Silent Sunday: garden in June

Our house is the best ever for gas consumption... shocking!

My partner put all the gas consumption figures for our previous three houses and this one into a spreadsheet and our 1930s detached performed better overall* even with the old inefficient boiler and single-glazed windows (we have secondary glazing only on the north side and 1 double-glazed window - nearly all windows are single-glazed iron-framed originals). We had a boiler replacement yesterday so it's going to get even better!

We think this is due to loft insulation and cavity wall insulation. The secondary glazing might play a part too but it's quite old and makeshift for certain windows.

So what were the other houses? We moved a lot in the past five years so the houses we compared were:

• A Victorian semi with original single-glazed sash windows and combi boiler
• A 1930s semi with double-glazed windows and brand-new combi boiler
• A 1960s semi with double-glazed windows and combi boiler.

Strange but true! Cavity wall insulation beats double-glazing big time!

*Bearing in mind that we had the coldest and longest winter ever!

Summerhouse project back on

Playing croquet at Churchill College, Cambridge

Steampunk event - two young gentlemen

My summerhouse in mid May

Hello, just a quick post to catch up before I upload new photos of my summerhouse project. Remember last year's post about restoring my old summerhouse? I painted it forest green outside and bright light blue inside. My partner re-roofed it. Then I removed paint and varnish from an old table I found in the garage and my 1940s utility chairs, bought from a charity shop in London over 11 years ago. Now the chairs and table are finished. Yesterday I re-upholstered the chairs (these are different chairs from my previous post where I had pics of an older. antique chair) and placed them in the summerhouse.

I have been gathering vintage objects to show off in my summerhouse and hunting out decorative stuff to hang and display. I'm planning themed displays and even an art show. Watch this space.

What else? I gave myself a Great Gatsby hairstyle (goes well with the cloche hat in the top pic) and went to a Steampunk event - a great concept merging Victoriana with sci-fi.

More Steampunk pics below....

Back in the DIY business - and I'm the ugly Bennett sister!

Detail of my mini rock garden - a new addition.
Oyster shells look good against red and green succulents

I'm back at home, gardening and fixing things around the house - about time! We had a lousy spring and disappointing summer so far, so I haven't done as much DIY as I'd have liked but have made a good start by tidying up the garden and re-upholstering a set of antique chairs my dad restored over 11 years ago. The fabric was worn out and when we took it off, alongside the flammable padding, we found broken springs and straw! We manually straightened the springs, then connected them together and to the chair using garden wire and screws. As they are hidden, it doesn't matter what wire we used. Getting rid of the old tacks was quite a job, though and my partner helped with that.

One of the chairs, stripped

The chair after the makeover

Once the chair was ready, I used fireproof thick foam for the padding, I needed two lawyers so the spring wouldn't poke out. The olive green and cream brocade is a curtain remnant I had from a previous house, it's not 1930s in style but the colours are right for this period. The matching trim was bought from John Lewis (a bargain at £1.55 a metre). 

After stapling the padding to the chair's frame, I stapled the fabric, then glued the trim on top using UHU fabric glue. When it ran out (why is John Lewis selling such a small tube? A bigger version is needed for serious crafters) I deployed my cool melt glue gun with UHU sticks as I read on the net that it was OK to use on fabrics. 

The chair's seat

Note: I have paid for all these purchases. This is not a sponsored post. I'm open to product testing, though! Read more restoration and home interest articles here.

Last but not least, a pic for fun value... I looked like the ugly Bennett sister but had a Ball at the Regency Ball organised by Lucy Cavendish College. I was lucky to win 2 sold-out tickets in a competition run by Cambridge News.

Wearing the Regency-style costume I cobbled together.
I got the pattern for the skirt from the internet

Silent Sunday

Update on my activity

A new flower I spotted in my border, not sure what it is...

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, but I have a full-time job now and don't work from home any more. I  haven't done much work in the house but have started tidying up the garden and planting seeds. No doubt when the weather gets warmer I will be able to finish my various projects!

UPDATE: Ex journo colleague Bethany says it's a fritillary, a very interesting plant, some bulbs apparently are edible if prepared correctly, but it's also poisonous.

Just a few weeks ago