Its all a bit different, isn't it?

Can you believe that it’s September already? Where did summer go? I know that I was looking forward to it...

...I know that I was planning some activities and I do remember getting excited about the caravan. I know that work was hard before summer…

...I know that I knew things would have to change for me to be happy, and then summer passed.

Things are slowly in the process of changing. I felt so down about work before our holiday, but seeing my family and having time to think and remember what its like not to be worried or sad about work got me thinking no amount of money could be worth this.

So with renewed vigour I came back and decided to set change in motion.  This summer was a wash-out up this way. We apparently had summer in April, May and early June…then the heavens well and truly opened.

I feel so bad when I think of all the farmers, we’ve been hearing the tractors and trucks go up and down the roads all day and night whenever we’ve been clear of rain for a couple of days. I do hope things have worked out all right for them.

Autumnal sunlight wakes us when its not raining, and its quite nice to take the morning cup of tea out into the garden first thing and wake up in the cold morning, clear and bright, casting the most beautiful shadows over our messy borders.

I look forward to the changes happening, personally and with the seasons. I just keep reminding myself its character building…its character building…

Can't take me anywhere

One of the things i love about getting away is seeing the history of a place...

I am genuinely happiest touching rocks and stones and imagining who did it before me (umm, that is....apart from the other tourists). 

So when i go anywhere of course i seek out mosaic's, tombs, pillars and amphitheaters. 

I find quiet places and small streets.

Places to sit and pour over independent guide books. 

Oh, and buy lace...oh yes! 

lots of lace...

But i am happiest sitting under a tree next to St Pauls pillar, next to The Husband, watching everyone come and go.

Can we go back?

Can we go back please?  Can we go back to not living in the real world?  Can we go back to spending time together and not talking about boring grown up things?

Can i sit in the sun again?  In the warmth....with a book....can i go back to peeking up over it and just smiling? 

Can we have the whole place to ourselves again?  Can we get up early and run to pool knowing that we will never be able to sit in it once its ten in the morning? 

Can we go up to the market and stare out at everything?  Can we go back please? 

Can we sit by the harbour and look out over the sea? 

Can we go exploring again? 

See what we find again? 

Sit by the flowers again? 

Have an ice cream again!? 

Countdown to Downton

Hooray for Countrywise: The Real Downton Abbey..

Hooray for Downton! 

Hooray for Sundays and late Summer.

Jetting off

"After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working."

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

The holiday is very close and i could not be more excited!!  I get to see some of my family and i get to do a big fat nothing for two whole weeks.  Can't wait to share all of the news and pics when we get home.

x

From a Railway Carriage

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!

- Robert Louis Stevenson

This is our old station, i think i took this picture I went away by myself for the first time.  I was exceptionally grown up and heading away for a Cadet related thing and had to travel down to Wales.  Now where this car park used to be is a very large coffee shop and some more shops, its a very big shopping mall and is probably much nicer to wonder around while waiting for the train to get going!

We're getting closer to our departure and we just can't wait to be away from the fuss, the rotten old weather we've been having and the day to day grind.  Summer this year hasn't been that great, we've had an awful lot of 'rubbish' thrown in our way and wading through it gets a bit tough after a while.  So to get away from it for two lovely weeks-and not to mention see my family-is going to be great.

We'll rise early one morning to get the train to our airport, we'll stock up on lots of coffee and lots and lots of sandwiches and nice little snack things and head off on our own teeny tiny adventure.

Edinburgh Love

When we went to Edinburgh an awful long time ago The Husband had to go off to work and Daisy Dog and I got to go exploring....

 This is just a car park...its the car park right below Arthurs Seat and across from Holyrood Palace and Parliament, therefore, much more exciting than just a car park! 

Up, up, up we go all the way to the top of Arthurs Seat!

So pretty, in a busy capitol city, but a place for Daisy to run about! 

Aaaand back down again.  Looking over at the Balmoral Hotel, which used to be called The North Britain hotel...named an awful long time ago after the Act of Union. 

 

The beautiful palace...just having a wee look in!

Just round the corner, i think i only took this picture because i liked the lamp post!

Our lovely Parliament...um, maybe the building isn't to everyone's taste!

A lovely bookshop, its just round the corner from the National Library...a must see...

I love this city..... 

It's full of so many pretty buildings to look at... 

We had a good nosey around everything, poor little Daisy Dog and me, snuffling and rummaging about everything. 

Oooh we're back to some good viewing!

The Great British Bake Off!

Back to some very good TV!  Welcome back cupcake envy...

Edinburgh trip part two!

I've been a bit all over the place recently and haven’t been updating as much as I’d like to. Whenever it’s a teeny bit sunny I go outside in the garden and whenever it’s a bit rainy I make my way out to the caravan to paint and do it up. TH has been a bit ill recently and so I’ve been taking on more of the caravan related work. It’s all well and good but I'm not very DIY minded to its been a massive learning experience.

I haven’t even had the time to update this blog and I’ve been meaning to share the Edinburgh trip TH and I went on a little while ago.

This is my very first little step….so as to ease me back into blogging….will be lots of pictures!

Caravan

I haven’t been online in an awful long time, I wish I could say it was because it’s oh so sunny outside, but that wouldn’t be the entire truth.

Our family now have a caravan! I posted on here a little while ago saying how much I adore the things, well, TH posted up on freecycle that we wished for one and it was our lucky day.

We found out on the Saturday and were able to collect it by the Wednesday. The very kind owners helped us set it up and TH towed it home!

