Cotswold cottages

I had heavenly day off work yesterday. I managed to resist the urge to just flop and do nothing and headed off in the car for a little jaunt to west Oxfordshire.  It was a chilly day (I've been taking the lovely sunny weather for granted) but the sight of pretty cottages in beautiful warm Cotswold stone made my heart sing.

One of these someone's going to come out of their house and say "oye, why are you taking pictures of my house ?" but in the meantime I snapped these beauties to share with you!

Pretty cottage garden borders make for a warm welcome.

Sometimes less in more. Isn't this unadorned house beautiful?

Some charming houses in the lovely town of Woodstock.

And of course some delightful shops.

The mark of a good English town is it's tea room!

A lovely day out I think you'll agree. Are you going somewhere nice for the bank holiday weekend?

Her Majesty the fashionista

I'm not a Royalist but - I can't help but admire the Queens dress sense. With her own unique style she's never been a follower of fashion, but yesterday in Ireland fashion caught up with the Queen. She totally rocked the colour block trend. I think she looked utterly fabulous!

Enjoy the weekend!

Rock Choir rocks Wembley!

Did you know that I am a recording artist signed to Universal Records? Bet you didn't! Two years ago I hadn't sung since my school days. On Sunday I sang at Wembley Arena. There are two words to explain this:

ROCK CHOIR!

See the video About Rock Choir

Rock Choir has become a something of a phenomenon in the UK. Formed in 2005, Rock Choir was started by Caroline Redman-Lusher with just seven choirs members. Six years later there are 130 Rock Choirs around the UK with a total of 8000 members - I joined Watford Rock Choir when it was formed 2 years ago. There are no auditions to join, just a desire to sing your hearts out to a mix of pop, gospel, and Tamla Motown.

Being part of Rock Choir has brought such happiness to my life. To discover that I could sing and to share the joy of singing with others has been an amazing experience. Last year Rock Choir Volume One topped the album charts!

I've participated in some amazing events over the last two years but singing with 8000 Rock Choir Members at Wembley Arena was something very special believe me.

Here's some of the lovely sopranos from Watford that I sing with waiting to go into the Arena.

You can hear how 8000 of us sounded in this YouTube clip Rock Choir at Wembley singing Don''t Let the Sun Go Down On Me with guest singers, The Soldiers. Next month ITV will be showing a 3 part documentary on Rock Choir. 

Now that the UK has been conquered Rock Choir is coming to Europe. Norwegian Rock Choirs will start next year. It's only a matter of time before we achieve world domination!

Somethings cookin' in my kitchen

Actually somethings been cooking with Blogger this week when they deleted this post and your lovely comments grrrrrr! What I blogged has been lost so I'll just let the pictures tell the story of my new kitchen.

Everything's coming up roses

I love this time of year in the garden. You can hardly turn your back for a moment and something else is in bloom. This week it's the roses that are bursting into colour.

Elsewhere in the garden the Mock Orange is scenting the early evening air with it's heady aroma..

Annuals are going into pots.

And even more alliums are coming out. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend xx

Aliums

I love aliums. Monty described them as old friends in Gardeners World tonight. They've certainly arrived earlier than usual this year and are in abundance in my garden. Here's a selection of my old friends...