happy hols part 1

Well we're back after an amazing few days away down in beautiful Cornwall, camping by the sea. I have to say we found a great campsite right across the road from Porth beach.

Porth was a great find right across the coast road from a brilliant campsite with great facilities and good sized pitches. There were a couple of shops, a pub right on the beach and a little tapas restaurant.  It is only 20 minutes coastal walk from Newquay but much quieter. The sea goes out a long way but when it comes into the cove, the water stays at a great swimming/body boarding depth all the way in. Which means that it enables a good area for accessing fun in the sea. It has a stream running down the right had side which children loved to play in damming it up or using it to fill the moats of their sand castles.  Although it did disappear when the tide came in creating some currents that the life guards kept reminding everyone to be aware of and stay out of.

 Whilst the life guards are on duty about 10am -5.30/6pm no surf boards are allowed as the cove doesn't make too flag sections possible. Which I'm sorry all you surfers makes it more fun in the sea for us body boarders. In the evening all sorts of water users appear with surfers, row boats, canoes,  paddle boarders, including yoga on paddle boards - yes that isn't a typo! I only wish I'd  had a camera in my wetsuit. 

We had a beautiful walk out onto the beach and out onto the headland just as the sun was setting. 

There was a beautiful full moon out although I don't think my camera got the best shots of it.

 It  is amazing how quickly one becomes relaxed at the seaside. Something about the perpetual motion of the sea, the wide expanses that make you feel so small even the air seems different. Things worrying you seem so far away. The fact that you are always exploring something new and different. Towns and villages, shops and restaurants, beaches, roads along coastline or green expanses. 

Even cooking on the camping stove just doesn't seem the same as cooking at home. Especially as we lived on cooked breakfasts and bbq style food, veggie and meat so everyone was happy.

mmmmmmmmm

who is in the garden this week

Well this week I've been enjoying sitting in the sun and shade reading a bit of Austin.  Whilst sitting I could hear a loud constant buzzing of the bees and the see the fluttering of white butterflies. 







I love that my garden seems to have lots of plants that encourages these visitors. They are so important to our environment so I try and plant native perennials and bee/butterfly friendly plants along side my fruit and veggies. 











Then to my surprise I reached down to get my drink and saw a little snail sat at the bottom of the chair leg. I don't put anything down to get rid of slugs and snails. Plants just have to cope with these little garden poppets.


I love sitting in nature and know I am blessed to be able to enjoy the restorative of the outdoors in my garden and the creatures that visit me there. 

My garden this week –

The cosmos that I planted from seed have started booming

I am eating blueberries, strawberries and raspberries for pudding nearly every day the taste so sweet.

The tomatoes have flowered and now the fruit are starting to grow, let’s hope that with this gorgeous sunshine they will ripen so I can eat them soon with my nasturtiums in a sandwich with cream cheese.

The lavender and roses smell wonderful and are attracting bees and butterflies.

It really is such a lovely place to sit, edit photographs, read a book, or generally potter and relax. Although I have plans which involve a sledge hammer, some bricks, stones and wood.

 It is however too hot for that today, I’ll just sit back and enjoy.

my crafty life

Well I'm not a tidy crafter and sometimes I feel full of inspiration and at other times I sit and slowly look through the different toppers or papers and let them take me wherever the design goes.  

Sometimes it seems to depend on my mood am I feeling happy or sad, have I been out in the sunshine, with friends or busy at work. Is there an event coming up like a birthday or wedding or am I just crafting for crafting sake.  

Recently I've been experimenting with my Joy machine to cut and emboss different patterns and designs onto papers, card and vellum. It's been fun although sightly addictive to see how different designs come out on different textures glitter card vs metallic or vellum? 








I've got swirls and flowers, bubbles and dots, stars and birthday cakes.  They make a plain piece of paper or card look like so much more and change the way to make a picture.

Sometimes if I'm making a design for someone they give me the inspiration - what is their favourite colour,  hobby or what has/is happening in their life.










Or sometimes it is something that I have seen that makes me want to put it into a design. 

Like a flower, a picture, flying a kite, a piece of ribbon. What does it make me think or feel. Do I think that it links to a certain thought or to a particular event in life. Is it peaceful,  happy, a mad moment or just make me smile. And after all is that not why we craft, it makes us feel good, we want to share that with others and hope that they will see it to.

   

 

bring on the fruit

Well the fruit has been growing well, the raspberries have got to the top of their canes and the strawberries have taken over the old wheel barrow that I plant them in.

 I can't wait for the taste of some home grown.   But without a lot more sunshine here in wales I will definitely have to have some patience for the strawberries and blueberries. 

 However I have spied some raspberries starting to turn, so I now have a big happy face.

Race for Life

Today I joined thousands of other women taking part in the 5k race for life in Cardiff.  We were of all ages from babies in slings and pushchairs, to the eldest being 93 in a wheelchair being pushed by family. Some of us walked, some jogged, some ran and some did it in fancy dress. All of us were doing it for someone, the messages on the backs of all the tee-shirts were testament to that.

 What did make me think was the amount of people who had more than 2 names on their backs.  I’m not sure why I am surprised there were 3 women in our group who had overcome cancer and I know at least 7 other friends or family members who have been affected by cancer. It truly does seem to be the disease of our generation – I don’t mean that only our generation gets it, just that we seem to be the one watching our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, friends and children fighting, some winning and unfortunately some loosing to it.

