tight fitting wetsuit (for maximum warmth) over child's legs.

Step 3: If you're in a generous mood also force booties onto child's feet. This will allow you to stay under water longer as said child will be less inclined to freeze completely.

Step 4: Load child with oxygen and you're ready to go.

Tip: patience is important throughout to ensure all children end up in water.

Weekend in Venice

As part of our long weekend in Germany last month we also took a trip to Venice. It was about 6 hours drive from Munich on Friday.

We spent all day Saturday wandering around the little streets and over the many bridges in Venice and drove back again on Sunday. We had a fantastic time there. Below are just a few of the photos we took.

Jürgen took us on a scenic route home. The beautiful mountains, green hills and lakes made us miss living in Europe...

We also stopped at Grossglockner in Austria, a glacier and one of the highest peaks of the Alps at 3798m above sea level. Big and beautiful.

Sunday was also my mom's birthday and we had a birthday dinner in Austria before continuing on home to Germany.

Just had to show you this- the hand basins at the hotel we stayed at in Italy!

Badger update

The badger in our garden was spotted!!

Andre came down early yesterday morning without switching the downstairs light on. Lights from the upstairs windows lit up the garden slightly. It was just luck that right at the moment he looked out the back door there was our little badger friend trotting across the lawn. He went right across the lawn and disappeared under the shed. Sadly I was too late and he didn't come back out from under the shed.

Now we're wondering whether he actually lives under our shed or did he dig a hole to visit the neighbours for an early breakfast Sunday morning...

Our new garden visitor

Sunday morning I came outside and found this:

And this.

All over our lawn.

"I can tell you now that wasn't me."

Monday morning I found this:

Pepper plants dug out...

Luckily the only plant with an actual pepper on was spared.
It's small but it's there.

"I said I didn't do it so quit looking at me."

After some research I found the cause. This:

I know this because of the above pictures as well us our friend digging himself a "toilet" in our herb garden. Nice. It's what they do apparently.

Badgers are out looking for food during spring and autumn and there's not much going to stop them if your garden is one of their preferred restaurants. They will dig under fences and can climb very well so there's no need for us to even put up a fence in our back garden (which opens onto a field with only trees and shrubs shielding it). Saves us that expense at least.

The only options are either a very tall fence which also goes quite deep underground and which needs to be quite strong to withstand badgering from the badgers or an electric fence. We've decided to let the badgers be and see how it goes. 

Improving our lawn will apparently get rid of some larvae which our badger is currently enjoying as you can see form the photos. We'll see how it goes once we've got veggies planted. If it will only be certain times of the year we might be able to make a plan.

Oh and in case you were thinking of a different way of getting rid of a badger, they're a protected species so no, you can't do that. They have actually been voted the best liked British mammal. We'll see how much we get to love our badger.

Cute, until it's your garden he visits next!