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Tuesday 19 December 2023

Oh, I needed that

A break in the clouds, the only one we are forecast to get all week. I knew it would be so good for me to make the effort and get outside. Even so, I nearly managed to talk myself out of it and turn the sewing machine on instead.

But I kicked myself hard up the bottom and took Blue Bus out rationalising that I could just park up, make a mug of tea, turn around and go home . . . but I am so glad I did not.

Surprisingly cold, not nearly as sunny as I had hoped (the weather forecast was wrong, quélle surprise) but just lovely to be outside. Not even two miles BUT it was still more than I walked on a forest path yesterday, so that's brilliant.






And any day I get to see and smell gorse is a good one.










Back at Blue Bus I had my lunch with me but postponed it in favour of a cuppa and a few minutes with my book thinking how lucky I am, how lovely it was to be warm, dry, comfortable and surrounded by trees and (near) silence.



I have struggled to return to Whinlatter on my own, but today by making a deliberate decision to go to a different part of the forest I had a lovely time and am actually looking forward to going back again.


Having now seen the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday (40 - 50mph wind) I am rather pleased I extracted the digit.



Monday 18 December 2023

Go outside. Sit down. Wait.

Morning all, been a bit quiet around here, hasn't it? No reason other than 21st century life getting in the way and seeming to consume nearly all available hours, plus a 10-year-old shoulder injury decided to make a return visit and that has somewhat slowed me down. But in the context of political lunacy, economic uncertainty, climate change and wars in places there really should not be conflict, I am bloody brilliant!

No, seriously, I am brilliant! Yes I am in pain, yes I am having disturbed sleep because of the shoulder pain so I'm tired all the damn time (oh, how I hate feeling tired), yes there are things I cannot do right now because of the shoulder pain. But those restrictions are occuring in the protective bubble of a warm house that does not leak or have rooms filled with black mould. A house we own that is not at risk of a Section 21 eviction order (read this article, it's unbelievable in a supposedly civilised society). The freezer is full and my store cupboards have enough food to keep us going until someone feels like making a visit to the supermarket.

So wherever you are, whatever you are coping with, whatever the Universe is currently chucking at you, I hope you can deal with it with a level of peace. And if not, then leave a ranting comment here and be guaranteed my sympathy and some (hopefully not empty or meaningless) words of support.

With a holiday season approaching at the speed of a Hogwarts locomotive there will be a chance for many of us to get outside a little more than usual. As the weather continues to be cold, windy, wet and sometimes all those things at the same time here's some Required Reading: Every year Tim Budd, a member of a Mountain Rescue Team and extremely experienced fellrunner and outdoor chap, re-publishes this superb article.

Please have a read and take a moment to think: "how long would you be comfortable if you went outside, sat down, and waited . . ."


Tim Budd - Tested to Destruction blog



Love and festive hugs to everyone.







Monday 20 November 2023

Glass half full

How can it possibly be more than a decade - ELEVEN YEARS - since I brought home a starved, terrified, bag of bones?



That same walking-skeleton-with-fur-sprayed-on who became Little Miss Perfect, the chunky monkey who never put a foot wrong.



I have released her Spirit; I did so long ago and know that she's out there somewhere living her very best afterlife with her original human. The person who must have treated her with love and kindness because once Daisy got through her initial fears we found a kind, gentle, incredible little dog who knew how to walk perfectly, obey commands, demand the dregs of a teacup and commandeer an entire sofa. She did not learn any of those things from a 'bad' first owner. When she was separated from that person it must have broken her heart as much as losing her broke mine.



I still miss her every day and my heart is still in two pieces, but these days I am mostly able to think of the walks, the cuddles, the good times we shared. There is nothing to be gained by allowing the pain to overshadow those special moments, and there were so many of them to treasure. With a world engulfed in such crap and disarray at present I need my glass more full than empty and rejoice in all that Daisy brought to my life.








I did not get nearly long enough with her but I did get time with a dear Soul who taught me so much, absorbed all the love that I had to give and, I think, loved me equally in return.






Saturday 18 November 2023

Priorities ?

This is not a "complaint" blog because multiple times a day I realise how incredibly fortunate I am to be in a position where too much to do in the house and garden is an exceptional privilege, and one I do not take for granted.

BUT, does anyone else sometimes think they have their priorities stuffed up? Right now, that feels like me.

There has been something of a radio silence here because in the past few weeks all Blue Bus has done is take me to various retail outlets. Even those trips have been only on the seemingly rare occasions when I am not busy doing things here or recovering from doing things here. First off there's the garden - at this time of year trying to get cleared up before winter is an ever-present on the To Do list. Let's just say with a named storm every two weeks and almost daily rain in between I have pretty much given up on the idea of completing that task.

Then there has been the replacement of four more windows which leaves me with three rooms to decorate. Blue Bus knows exactly how to get to B&Q and the paint is sitting waiting.





