West Yorkshire

A little while back I went to see my friend Jo Blaker in Yorkshire. She's moved up there to start her new life, leaving the big smoke behind. She and her boyfriend have a lush allotment and seem to spend their time making art, growing vegetables and drinking real ale. Nice life I think.

On my first evening in West Yorkshire one of Jo's friends had made a mix cd and put it on in the pub. We danced infront of the bar in the empty pub and the barman came from behind the bar, took of his shoes and danced with us. A friendly place is Huddersfield.

At the end of the night two of the group began singing folk songs outside and we stood around silently listening to their wonderful voices in the darkness. It was lovely.

This is my new penknife necklace which I love. Nothing to do with Yorkshire but I wanted to show you.

Relax

I'm packing a picnic, a blanket, some good books, and taking the hour train journey to Richmond Park to sit in the sun all day and relax. It's going to be good. Hope you have a lovely weekend.  

Colour wall

That's how we spell colour in England, I haven't spelt it wrong, even though I know spelling isn't my strongest point. Anyhoooow, remember a while ago I said I'd been painting my bedroom wall and I'd show you when I finished. Well I haven't finished it. So I figured I'd just show you anyway. I haven't finished it because I'm not quite sure I like it. I may paint over it and do a different pattern (like the patterns I've been working on recently). Even so I still think it's fun and colourful. Hope your week started well yesterday. I had yoga which is always a positive.

Collecting seeds

Towards the end of the summer I started to notice seeds wherever I was. Even though I live in the huge city that I do, I'm often surrounded by nature - I make sure of that. I'd notice seeds hanging from trees in the street, seeds on plants growing through railings, or poking over someone's garden wall. I'd notice them in our own 'garden' (lots of pots on our steps and window sill). So I started collecting them.
Lots of the London parks have wild flower 'meadows' to attract insects and provide food for birds. There's plenty of seeds so I collected some for next spring. Hopefully I'll have a collection of different poppies growing in front of my flat.
The more unusual seeds and pods which I collected I put in a basket on the window sill. I'm waiting to put them into seperate little envelopes.
I think my favourite are from the trumpetvine, a plant I was unfamiliar with before, but seem to see it everywhere now.
As the leaves start to fall around me, I'm glad I made use of the seeds, harvesting them in and keeping them until next spring. I'm hoping next spring we'll have a abundance of multicoloured flowers to admire each time with step out the front door.

Sea swimming

Last week I had hoped to tell you about the different things we did whilst staying at the yurts but time passed quickly and I didn't get the chance. I was going to tell you about when we went swimming in the sea. It got me thinking, I've managed to go sea swimming a few times this summer.

You would think living in London I wouldn't get much chance for sea swimming but as the tv show says 'You're never more than 75 miles from the coast in Britain'. The first time I went swimming in the sea this summer was in the first week of the school summer holidays. My friend Kate and I drove to the pretty sea side town of Whitstable. Kate was nervous about swimming in the sea but once she was in she loved it. We enjoyed the peace of the shingle beach, eating our picnic and swimming in the sea so much that we went back again two days later.

The next time I was sea swimming was a couple of weeks later. Daniel and I went on holiday to Spain. The sun was so hot that we would go into the sea to cool down, unlike plucking up the courage to brave the cold water in England. We lazed around on the beach. I painted watercolours of shells, read Roger Deakin, and we swam together. Bobbing up and down in the waves with Daniel next to me, looking up at the blue sky and the birds flying overhead. I thought I'd had my share of sea swimming for the summer but last weekend was sunny and the seven of us decided to go swimming in the sea. We packed ourselves into our friend's tiny car (me in the boot!) and drove to the nearest beach. We arrived and walked over to the sandunes. To my surprise everyone was so keen to get straight in the water. No standing around plucking up courage. They all ran into the sea. 'I think it's the ultimate relaxation' my friend Chloe told me. I took a few photos and quickly followed. It was cold! But oh so wonderful. I was swimming and looking at our friends around us. I don't remember swimming in a group like that since I was a child with my brothers and friends. It felt so good. We were smiling.

I think I've had my share of sea swimming for this year, but we are having a heatwave (summer dresses and sandals in October!) so you never know . . .

The Yurts

Thank you for your lovely comments yesterday about the card I made for Daniel. Today I'm sharing a watercolour 'story' of what it was like in the yurts. I couldn't recommend this place enough. It was beautiful, peaceful, every detail considered and eco friendly. If you live in England you should check it out here. I'm interested to know have any of you stayed in a yurt before? This was my first time.

On friday evening after work we took the train to Suffolk. When we arrived at the 'campsite' the taxi drove us down a path leading us to a grand thatched cottage. Behind the cottage where the yurts. It was dark and we couldn't really see the site but oh the stars above. We were lead through the field to the yurts. As the wooden doors opened we looked into a cozy, lantern lit yurt. I was so surprised to see a wooden floored, beautifully hand crafted place to stay. We slept so well in the comfy beds as the wood fire crackled. In the morning as I woke I looked up to see the blue sky shining through the sky light. I'd love to stay there in summer when the perspex cover is removed and I'd be able to clearly see the stars as I lay in bed. Oh the stars! We could see so many stars at night!

Daniel and I shared our yurt with Hatty. There's two double beds in each yurt. Early in the morning as Hatty opened the door we looked out at grassy pathways amidst the field, surrounded by trees and able to see the other yurts not far away.

I began to potter around, making cups of tea, putting the coffee on and preparing breakfast for our small group. This was the view from the kitchen. I knew it was going to be a good weekend. I'd managed to find a little haven.