Taking time to 'smell the roses'...

Is it me, or does life seem to just fly by? I can't decide if its because the weather is being so fickle and it doesn't really feel like early summer yet or if its an 'age thing'...?! Every now and then I have an irrational sense of panic that my life is like the contents of one of those sand filled egg timers, running away with no way to slow it down. When you begin to think how many years you've already been here (and yes, I'm racing towards another birthday - surely it can't be that time of year again?!!) and do the maths about what's likely to be left... Time to start doing those things on the list of 'really want to...' methinks!

Anyway, in the brief interlude when we had something that resembled summer weather we did take time to enjoy a bit of British seaside bliss. This was the second May bank holiday weekend and Tom and I decided to savour the sunshine with a trip to Southwold. I do tend to think of this as the 'posh' beach town, a bit... it has an air of middle class respectability with its selection of high street arty/crafty shops, artisan bakeries and tea shops. But it does have a nice atmosphere and you can get a lush icecream!

Doesn't this look just a classic British seaside scene???

I love the coloured beach huts and the rolling waves...

I know the sea is always a bit murky coloured and the surf hardly impressive but this is the seaside of my childhood and makes me think of buckets and spades, coloured windmills to stick in sandcastles and gritty sandwiches.

I love the colours in this rusty old bollard in the sunshine...

It was just lovely to sit and eat ice cream and absorb a bit of warmth...

I'd like to distill these moments to savour when everything is cold and grey!

The weather lasted just long enough for me to take another day in the garden at my old house and although the main purpose was to try to keep things looking neat and tidy, it would have been crazy not to take a bit of time to appreciate it too. This is always when the garden looks at its best with lush colourful borders.

Everything seems to have gone mad in the last couple of weeks since I went out there. And things I thought I'd lost have appeared, including these alliums - which I planted ages ago and never really came to much. This year they are flowering really well...

The lilac smells heady...

...and the aquilegias, as always, look pretty, nodding in the breeze...

The peony is excelling itself this year too - I don't think I have ever seen it with so many blooms. Oddly, it doesn't photograph very well. It is actually a really rich deep red but somehow seems to bleach out a bit in a photo, maybe because it has such shiny petals? 

I do love it though, its such a blowsy, brash number! You can even see it shouting out from the far side of the garden!

In the foreground here you can see something else I got a bit over excited about - the dark purple iris buds you can see are flowering for the first time! I think I planted them about 15 years ago and they have never done more than had lovely architectural leaves. Ironic that these things are doing so well this year now that I am not living there! Although...it looks as though the next step in this protracted 'division of assets' process (all feels very clinical when you start getting into the legal language) might result in me moving back there in the sort term to get on with getting it on the market... Not necessarily my preferred option but can't see it ever happening otherwise...

 And it would be nice to do more than just unpaid gardening!

Though I did take 5 minutes to just admire the blue sky before driving home...

Given that today, I resorted to putting the heating back on (for goodness sake, weather! Its June!!!) I am glad of a reminder of a sunny day!

Now, must stop daydreaming and get back to jobs in hand...lets see if my car has made it through its MOT?!!

Sx

random things...

A week or so ago a new piece of 'art' arrived where I work...

We have a visitor from Southwark...

If I'm completely underwhelmed by Wenlock, however famous he (she? it?!) is. But I think there must be a fundraising purpose of some sort so... 'whatever'... And I quite like our elephant, and really love the beautiful tree sculpture (which looks great on the days when we get some sun through it) so there could be worse things to greet you on your way in and out of work.

The other interesting (well I thought so...) thing was this moggie that appeared over my garden wall one weekend...

Is that not the most unusual coloured cat?? As Tom said, looks like a ginger tom thats been badly dip-dyed! No doubting its confidence though, as it boldly headed for my open back door!

It has been lovely to have a few days to sit outside for a bit, makes me feel a zillion times better. And although today has been cold and grey again, I can put up with it better for having had some recent sunshine. At the weekend we actually had some proper 'warm enough to eat ice-cream at the beach' sunshine. Bliss. When I get my act together with my camera (instead of my lazy phone photos!) I'll share my sunny seaside pics.

And I'm feeding my crochet habit with a bit of 'selfless' hooking (is there really such a thing? its all a bit self indulgent I suppose) - inspired by Lucy's plea for bunting for Yarndale...

Terrible photo, hastily snapped on my bedside table by the light of my bedside lamp, unblocked, unfinished but I'm a bit over excited by these. I love the idea of lots of people contributing to a colour fest and as I've not attempted granny triangles before I'm quite enjoying whipping these up. I don't know how many I'll manage but I figure any extras are an addition to the total.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to work out if I can figure out a way to justify going to Yarndale, so very tempting!

Maybe just squeeze in another triangle before sleep...

Sx

crochet addiction...

I am kind of at that point with crochet when I know I should stop. You can have too many cushion covers and blankets. (Really, in a house as small as mine, you can...) There's even a bit of me that is, dare I say it, a little bit bored with it. I seem to have a never ending stock of the same colours, that I never quite use up and no imagination or money to go and splurge on anything new.

So, I've had a little branch out and revisited dressmaking - spurred on, in part at least, by the Sewing Bee on the television recently. I hadn't done any sewing, other than curtains, for ages so have enjoyed fiddling around with that. Will save the results of my efforts for another day - have the finishing touches to do and haven't taken any pics yet! But the trouble with sewing is that it sort of takes over - I don't have anywhere I can leave the sewing machine set up so it has to sit on the only table we have. Which means I either have to pack it away (fatal! the sewing in question disappears into the cupboard never to see the light of day again!) or we have to eat off our knees until I'm done. (which is exactly what has happened this time!) 

