Tag: thoughts on

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dear diary ~ just chit-chat really

Up and down the country it has been lovely to see all the bunting, flags and the Coronation knitting decorating villages and towns – it has been a wonderful celebration of people coming together though I appreciate not everyone has wanted to join in and as we know there were plenty of protests.

My take on the Royal family (for what it’s worth) is that – no we didn’t elect them – none of us did so everyone is equal in that. If we had an elected political president then a majority would have elected them but there would still be many that didn’t and we would still have protests. If you remember the Brexit vote almost split the country 52% to 48% – almost half the people didn’t want to leave Europe and this could happen if we changed to a president rather than keep the Royal family. To me there seems more continuity with the Royal family, who cannot show political preference but can if need be keep the politicians in check, than having to keep switching between political parties and presidents – who would want someone like Trump in power. And the Royal family may cost a lot of money but they also bring a lot of money into the country through tourism and I believe this is much more than they cost the tax payer who will pay around £1.29 per person this year. I think President Putin will probably cost the Russian people much more!

I will say no more on the subject (I am sure everyone has their own valid views), other than I did enjoy the day, the tradition and history of our nation and I look forward to seeing how the new King evolves throughout his reign. I wish there was an easy way to resolve the contentious issue of who or what system, in the future, would be best to lead our country. I am not sure that it is a problem that can be solved to satisfy everyone.

The garden is beginning to unfold and colour is returning. The new tulips I planted late, just after Christmas, have now appeared rising above the sea of blue forget me nots – Queen of the Night and the double Sun Lover – I just love the names – they are late flowering anyway so have not been held back my my late planting.

The dicentra spectabilis is certainly spectacular and well worth the wait.

I grew this pretty pale pink aquilegia over winter in the greenhouse from seed I gathered last summer.

The exochorda macrantha is blooming but will not go on for much longer now – such a shame.

But the white lilac beside it is waiting patiently in bud to burst into flower on a sunny day.

The seeds in the greenhouse have grown quite a bit in only a week. Strangely the Cosmos Sensation are the only seeds that have not appeared yet and I am wondering if I actually sowed any seeds or just got the packet out and then put it back again. A bit of a mystery!

Today we have Master Freddie once again from 8.30 until after tea to give my daughter some time to herself. The new baby could be expected any day now so we are moving onto Amber alert. We have also got DH’s sister and her partner coming for the day on Sunday – it will be lovely to see them but doesn’t everything always happen at once – it has already been a tiring week and I feel I could just do with a bit of time off to myself.

Maybe next week.

I will have to prepare food. I thought I might just repeat the Coronation quiches and fresh fruit salad I made for tea last Saturday and probably the same cake too. I will make them on Saturday rather than today otherwise I might just have a little bit too much help from little hands and I feel I need to get them done quickly and have the kitchen to myself. If I get chance I will bake the cake today and of course Master Freddie will be overjoyed to help me decorate it again.

I spent the day yesterday trying to get to the bottom of the ironing pile – needless to say I didn’t manage it but I did do a lot. It had built up over the week whilst we were celebrating, child minding, gardening and visiting – there was little time for the usual household chores. I also cleaned out the grey wheelie bin after the dustbin men emptied it. Not the most pleasant or easiest of jobs but having nappies in there, even just the wet ones does make it smell rather and today seemed like a good opportunity. Whilst I had the bucket out I decided the kitchen floor needed a good clean too.

I would like to say that the house now looks spick, span and spotless but my nose would grow if I did!!

Have a good Friday everyone x

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May contentment ~ the state of well-being

I chose the word CONTENTMENT at the beginning of this year to focus my mind and I now realise that I haven’t actually talked much about the progress I have made (or not!).

The dictionary states that contentment is a state of happiness and satisfaction – a peaceful ease of mind or an absence of worry encompassing pleasure, comfort, gratification, gratitude, fulfilment and of course well-being.

