Lovely Lavender

Hi everyone.  There's not a lot happening on the crafting front at the moment (which I hope will change now that the summer holidays have arrived!), so I thought I would share some photos of my afternoon out.  Mark and I went to the Hitchin Lavender Farm, somewhere I've wanted to go to for a while now.  It was surprisingly busy, until we realised that there was a wedding reception happening at the Lavender Farm, as well as the general visitors.  What a wonderful backdrop to your wedding photos!

 

What hadn't occurred to me was that the lavender would be full of bees.  Silly I know, but I hadn't really given it any thought.  Now, I'm pretty phobic of bees and wasps, and yes I know bees won't hurt me but I still get freaked out by them.  I never expected to conquer a fear amongst the lavender today! The only thing I would change next time, is to wear long trousers, instead of cropped ones.  I really didn't think it through properly.

 

 

 

As you can see, the place is pretty stunning.  We had a lovely time, and we were very blessed with the weather considering the tremendous amount of rain that we had yesterday.  I just have to decide what to do with all the lavender that we brought home with us - any suggestions?

 

Thanks for calling by.  Take care.

 

Michelle x

Sunday at the Beach

On Sunday we took Chloe for her first trip to the beach.  Emily has been champing at the bit to do this for weeks.  It was quite tricky to find a suitable beach that allowed dogs off the lead, one that wasn't too far from where we live.  In the end we had to go to the Suffolk coast where dogs are allowed on the beaches all year round.  The beach was actually 100 miles from home, a two hour journey.  I was very anxious because Chloe doesn't really like going in the car!  She wasn't too bad in the end, maybe she resigned herself to it.

The beach was at Sizewell, famous for its rather ugly power station right by the beach.  But the actual beach was really nice.  There was a very reasonably priced car park close by, a little beach cafe and toilets - perfect!  We took a picnic and our camping chairs and we were all set.

Chloe loved the beach and had great fun tearing up and down.  She didn't like the water however, and nothing could persuade her to dip a paw in the water.

It was a long way to go, but we had a lovely relaxed family day out.  Even the journey home wasn't too bad, as Chloe was exhausted and slept for a lot of it.

It looks like she had fun doesn't it.

M x

Time is Flying

I meant to post this on Sunday, but I don't know where the time has gone. We had a busy day on Saturday when we spent the afternoon at Stowe Landscape Gardens, a National Trust property in Buckinghamshire. We generally meet friends and go there for a picnic every year. This year we weren't able to leave home until lunch time and didn't get there until 2.40pm. We got stuck in loads of traffic around Knebworth (Sonisphere concert) and had to stop a couple of times for Chloe. She doesn't travel well and whinges and fidgets a lot in the car, but she's still a baby.

Anyway, we had a nice relaxing time until the heavens opened and we had to take shelter under some trees! It was a long way to go for us for a couple of hours. My two sets of friends live a lot closer, and neither of them have children or a dog. I'm thinking next time we need to find somewhere suitable in our neck of the woods and they can travel to us for a change.

I'm itching to make cards and to have a play with all my new bits and pieces and the only thing that is stopping me is time - I just don't have any. I haven't even been able to take photos of my new things. It's been a busy week work wise, and I've been out a fair bit this week. My mum and I went to our local theatre/cinema to see Water for Elephants on Monday (missed it when it came out). It was a lovely film, a bit brutal in places, but Robert Pattinson was gorgeous. We had our Open Evening at school on Tuesday, then dog training tonight, and then off to the cinema tomorrow to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - I am SO excited!!!!! So, busy busy.

Today has been a funny day at work. All our Year 6 children went off to their secondary schools for a transition day, so I made a yellow brick road for their Wizard of Oz production on Monday. It was great fun and I really enjoyed doing it.

Counting down now - 6 more working days until the summer holidays - woohoo!

M x

Sculpture Trail

Last Saturday we took Chloe for a walk in the woods near to where we live. It's a lovely place with plenty of different length walks available. We decided on the shortest walk along the Sculpture Trail. All the figures have been carved from wood, and are positioned in quite an unstructured way at various points along the pathway.

We had a lovely time, just a long enough walk for our little puppy.

Just in case you are wondering, yes Emily was with us but she hates her photo being taken and I had to promise her that I wouldn't post any photos of her!

The weather has not been too great this week for long dog walks en famille, so it's been down to Mark and myself - who could have predicted that!!

M x

Highgate Cemetery When we were first going out, Mark took me on a date to Highgate Cemetery which caused much mickey taking at work at the time. However, it was one of the most romantic dates we went on. The weather wasn't very kind to us, in fact it was raining, but sharing a large golfing umbrella with Mark whilst on a tour round such a beautiful setting was a day I've never forgotten. We took the children there on Saturday afternoon, different weather this time, it was glorious sunshine. About 20 years have passed since Mark and I first went there together. The one thing that I noticed was different was that the Friends of Highgate Cemetery had done a lot of work clearing the area so that more of the graves were visible. The pity of this I feel is that it changed the feel of the place. I liked the overhanging trees, the dark canopy - I liked the feeling of decay. It's a fine line I guess between letting the place rot away and sympathetic restoration. Maybe I just viewed it from rose tinted glasses. Still, I really enjoyed the return visit, and the children were impressed by the beauty of the place. See for yourself.

I really recommend a visit if your are in the area. The guided tour last about an hour and costs £7 each, but you can go in the public side for £3 per person. Next door is Waterlowe Park - a gorgeous place to sit in the sun whilst the children play, and there is a rather nice cafe which is not too outrageously priced.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine. I'm having quite a relaxed first day of the Easter holidays (apart from getting Emily to do her GCSE coursework, but that was never going to be easy!!). Hope you are having a good one too.

M x

A Super Day Out

After quite a difficult week, my lovely husband Mark suggested a day out to cheer us all up. It was also a good excuse to dust off the National Trust membership cards. Unfortunately not much is open in November! However one place that was open was Ightham Moat in Kent, a place Mark and I had visited and loved before we got married, over 16 years ago.

Only a couple of the rooms were open in the house as November is the month that vital restoration work is carried out (apparently!), and those rooms were decorated in the style of a Victorian Christmas. Whilst the decorations were beautiful, I'm still not ready to think about Christmas - I'm in denial (although I confess that I did buy a little Christmas decoration, just couldn't help myself!). I loved the decorated table - so formal.

It was still early by the time we had finished at the House, so we headed off to Southend for something to eat. Mark was hoping for a Harry Ramsden's but sadly he was disappointed! It was quite a chilly, grey day but nothing stops the bright lights of a busy seaside town shining! I'm not particularly fond of Southend, I think it's a bit too tacky, but we had a nice couple of hours there and the children had a blast playing Air Hockey in one of the arcades.

We had a great day out, it was good to forget about the boring chores that normally make up our Saturdays and just have a nice day. Now we are having a quite evening, catching up on a bit of TV, eating cheese and biscuits and drinking a glass of red wine (adults only of course!) - heaven!

Have a good one. M x