Which brings me back to crochet. Easy to pick up and put down. Easy to do in front of the radio/TV. Doesn't involve rearranging our dining table. But more granny squares or blankets without good cause...? And then I  picked up a magazine in a little newsagents in Cromer whilst trying to kill time a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember the name of the magazine (and I'm writing this in bed and too lazy to go and look just now) but it is full of ideas. Lots of vintage-esque stuff - granny blankets etc but a few other things that made me want to get the hook out again!

Like this...

I hadn't seen a pattern like this before and thought it looked interesting. Once you get going its quite a pleasing rhythm of treble clusters and double crochet on one row, double crochet and a stitch called 'cluster stitch' on the next row, which make these little wheels.

I think the bag is really cute, especially lined with a pretty fabric print, but in all honesty I'm not sure its something I'd use. I guess it would make a good yarn/WIP bag but don't really need that either. So at the moment I can't decide whether to make it into a bag. I didn't have enough of two colours so it was back to the usual stash and a rainbow of colours.

Its making quite a thick fabric with a nice bit of a texture. 

Might end up being another cushion cover... Or should I go with the bag idea...? Can't decide for the moment. Going to go with the flow and see what comes out.

One last photo. Nothing to do with crochet. Blossom...

Well... you have to don't you. Because its May... and its pretty... and because this is on a very special little tree that is in the garden that won't belong to me at all soon. And because I wanted to add this photo to my memories on here. No other reason needed.

Sx

beautiful things...

Each May Norwich holds a festival of arts and cultural events. It runs for a couple of weeks and is an eclectic mix of the beautiful and bizarre, interesting, clever and sometimes just plain fun. There are always a fair few free events on and the city seems to come alive with people enjoying the atmosphere.

The festival kicked off on Friday evening with a show in the grounds of the cathedral which definitely came into the bizarrely beautiful category. Called Reve D'Herbert (Herbert's Dream) it had an eerie, haunting quality and although I think it got mixed reactions, I loved it. I forgot my camera so only had my phone but you can read more about it and see some better pics here if you are interested.

The cathedral setting as darkness descended is so atmospheric in any case...

Looking forward to the events of the next couple of weeks!

Yesterday was beautiful in a different way - I went up to the coast with a group of ladies and we walked 17 miles of the North Norfolk Coastal Path. They are all heading to Yorkshire at the end of the month for the Yorkshire 3 peaks which I can't make thanks to work, but this was a bit of a training walk (minus the ascent/descent element! This is Norfolk after all!).

I can't say much more about it - this particular bit of coast holds a lot of memories for me and I was glad to be able to walk on my own for a bit, complex emotions but beautiful open skies and sandy beaches. 

One wistful dog, wishing he was sitting in the front seat...

This is how far behind you end up when you keep stopping to take photos...!

I love the ripple patterns in the sand...

Welcome coffee stop...

This has to be the most well-behaved dog I have ever met. She was rescued 3 years ago as a pup from the streets of Athens and lived in Corfu for 2 1/2 years with the people she owns (believe me, she does - English girl, Greek partner) before moving here 6 months or so ago. She ran off the lead for almost all of the walk (I think she must have done nearer 50 miles!), came absolutely every time she was called (even with the distractions of other dogs, rabbits, children and a couple of alpacas!!) and sat quietly on the bus when we were heading back to our starting point. And she only speaks Greek! If anything ever tempted me to get a dog...

Onwards and upwards, more gardening, house tidying to do today...

Til next time

Sxx

garden rescue part 2...

Thanks for the encouraging messages after my last post. It has been a bit of a despondent time and I appreciated the support and encouragement.

I spent another day there last week while the weather was so lovely and although it was back-breaking by the end of the day things were looking much better.

This corner gets the sun first thing in the morning and used to be a lovely place to sit with an early cup of tea...

This long flower bed honestly took me the whole day - I have never seen so much couch grass. I must have dug up about two barrows full of horrible spaghetti-like roots. To say nothing of the stinging nettles (note to self...get a pair of nettle proof gloves!) and dandelions. But in amongst that lot, I did find a few old favourites - aquilegias, a beautiful peony that has just so many buds on it this year, delphiniums, hollyhocks... It felt as though I was giving them all room to breathe and I'm certain they will come on quickly now.

Its not perfect (but who wants perfect apart from bowling greens?) - the weeds eviction has left a lot of gaps, I gave up in despair at the invasive periwinkle (lord help me, I actually chose to plant that! What was I thinking?!) and the grass is a bit rough and ready but in a funny sort of way I enjoyed being out in the sunshine and the satisfaction of getting things back in some kind of shape.

The weather stayed beautiful here for the bank holiday weekend and all three sons (plus two girlfriends) were home for the weekend so we had the first barbeque of the year in the garden. Middle son had arrived home from Derbyshire and cracked on and given the grass a really good cut - that makes such a difference doesn't it? So, we sat out, ate too much, drank a bit and felt generally very relaxed. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this space. Funny, I had thought I would be fine with a flat - more affordable, less trouble etc etc but actually I think I might struggle a bit without some outdoor space.

Now, we just have to negotiate how we can cooperate to keep the house and garden in order - I just know some of that couch grass is just lurking under the surface waiting to rear its wretched shoots again!

Fingers crossed for progress on the communication front!

Sx