It's been a wet, wet week here at Renaissance HQ causing endless frustration with pruning and animals.

As for animals our little menagerie has increased by two Silkie bantams who are now settling in nicely with our tiny Seebright and Nankin bantams.

Of course the weather has given us plently of time to enjoy vintage film : The Innocents , look at books : The Flower Shop and wonder what to do with all those books we've read but know we'll never read again , maybe the answer is Green Metropolis. But I rather suspect they'll go to the charity shop as usual.

We've watched The Delicious Miss Dahl on TV and spent quite some time looking at the kitchen Sophie Dahl used. We even found a seller of vintage items whose wares would fit wonderfully into the kitchen: Jolie Trouvaille.

Talking of vintage we continue to add new items to the shop and there is now a rather nice selection of vintage prints there.

We've also continued to post over at Renaissance Childrens Notebook.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

In the shop today

A lovely vintage print of two 17th century little girls just waiting to be framed.

Weekly Roundup

Vintage print of M. Le Comte De Hertford by Corneille De Lyon from the Wallace Collection

So this week we have had the sad demise of Hetty the ex battery hen, now of course we are contemplating additions to our little flock.

Inevitably after joining Lovefilm we've been watching films Kinky Boots and Mr Blanding Builds His Dream House.

Outside by the sea we've been walking on Cromer Pier and the joys of country living continue with pruning in the orchard. After a hard days work outside it's nice to come into a supper of something warm and filling like Pork & Bramley Apple Bake especially when you've grown the apples yourself.

This week in the books to read and keep section of Renaissance Newsletter we've looked at a book you're all bound to love, Home by Anita Kaushal in fact we bet some of you already have it on your book shelf.

We must have spent a long time browsing the internet because we've found several blogs new to us, all well worth a visit:

Elspeth Thompson's Gardening Against the Odds

The Flower Shop Stories written by Sally Page

and

Charlie and Caroline's Blog written by the owners of Pedlars

Browsing blogs has given us a date for the diary with Donna Flower's Open House Sale definetly one for lovers of all things vintage.

We've also been inspired by Alicia Paulson and Cherry Menlove to start posting over at Renaissance Children's Notebook for the first time since January.

It hasn't just been browsing on the internet we've also manage to load some new items like the vintage print pictured to the Renaissance shop .

By the way we'd still love to hear your opnion on the Shovel Birdhouse

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Charlie and Caroline of Pedlars

Still on the subject of other peoples' blogs.

Did you know that the owners of Pedlars have a blog?

It's called Charlie & Caroline's Blog

and it's well worth a visit especially as they are going to give readers

a chance to

" TO MAKE AN OFFER FOR SOME PRODUCTS" on the blog. "Proceeds from these SALES WILL GO TO CHARITY, AND YOU CAN NOMINATE THE CHARITY. The idea is simple; every day for ten days we will offer different products on our blog. Followers can make an offer for these products and the best offer wins. So you might buy a mug for a few pence or a French lamp for a fraction of its value."

You can find out more here

Just in - Vintage Romeo & Juliet Print

New in the shop today this beautiful vinatge print of Romeo & Juliet.

Weekly Roundup and Giveaway Result

The winner of our Georgette Heyer giveaway is Jeanne of Tales of a Cottage Garden we'll pop the book in the post to you Jeanne next week when we have your postal details.

Gladys and Annie sorry to disapoint but we do have other Georgette Heyer books to read so look out for another giveaway soon.

So what have we been doing, well apart from the usual horsey and orchardy things we've had to give the ferrets a bath which was fun if messy.

We've found some brilliant greetings cards with little gardens and we've joined Lovefilm ,we've even managed to add a couple of new items to the shop.

Oh and the chickens are laying....

Whatever you are doing this weekend - enjoy!

Weekly Roundup and Giveaway Announcement

So this week we have successfully rehomed (fingers crossed) our juvenile cockerel and been rather amused by a report from the Sun about chickens killing a fox , you should read it for yourselves the puns are really groan worthy.

Since the beginning of March it has felt really Spring like and we've turned our thoughts to window boxes, and displaying Spring bulbs indoors in vintage china pieces. We've also been looking at a tutorial for making floral necklaces.

Whilst in our dreams we've visited Pedlar's castle in reality we've spent some delightful time watching the boats on the North Norfolk coast.

Far more mundane but never the less worth a mention, we renewed our car tax online, it was very simple to do and personally I would highly recommend it.

There has even been time for some reading, I've been dipping into Gisele Scanlon's The Goddess Experience and I've finished the first of my Georgette Heyer dectective / murder mystery books. Which leads me nicely to the announcement of Renaissance's first giveaway.

Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer

I've finished reading it and would like to pass it on to someone else, so if you'd like to read it yourself please leave a comment over here at Renaissance Newsletter.

If there is more than one person interested in the book we'll do a little draw and announce the winner next Friday in our weekly roundup.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and good luck in the giveaway.