Slowly I am learning to embrace contentment in many areas of my life. Due to the recent change in financial circumstances for all of us; price increases in food, energy and living costs, we like many people have had to drastically cut back to survive on our pension – so we are steadily getting used to buying less and doing without or making do for longer – in short being content with what we have and being more mindful of avoiding waste.

I quickly found last year when my chosen focus word was improvement that any small improvement I made in my life, whether that was completing a task that had lingered on the list for months or making some small change to the way I did something, the result was always one of satisfaction as you get when you tick of a job on your to do list – so taking this a step further this year I am purposely looking at what other improvements and changes I can make that will bring me a good deal of satisfaction and contentment.

DH will be 70 in a few days time and I will be close on his heels being the grand age of 69 come July. We are not planning a big event or celebration for either birthday – in fact I think we would prefer a long weekend away somewhere if funds will stretch to this. This sudden realisation that we will be entering a new decade in our lives has made me take stock.

This is the time of life when we can notice some of the more major and serious illnesses creeping up on us and also suffer with a loss of mobility, flexibility and vitality. I have seen it often looking after elderly relatives and friends so time is of the essence to try and halt or slow down the progression of age related problems. More than anything I want to feel that peaceful ease of mind that I am doing all I can to keep myself fit and healthy going forward.

As our well-being is a large part of the state of contentment I have been quite focused on this recently, reading books and listening to podcasts and videos from leading health and well-being experts. To begin the changes both DH and I need to develop better habits of course and any change can be difficult so I thought it a good idea to examine some of the suggestions and claims to better health for myself by making small but significant changes each week and then looking at what works.

The plan is to improve the three main areas that make up my well being – diet, exercise and sleep and relaxation and then review the results each week.

I am not sure at this point if everything I decide to try will work for me – somethings might be just too challenging but I will be recording my progress here on my blog for anyone that is interested and making a note of what really has the biggest effect for me (and hopefully for the smallest of changes) – and if I manage to completely rid myself of one or two health problems in the meantime….. all the better.

My first change starts tomorrow.

Have a good day everyone – the sun is shining here – I will be pottering in the garden no doubt after another exhausting day yesterday with Master Freddie. x

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beaching ~ the rhythm of the waves

I have been embracing my time here and the slow quiet days listening to the rhythmic sound of the breaking waves; it has been something akin to a retreat, which in hindsight we both needed. Our days have been interspersed with hard physical work too in the garden (but only as hard as my back allows, though it has stood up to the constant bending and stetching quite well – there is hope on the horizon it may be going in a positive direction).

It is only when I am away from a situation that I can appreciate the fact that my life has become far removed from any natural daily rhythm and I often feel that I have just got through a day rather than enjoyed it and in turn this becomes quite unsettling and I feel rather out of step with the world.

Changes, I think, need to be made.

Away from the hussle and bustle and demands of daily life back at home I have been able to spend time just thinking. Seeing life from a different angle and pondering on what changes might prove useful. Having time just to sit and be is as hard as it is rewarding.

During our time here there has been plenty of nurturing food – homemade soups, bean stew and lentil curry – we are still enjoying warming foods and not quite ready yet for the start of the salad season. So even though an odd biscuit may have slipped into my hand at elevenses, generally our diet has been good but I am still niggled with one or two health problems – sleep (too much at the wrong times) and a lack of vitality. In other words I seem to be lacking well-being rather than having any major illness.

During our downtime I have been listening to podcasts, mainly interviews with leading UK consultants and GP’s who are passionately trying to convey their take on well-being which is now backed up by science. It is heartening to know there are so many small changes we can make for ourselves to keep healthier, and equally disheartening that many GP’s still just want to offer the quick fix pill that will only relieve the symptoms and not investigate the cause.

Anyway, I have learnt a lot and as I am fast approaching seventy which I see as a kind of threshold when the illnesses of older age can take hold and from which there is no return, I want to do all I can to delay such health problems from creeping in. There is no doubt that once you hit 65 many of our bodily functions struggle more – we lose muscle tone and muscle, our energy seems to deplete rapidly, bending stretching and balance becomes more difficult and we may start to suffer with hearing and vision impairment, high blood pressue and so much more.

