Saturday 16 April 2011

A brief visit

We just popped down to Sussex on Sunday  for a couple of days to celebrate a very good friends 50th birthday
Lovely gentle Sussex, where the sun always shines and it never rains and there is cherry blossom on the trees all year round!
The family came too. Robin, just visible on the left, Ollie in the middle,  and,  Jo.....well, I must have a word with Jo!
It was warm enough to sit outside and not feel the slightest bit chilly in the balmy early evening air
We enjoyed the company of some old and very good friends and made some new ones too.
We soaked up a little bit of London,
and watched the skate boarders on the south bank
 We went to one of the main exhibits in the Tate Modern (the free one basically, in the vast industrial sized Turbine Hall.)  Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist has filled the enormous space with 100 million sunflower seeds - each one individually sculptured in porcelain and each one different from the other. I think he had a little bit of help but the shear size and scale is impressive
We walked up and down. It didn't matter that we couldn't understand it. The enormous undulating carpet of sunflower seeds held us spell bound.  What happens at the end of the exhibition? Where do all the seeds go?
It's sad to think that the artist responsible was arrested by the Chinese authorities earlier this month  as he tried to board a plane to Hong Kong. His whereabouts is still unknown.
We flew back home on Wednesday with a little wooden hand and a pencil - a souvenir from our travels!
I would just like to say how touched I was by all the kind comments I found on my blog when I got back.   'Thank you' Your comments are all so very encouraging. And twenty five followers I feel honoured.

Saturday 9 April 2011

First thing

It was a most beautiful start to the day
From the window the mist, or was it cloud, flitted and floated by
continually changing, sometimes blotting out the hills
and at others  revealing just the tips
I sat upstairs on the window sill, window open my feet dangling over the edge. I was certain in the stillness of early morning I could hear the mist whispering as it passed by over the water  slowly giving way to the sun
And at the start of a beautiful spring morning I saw my first lamb,  happy to be in the long awaited for warm sun.

Thursday 7 April 2011

My Family


I love it when family come to stay. Jo and her boyfriend Matt came last week. They both live in London and have busy stressful jobs. One a paediatric nurse the other a midwife. They love the peace and quiet to be found here.
The weather could have been better. We had lots of sun and rain - and then more rain.
But in between we had white clouds and blue sky
and navy blue coloured water.
with little white waves whipped up by the wind!
It was cold! But sunny!
Daughters are great. Now that she's gone, I've picked up all the abandoned hair bobbles, empty cups and glasses, removed hair from the plughole, closed cupboard doors, picked up tissues, tidied  forgotten shoes and rearranged the kitchen back to how it was! 
But it's worth it, of course, just to have her company. They flew back yesterday morning, and in the evening Jo went on to do a night shift at the busy London hospital where she works. "All ok," she reported this morning, as she phoned on her way home. "No babies born, just a ward of mum's in waiting."

Friday 1 April 2011

Finished....I hope!

After rather too many of these and massive amounts of tea to drink
we finally finished the shower room!
I can't believe it took us so long. Neither of us like tiling, which may have slowed up the process a teeny bit
It stayed like this for quite a while
And I looked around for any job that didn't involve tiling - hanging plaster casts on the wall seemed preferable
 Bought many years ago from the British Museum shop.
arranging the soap took time too
but, this wouldn't go away and at last bit by bit we got it done. We reached a compromise. Niels did the sticking and I did the grouting
At least now all the tiles slope towards the drain instead of the door and out into the hall!
And.....talking of the hall!
No, of course it's not finished yet, but it's getting closer.  Painted, and with the floor down - skirting board to follow!
I can stand in the kitchen and it's almost as if the house is finished - almost!
And now I need another cup of tea!
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