Now I have not had cancer, so don’t know what hell that must be or know how I would react to being given that sort of news. All I know is how it felt to be told that my dad had cancer.  He was diagnosed in 2000 and won against his cancer once, but it came back 2 ½  years later. The second time although he fought so hard it just wouldn’t go away and for a while we thought he would be able to live with it, however the cancer had other ideas.  He finally lost the battle in 2005.

However, what does it mean to be a family member of a person with cancer – to watch them become so ill and struggle, not always with the disease but the medications given to fight it. To watch our loved ones loose hair, weight, suffer awful side effects and be in hospital with tubes and drips. Never to know how much time they have but never want to talk about our fears as we must stay strong and help them through. After all they actually have the disease, they are the ones actually fighting. For me it was like the world had shifted on its axis. Nothing felt safe anymore, how could I trust a world that could let this happen.

My dad was my rock, a good guy, he didn’t smoke, drink, he exercised fairly regularly not so much in recent years but previously had run marathons for charity. He worked hard in a job that he didn’t really like to earn money for us, so that we could have a good life.  He did his job well and with care to ensure that those he worked for got the best job they could. His family were important to him and he always made me feel loved and special.  I always knew that he would do anything he could to help me.  Now don’t get me wrong he wasn’t a saint but he didn’t hurt anyone or do anything awful in this world.  It didn’t make sense that so many nasty pieces of work, who were doing such horrible things, could still be well and healthy.  It just didn’t seem fair, I wanted my dad to live forever and until his diagnosis I thought he would.

 Today we told cancer we were coming to get it on our tee-shirts, we were raising money and awareness which helps with research, and that research is developing new treatments, combinations of medications and surgeries. All of which are hopefully more successful than past options and give people more chance to come out the other side. However we could just give money, but there is something about coming together in the name of one cause that makes you feel some hope in the society we live in, as long as you didn’t focus on the number of lost loved ones.

I wandered into the conservatory after a long and busy day, and a smile was brought to my face. I spotted through the moisture of the yoghurt pot little green leaves, so I peeked inside and saw my little sunflowers shooting up. I find that Activia intensely creamy yoghurt pots make excellent individual covers. Especially as the council here don't take them to recycle.  So nice to find yet another use for them. My gorgeous yellow happy flowers are on their way.

After some excited clapping I popped out to the small 3 tear greenhouse under the kitchen window to see what was happening with my other little seedlings.  Much to my delight more little green shoots were appearing through the soil.

My red salad herb mix that I brought a year ago from Jekka's Farm has lots of shoots. I was really excited to see so many seeds had sprouted as I'm not great at keeping my seeds in the best conditions. I will have to thin these out at the weekend I think to make the most of them now they have struggled to appear.

Like wise my Cosmos have done really well. Again these were seeds from last year and will now need some tlc over the weekend. I'm really looking forward to having these in the garden later in the year. Cosmos always remind me of an amazing holiday Bongoing through France and bring a smile to my face. And yes mum mouse some will be coming your way, and to Keynko if you want some to go with your beautiful new path. 

Only one little row of green leaves met my now rather smiley face as I looked under the cover of my multiple salad leaf tray, no cress, lettuce or spinach. Just the rocket pushing through and showing that some little seeds no matter how poorly stored can bring leafy goodness.  

Sadly no tomato leaves popping through the soil yet maybe they just need a bit more sunshine - fingers crossed. 

So all in all a rather exciting day on the growing front with lots to celebrate and also things to learn.  Just the way I like it nature is such a wonderful thing.

As all my friends will know I'm a bit of a sci-fi geek, so spending my birthday at the Dr Who exhibition in Cardiff was a great day out.  The place was great fun, even if you don't have children. It starts with an interactive journey experience through different sets and into the tardis.  Then you move through into the museum, which is full of goodies and baddies from the different series going right back to the beginning.

 Which is your favourite Dr?  I guess most of us will always favour the one that we most remember from our childhood.  The one that made you hide behind the sofa or under the cushion. For me who could forget the scarf!

 

 

And what about the baddies?

 

 

 

 

A Dalek completely made completely out of lego was still spooky. 

 

Then what about the cybermen, stone angles or the Oods, what makes you jump into the air?  Remember not to blink!

 Of course you can't discuss Dr who anymore without mentioning the new Dr's.
 

 
They have brought it back into the our consciousness and it has been great travelling through time and the cosmos again. Even if I no longer hide behind the sofa. 

silent sunday

pottering in the garden

Well what a day, despite the weather forecast being for rain and snow showers, I decided to go out into the garden and have a little play.  

My fruit plants needed a little t-l-c, so I tidied them up a bit, re-strung the raspberries, added compost and soil food to them and the blueberries, blackberries and pear tree.

  Potted on the strawberry runners from last year into a couple of plant pots. One of which came all the way from New Zealand.














The little man always reminds me of our time there and the friends we made. Some of whom were from the UK too, but unlike us they made their lives in that beautiful country so far away.

After my little reminisce it was time to plant some seeds so in went the cucumber, red salad, lettuce, rocket, spinach, tomato, cosmos and sunflower seeds.

 











Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a whole bunch of little plants that are going to be full of yummy goodness or will grow into beautiful flowers.


It just goes to show that a day that starts grey can become full of life and sunshine.