Sherwood calling!

A posy from the garden.

We live in the city of Nottingham in an area called Sherwood. Here are some characters you might recognise, who lived not far from here. They were left here by the people before us. I need to find somewhere for them to continue their reign. 

This was supper out on the patio on a sunny bank holiday. It's a puff pastry tart topped with leeks from our garden.

In this area, '50p, ducky!' is one of my favourite sentences to hear on a Sunday morning. For non-Notts-natives, it rhymes with cooky and is a term of affection widely used by slightly older people, particularly at the car boot sale which I frequent, which is in the shire rather than the city.

A Noddy eggcup, various brooches, Bulgarian treenware, a cellulite fish, 8 rolls of brightly coloured cotton thread, a German chalet weather house, all prompting that magic phrase.

But the thing that set my heart racing when I saw it was this ballet print. It is from a painting of the ballet Giselle, by an artist called Carlotta Edwards. When I was small, my dream was to be a ballerina. But not just any ballerina, the corps de ballet was not for me, I wanted to be a prima ballerina like my heroine, Dame Margot Fonteyn. This was well worth a bit more. Two British Pounds to you ducky.

I've been making a dress out of an old tablecloth. It's a bit Institution Chic at this stage in the proceedings, and that expression on my face fits the bill, but once it is dyed and a bit of trim added, I am sure (!) that I will look as casually elegant as these ladies on the right. I'm going for the version with sleeves.

Here's someone I have recently come across and admire very much, Jack Munroe of the blog a girl called Jack.

Questions: what local colloquialisms do you have to share? What did you want to be when you were little?