Woolcrest Textiles is just around the corner in Well Street from the London College of Fashion in Mare Street.  A wholesale fabric warehouse that sells to the public.  It is extremely well placed for fashion students, who need metres of fabric to sample with, without going to the expense and second mortgage that is often required in London fabric shops – or at least central ones.

 

The first few times I went, I have to be honest, I was out of my comfort zone, but the more I trot around, the more I understand the fabrics displayed, and just how cheap they are.  Good quality wools, silks, linens and fashion at ridiculous prices.  Yes, you might not find what your hunting for, but you will find something.  My prices are approximate, but Linen’s range from £2.00 to £2.50 a metre, Silk comes in at about £3.00 a metre, Wool for coats, trousers, jackets between £5.00 to £7.00 a metre, you get my gist.   As opposed to Berwick Street where wool’s start at £49.00 a metre and silks start at £45.00, organic cottons come in at about £18.00 and Linens start at about £28.00.  I know they are all beautiful in Berwick Street, but there are some real treasures here too. You just have to hunt them down and be prepared to spend a little time looking.

And lets be honest, it could do with a lick of paint, but it appears to be a male dominated business and these things are all incidental to the work that is done inside.  And these boys are busy, really busy, fabric purchasing is an intense business from students, customers and fabric retailers.

You see the above fabrics, three metres of silk, four of a heavy pure wool – two metres of cotton shirting, one metre of wool flannel, one metres of a wool boucle type thing, and one metre of a heavy wool, and there was something else you can’t see.   £45.00 quid, approx the same price as one metre in Berwick Street.  

 

 

 

The silk is so pretty, we did the flame test, it is silk, and the plan is a little for sampling and a little for me.

And this wool, how could I not, the colours are so me.  I am thinking of making a big blanket or making a winter coat.  Its lovely, its thick and its gloriously soft with just the right amount of roughness and I know its going to keep me warm, I just haven’t decided which way yet.

I can’t believe I am heading swiftly towards the close of my first academic year at University.  I know the pace is hotting up and my adrenaline is starting to surge.  I am constantly thinking about what I need to do, so to that end I am trying to go swimming a couple of times a week just to give me a physical and mental break.   So one day last week when I was half an hour early to class and in need of some toast and coffee having been up since 5.30 a.m. (that was the adrenaline) and been swimming for an hour,  I was looking around for a cafe and realised what treats there were if you simply turn left instead of right when exiting the train station.  Lovely little cafe’s tucked underneath the arches, so cute.  (I’d often wondered what the smell of savoury meals and pasties was when I trotted through at 9.00 a.m.)   Now its summer all of the tables and chairs are coming out, so this is what gave the game away.

I found a little cafe and had some lovely sour dough toast, home made marmalade and good coffee, which was a brilliant treat. 

 

And it was such lovely bread I asked where it had come from.

 

I was directed to two doors down… e5bakehouse  An absolute find. There were about six or seven chefs in the back, dressed in whites, busy hand making bread as I bought my loaf of Hackney Wild, a crusty loaf with a wonderful taste made with a mix of organic unbleached white flour, organic stoneground wholemeal and organic rye flour.  It takes a while, living on your own, but I eat every mouthful and those commercial loaves that are sat in my freezer for emergencies – you know the type, a bread emergency! – really look and taste very sad in comparison.

And they do delicious looking cakes,  which call to me whilst I wait to pay, so far I have resisted their siren call.

If you happen to be around London Fields, hunt them down, your worth it.

I think we have done reasonably well, weather wise this bank holiday.  At least we haven’t been pinned to the weather forcasts waiting for a break in the weather, we have been able to get out and about.

Our ruby red geraniums are beginning to put on quite a show, and their scent is lovely.  I tend to bed hop in the middle of the night if I’m not sleeping well, I find a cold bed helps me get back to sleep, so when I tip toe into the back bedroom and crack open the window an inch or two the night air is heavy with their perfume.  I don’t notice it so much during the day, do geraniums release their scent at night?  I don’t know.

 

Our herb bed is doing very nicely.  The mint is now starting to clump and grow, the sage always does well and the rosemary is coming up the rear, with the thyme’s holding there own.  I use the herbs frequently as I normally cook from scratch and they always make such a difference to a meal.

Our border is thickening up, mostly with perennials, but with the addition of a pansy or two.  I do like the nodding heads of pansies, sometimes they just look so amusing with their happy faces bobbing away.

Our runner beans are starting to find their way up the poles.

And we are very pleased with our fig tree.

Our courgettes are just starting to take hold, it is still a bit cold for them.

And little pockets of beetroot are sprouting up.

Our ceanothusus is flowering.

And the rhododendron is coming on well.

We planted a white lilac with a white clematis to grow through it for when the spikes of flowers of the lilac fade at the end of June.  I don’t mind if it doesn’t flower this year, the heart shaped leaves are beautiful enough.  

Its always nice to get everything done by Easter, its always my goal.  I can remember when we moved into our first house and had not realised just how organised one must be in the early part of the year to get the full benefit.  And this year we have managed it, and I look forward to barbeques and picnics, high teas and roast dinners all set up in the garden.  (Have you noticed the barbeque is fired up?) 

Hubby seems very pleased.

And we had barbequed chicken for supper. In the tones of a Monty Python sketch – ‘this parrot is dead’ 

 

And just in case you thought everything was just too perfect.

This is me, wrapped up for an evenings barbequing in May.  I am a knitter, I understand the insulating properties of wool.  It was the greatest of fun, we had quite a giggle, our first meal taken outside this year.