I am already planning on implementing some of the suggestions from the podcasts which I will share with you as I go along. Some may prove beneficial others not so.

Today we will have the pleasure of a visit from the ‘tree people’ contracted to Scottish Power who take care of the power lines and make sure that no tree branches are in the way. Such a visit will always guarantee a rise in my blood pressure as it is never an easy time with them; rather than dealing with professional tree surgeons we find that they just prefer to get out their chain saws and get on with the job cutting off limbs here and there as they think best and leave you with a very misshapen tree and a pile of shredding! We always have the ‘is it really necessary’ conversation to try and preserve what we can but in the end these people want to hack off as much as possible so they don’t have to have so many return visits.

Having a piece of woodland is not as wonderful as I once thought.

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dear diary ~ happy ‘blog’ birthday to me

I was spurred on to write this anniversary post after reading one yesterday by an all time favourite blog of mine ‘Johnny jumps up’ which I have been following for a number of years. She has given a lovely account of the changes she has noticed about herself and her life since she started the blog which made me think about any changes that have happened in my own life.

I began the first blog ‘Where the journey takes me’ on January 4th 2012 after much deliberation – but it turns out that it is one of the better choices I have made in my life and I love reading my favourite blogs as much as I love writing for my own. Sadly many bloggers have dropped off along the way but I intend to keep going as long as possible and would like to think I might even be blogging when I get to 90 like Pat on her blog ‘The Weaver of Grass’.

So what changes have happened if any?

This has taken some very careful consideration – delving into my past is always a little scary – I think I can say that the simple life that attracts me comes and goes – just when it is within my grasp and life is feeling ordered and calm – I hit a crisis or a drama which can turn my world upside down. In August 2014 we experienced an horrific flood to our little cottage by the sea in Scotland. It was intended as our retirement home and we had been renovating it at weekends and holidays for exactly 10 years, in fact we had just had the place reroofed so that water did not get in from above! It wasn’t the sea that caused the flood but just the sheer volume of water rolling down the hills a bit like what happened in Boscastle.

Only two weeks previously we had been overjoyed at the arrival of our first grandchild Little L and this was to be quite a life changer for us.

In 2015 my colleague became terminally ill with secondary lung cancer and I had to increase my hours to cope with the volume of work which was quite specialised so there was no-one available to help without some serious training. I remember being dog tired all the time and even had to log on to my computer during any holidays I had to deal with work.

In the January 2016 my daughter announced that she was booking her wedding in Scotland for the July, so only 6 months to prepare and only about 2 weeks to get a dress on order. I spent the next few months organising and booking things for her and then designed the invites and made what seemed like miles of bunting for the marquee. Although stressful it was a nicer stress than dealing with the insurance company for the flood (which was still going on at this point) or the grief from the loss of my colleague.

In 2017 I was able to throw myself into domesticity once again…still hoping for that simple life. DH and I started hosting a Burns night at home in Yorkshire with our closest friends which we do every year now. Work became a bit manic whilst I trained two new people to replace my colleague – one either side of me asking questions all day until my head was buzzing. Eventually work settled down and I was able to reduce my hours once again. We bought a small static caravan to put in the garden at the cottage with a view to renovating the cottage once again as the insurance company had paid us out at last. Things were looking up.

In July 2018 I had my last day at work on my wedding anniversary I welcomed the end of my busy working life and felt at last that I could now concentrate on doing all the things I had not had time for…more crafting, baking, housekeeping and going out for day trips with DH. Sadly, our retirement to Scotland was not going to plan as work on the cottage had still not begun but we were able to go up there for longer periods now that we were both retired.

After running out of photo space I started this new blog ‘Where the journey takes me 2’ and also paid to have the adverts removed as they seemed to be creating a problem for readers. Whenever I go onto my old blog now I am glad that I made this decision as the amount of adverts that WordPress put on is very distracting.

