7 DAYS AUTUMN starts Saturday 18th September 2010!

7 Days: Day 7 – Weeding

Here I am making a start on picking out all the self-sown seedlings that grow in the gravel. [Runner-up photo here] This year violets were abundant and had turned the stones into a green carpet. Mum and Dad came out to join me after tea and together we’ve made a fine start on getting the gravel garden ship shape for the summer party in a week’s time. Tomorrow Mum and I will be making a start on food preparation, doing what we can in advance and freezing it.

Thanks for another lovely week, guys and girls. I’m somewhat behind with the photos, so they’ll be keeping me entertained next week too, I’m sure!

7 Days: Day 6 – Chanel makeover

I’ve been dying for someone to do my makeup since my interest in the stuff was rekindled by my “obsession”, as Bonnie put it, with the Pixiwoo videos and with adding some new classy makeup and brushes to my collection. Sit me in a chair and fiddle with my face and you’re my friend. So having asked at the Chanel counter for some advice on foundation – and trying out the Vita Lumiere – I booked an appointment. And it just so happened that I made sure the appointment fell during 7 Days.

Here I took the opportunity to try and get my camera set up right (hell when you’re having to point the camera at a mirror surrounded by bright lights) while the makeup artist, Charlotte served another customer. I had already been primped and polished at this point with moisturiser, eye cream and serum. Apparently you’re never too young for eye cream – prevention is better than cure. It had been for that reason that a month or two ago I found my old eye cream in my cupboard and started using it again. Until I realised that the subsequent outbreak of spots I suffered was no doubt linked to the fact I was smearing stuff onto myself that was x years old and had most likely been acting as a petri dish all that time for whatever crud was on my finger last time I’d stuck it into the pot.

I took this while Charlotte was applying my eyeshadow. We’d gone for a purple smokey look and she’d used a pale lilac all over and was then apply a dark shadow in the outer corner. She also used a funky purple eyeliner, which came home with me in a posh Chanel bag. That’s the trouble with buying this posh stuff, you end up with posh bags that you don’t feel you can throw away. But then it’s not as though you can use them to package gifts for other people, either. Happy birthday, here’s a Chanel bag, but don’t get excited, it’s just a bracelet from Marks and Spencer.

This is the final look – a little more glamorous than I’d usually go in the daytime, but great fun. You can just see me swanning out of Fenwicks clutching my Chanel bag looking like this, can’t you? Now I feel like going round all the other counters and seeing what they come up with for me.

7 Days: Day 4 – Flowers on my lettuce

Not quite what I was aiming for growth-wise. We had a pile of rain a while back and my lettuce and rocket went to seed. But no matter, I keep pinching off the flowers and we’ve had – and are still getting – lots of great salad leaves for our sandwiches.

The mangetout behind are just starting to get flowers, but that’s ok, they’re meant to. The potatoes are growing, the runner beans are climbing their poles and the rest are just about doing their thing too, but I’ve been neglecting things out there a bit and the weather’s been a bit weird, so I’m not expecting a bumper crop. though when I compare the patch with how it was a month ago, I can see that things are indeed growing. The beetroot aren’t doing much though – slugs have stripped their leaves off. Time for a few more magic blue pellets to be sprinkled their slimy way, methinks.

31st May:

And now, almost a month later:

The potatoes, beans and mangetouts are all growing well

The tomatoes and cucumbers haven’t died. I call this progress.

And my wheat field is coming along nicely.

7 Days: Day 2 – Hot and not so hot

Resting my muzzy head in the sunshine in John and Sam’s garden. We spent a very enjoyable day at their place, where we were fed yummy food and everyone pitched in to finish the crossword.

7 Days: Day 1 – Going Ape

Today was Helen’s hen do, which was spent at “Go Ape” in Bedgebury Forest and then at Zapatas Mexican Restaurant. I didn’t go swinging through the trees myself, but staying on the ground, trekking trough the forest being the photographer was pretty tiring too! I spent a lot of time looking up as I watched my friends swing on Tarzan ropes, crawl through tunnels, climb across rope bridges and navigate cargo nets, documenting their every move. I’ll add the photos to Flickr when I’ve sorted through the 600 shots I took!