It was their beloved and with four big kids plus Mum and Dad in a four berth it all got a bit much for them, so there it sat, just a little bit unloved until they spotted our advert.

The list of things it needs is pretty much a mile long at the moment, however we’ve been working away on it and it’s all coming together. It is old, but mostly just needed a good clean, and we’re changing certain things because its our preference, although I have to say that we could have just picked it up and went on holiday.

There are scuffs etc, but nothing major. We’ve already cleaned it down inside and out. We’ve already covered all ‘wooden’ surfaces with cream melamine paint, and the walls are going to be lightest lilac. It was completely gas, but TH has used his skills and has made it all electric, and we’re planning on just putting throws over the chairs for now. I want to get out as soon as possible and I easily grow impatient.

I've been dreaming of trips to The Lakes for too long, I'm telling you right now, even if its rainy we’re going out! When I was very little we’d just call those domino days, as we’d pull out all the board games and play until our little hearts were content. I hardly think it would be a bad situation if we went out and about in the rainy weather anyway, as we could get cosy again in our caravan.

I'm going to be needing a bit of inspiration, so I've been looking at lots of nice blogs, pictures and books!!  I can't wait to get to the fun stuff!!

Summer in our village

"The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea."

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

I could watch the boats and children playing for years and years.  I sit and listen to the calls of everyone, hear the sea and families and birds and all those noises in between for years.  The only noise to interupt is the siren call of the ice cream man chugging along in the ancient van.  Ques descend the white van covered in pictures of treats and cartoon characters, children orbit and barter for funds from parents and grandparents, pound coins are pushed in to palms of chubby hands and closed secretly with a kiss.  Grandads and Grandmothers have successfully sneaked the extra pennies into little fists which trot off happily into the middle of the throng of people.

All is well in the world.  At least for now.

My home

I love my home because of its proximity to the sea shore. I love walking out of the front door and smelling the salt. I love knowing what the sea is like before I reach it. I want to know what sort of day it is because of how the air smells.

I like that I can smell peoples fires. I like that there are roses and sweet peas outside of my front door. The window boxes outside the front door and our window are filled with lavender as well. I liked planning those boxes, I dreamed of those boxes for so long before we got them.

It doesn’t seem like much but it can instantly make you happy. I smile as soon as the scent hits me. It’s my home, its how I planned it and I’ve always wanted it.

I think it’s not very wrong to want lots of things, it just depends how you go about getting them and how attainable they are.

I want lavender and sweet peas. I can get them easily and it’s a very good goal to want those. It’s in the same respect I think about little children. I know when I have children I’ll want to give them everything I can, I already want them, and part of the way we run our home is about the planning for children. I will give my children everything-but by that I mean good food, days in the garden and books. Walks down the beach and shell collecting, warmth and hot chocolate. Blankets to make forts with and patience. I will give them tiring days and the scent of sea at bedtime, lavender outside of their window and lots and lots of love. It doesn’t seem like much, but it will be everything I have, and what keeps me going-when wishing alone doesn’t always work, is that I have more time to prepare and gain patience.

Welcome Summer

Hello!!

 It’s so bright and lovely here right now. I've been drooling at all of the garden posts on the old blogging sphere at the moment.

Well, actually, they’ve been going for some time. We haven’t had the sun that the rest of the UK has had and only now are buds appearing outside. It is most certainly an exciting time.

It's so bright and welcoming, and fills me with hope.  The joy that comes with planting tiny little seeds and then seeing them come up in a variety of leaves dotted all over the garden!

We didn’t have a garden this time last year, and we’ve only been able to potter about for a wee while. I went a little wild in the aisles buying seeds and after a couple of early problems-notably the ex-gardener raking up my first two attempts at planting-we are on our way. It’s a little bit haphazard for two reasons. First the gardener issue. And the second is that I like a country cottage garden look. I didn’t really know how to achieve this and so decided to empty all the seeds I had out into a big bucket, mix said bucket with compost and throw over raked soil! Something tells me Monty Don isn’t shaking in his boots!

The garden is a mixture of grass with various borders around it. One side of the garden had really high bushes, and the part closest to the cottage has great big ugly slabs. The back garden looks to the west, and so the sun passes right over it casting all sorts of shadows at different times through out the day. The back border was empty except for a tree and a rhododendron. I am glad to say that I have changed that!

Their were two other little patches of sad empty soil which I originally planted scented flowers in, however these were destroyed and the scented flower seeds only survived if they happened to be near bulbs poking through or the lavender seedlings. The second chance I had at planted resulted in much of the same. However by the third time I came to planting there I had decided on herbs.

This is the garden last year as we found it.  Lovely all the same, but with much more colour this year!  Sadly the camera died half way through my trip outside to get all the pictures i could and so here we are with a reminder of last year!

Quite a lot of the bulbs are well and truly leafy and I can see little buds, and the bushes are doing all right. I'm a tad disappointed to not find any poppy seedlings as they are my most favourite flower and would have done well is my sandy soil.

I guess time will tell how well things are going. I just want a garden full up of colour and scent. I want bee’s and butterflies to hover around and get well nourished. I want to be able to cut away at whatever I like and bring it inside-even if it does make me feel like I'm robbing nature!

I can’t wait for long days lying in a beautiful garden, The Husband getting the BBQ on, and lighting the fire pit. I love Summer!

Bed in Summer

Bed in Summer



In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

-Robert Louis Stevenson