By the end of 2018 we welcomed our second grandchild into the family – Sweetie- and in January 2019 Freddie came on the scene. We spent as much time as possible with them and they have certainly given us so much joy. Everything bumped along as normal with some small ups and downs along the way until July 2019 when our little world was shattered once again as one of my daughters suddenly overnight found herself alone and coping with two young children after a tragic event no-one could have forseen and which has changed all our plans for the future.

More than three years on it is now looking like there will be no retirement to Scotland and our plans for the cottage are yet to be finalised after having many changes of mind over its’ future. The garden at the cottage is still my little paradise but I have thrown myself into the garden here at home and grow what I can in the space we have. My investment in the little greenhouse was another of my better choices. I love it.

Of course last year was almost a write off being stricken with a bad back and limited mobility for many months. It did tell me how important gardening was to me when I could barely bend down and I do hope I will be able to do more in the furture. My ageing mum is also a constant worry as she has limited mobility too but hers will never be any better and her memory is none too good either making communication difficult. Having to give my sister (who lives close to her and does 3 days of care) some respite from her more frequently, together with being required to cover parts of the school holidays with child care leaves us with much less time to go to Scotland for any decent length of time.

So what have I learned about myself along the way – I realise just how resilient as a family we are – we have had some very stressful times and yet managed to keep going and mostly keep smiling. Maybe because of enduring some hard times we sailed through the pandemic and I loved being in lockdown with no demands on us – it was as close to the simple life as I fear I may ever get. But I am not complaining, nor disappointed as I know that family and their happiness is everything to me even though it takes up much of my time and leaves me busier than ever and far removed from the simple life I long for. I also know that I am not alone with many of my problems and readers often comment on their own similar troubles or often give good advice.

Looking over my blog it appears from all the posts and photos that I do like organising events and making things for them – weddings, parties, get togethers, family picnics and celebrations and this probably stems from my past life in fashion when I organised fashion shows and photo shoots – if I had my time again perhaps I would have taken an events manager’s course at University – such a course didn’t exist when I applied for Art College.

I also know that sustainability is important to me – recycling, reusing and cutting down on waste and stuff. I want to feel I will leave this world knowing that it is on a better course than it is at present so that my grandchildren have a future and that the destruction we are causing is turned around.

I do like to be organised and although I think I like the idea of routines in my life I can honestly say that I don’t really have any – going to work each day was as close to a routine as I got and now I am retired an hour or two of pottering before breakfast and an evening meal at about 6.45pm, followed by a nightly call to my mum are my only daily routines but in between anything might happen and usually not what I had planned but more what I impulsively feel like doing. I think my blog and my random posting is testimony to this.

I am not just impulsive, often to my detriment, I know there are certain things I leave to the last minute – I am one of those people who work better under pressure but afterwards always wonder why I didn’t begin earlier and I admire all those bloggers who are able to plan and execute a task well ahead of time. I am hopeless at challenges too or keeping up with some of the monthly ‘join in’ posts with other bloggers – I know there is another Scrap Happy Challenge post on the horizon and I haven’t even thought about it yet.

However, blogging at my own speed and taking photos has been an absolute joy over the past eleven years – my camera skills have certainly improved, my spelling may have too…I hope. It can be helpful to look back over both my blogs from time to time as they are a useful record of all my crafting achievements and I am sometimes surprised at the amount I actually get done even though I would like it to be more. When I see the wealth of creativity on many of the blogs I visit I do often feel that I don’t apply myself enough to do more but I will be working on this with my new Focus word ‘contentment’ and allow myself to be content with what I do achieve.

So I think I can say that although I have not by any means reached that wonderful life of simplicity I continue to work on it and see small improvements – as my blog title suggests it is a journey and one day I will arrive.

I promise that this will be the longest post of 2023 and if you have got this far through my ramblings you deserve a cup of tea. x