Then there was FINALLY getting the builder we trust to enlarge openings in the house undercroft and install proper lintels so that we can safely access underneath the floor. The rolls of insulation are still getting in the way in the kitchen . . . but it's already taken 15 years to get to this point so I am not fretting about it.



Then there were many hours splitting logs and finally filling up the log store for the coming winter. A task we usually try to complete by August, clearly that schedule was a fail in 2023.



Which brings me back to priorities. Yes it is important to look after our property and I am fortunate to be able to do so. BUT I'm also 15 years older than when I started this stupid project and I don't have the energy to work at it all day every day. Going out on the fells might be tiring but it re-energises me and restores much of what makes me "me". And it is the one thing I am absolutely not making time for.

My priorities have to change, but I guess realising that is the first step and writing about it here is a way of holding myself accountable. Am I the only one who gets sucked in like this?






Friday 10 November 2023

First snow ! ☃️ ☃️ ☃️

It would be mean to keep this all to myself. 😀 Today, the sky really is that clear, that blue.

First snow picture of 2023. Skiddaw.

Absolutely bloomin' gorgeous outside today, and much being accomplished in the garden.





Wednesday 8 November 2023

Comments - this is bizarre

Thank you for visiting yesterday, and for the comments.

I am having the most bizarre time with Blogger at present. Clearly I am signed in because otherwise I would not be able to post this - but I cannot reply to any of the comments left yesterday. I have tried in Safari (both regular and private mode), Firefox and Chrome. I'm on the same computer I used yesterday which has not been rebooted or updated in the last 24 hours. But all I see is the blue "sign in to leave a comment" box and when I click that I do not get logged in. Very strange and I am not in the mood to try to resolve it this morning.

So to Sue in Suffolk - thank you for still visiting!

To Sooze - hope you had a lovely birthday, and yes to the 'grief thing'.

Vix - you are so wise, and yes, I often look through my old blog. That probably makes me a Grade A Saddo but who cares? 🤣 🤣

To Granny S - bimble is a terrific word. Dictionary definition is to walk with no particular haste or purpose. I think that should be my "word of the week", maybe even the word of the month 😉

And now, as it is blowing an absolute HOOLEY outside I am officially declaring today an indoors one, so I will finish feeding and waxing some wooden furniture whose timbers are overdue a bit of care and love.







Tuesday 7 November 2023

Crossing Borders, and Accidentally AWOL

Ooops. Where did the last month go? It has been fully and thoroughly occupied by gardening, builders doing some long-overdue work to the house undercroft, more new windows, and the minutiae of “life in general”.

All very time consuming accompanied by many thoughts of how lucky I am to be doing it all.
All completely irrelevant to a blog which I am trying to keep focussed on my campervan.

Ignoring my little blog was quite deliberate, but I didn't expect that once I had no need to visit Blogger for myself I would drift away from reading and commenting elsewhere, that was not deliberate at all. If I have ignored you when I usually visit and comment, sorry.


But yesterday I had errands to run which took me over the border to Scotland. As I passed the huge blue & white sign on the M74 I reflected on how simply I had crossed from one country to another. On how I was in a warm, safe van with plenty of water, food, clean clothes and heating. Thousands of people in other parts of the world cannot cross borders, it was a sobering thought (grainy screenshot from Dashcam).



However, the cessation of 'normal' life in other places does not mean we should not carry on with our lives, so before I joined the motorway I took some time for a visit to Houghton Hall. It was a shock to find it's nearly five years since I was last there; it is almost on my doorstep but definitely not on my regular radar. A quick rummage at the Bag End blog brought up this post:



Poor Daisy was determined not to enjoy her day out . . . The subsequent blog post tried to explain her behaviour (in as much as you can ever explain) and yes, I would have that unique brand of crazy which was my Darling Girl back in a heartbeat. I do not believe you every really "get over" deep grief, you just learn to live alongside it.




Yesterday, however, I had a bloomin' lovely time and the Christmas displays at Houghton Hall were so much better than in 2018. I escaped without buying a single thing (because more decorations? really?) but the atmosphere was lovely and clearly so much time and effort had gone into setting up the retail space this year.










Errands accomplished I headed for home and figured that as I was almost going past the door of Dobbies I should check out their Christmas displays as well. Hmm, should have quit whilst I was ahead. What a difference - perhaps it was too late in the day (4.00pm) but the store was almost empty, the lights were too bright and there was no atmosphere at all. The decorations were laid out in seried ranks which might have been easy to shop from but there was no incentive to do so.

Came home with my credit card safely untouched all day, but what a lovely trip out; my errands could have been accomplished in about 3 hours if I had been focussed (hour there, hour back, hour doing stuff) but this was far more relaxed. Bimbling around in the comfort of Blue Bus, mugs of tea whenever I felt the need, lunch in the fridge, and most of the comforts of home if required. I really MUST make the effort and do this more often.