July in all it's Glory.

 July started with us still in semi-lockdown. Himself had announced earlier in the year it would be a good time to finally clear the conservatory of the boxes that have been in there since we moved in and make it somewhere habitable. I'm sure I've said before we have never bothered to unpack properly  because we only planned to be here for a couple of years, apparently it's now 5 years later (I still refuse to believe it's that long even though I've seen calendar proof) So fair play.   

This meant coming up with a plan for all the stuff which was to go through it all, repack and store it in the garage, simple you might think but no...  

The easy bit was to buy clear plastic stacking boxes with lids which would become our new storage solution. Before anything could move though, whilst out on our evening walks we had to locate, and liberate, within easy carrying distance of the house a couple more pallets for them to stand on. That took a bit of time. Himself also had to put some sort of lock onto the garage door as the current one is broken. This also turned out to be more complicated than we had hoped and involved drilling into the brickwork on each side and adding a bar that could be padlocked.Of course none of what was needed for that was easily available in a shop and had to be ordered online, then the battery of the drill wouldn't charge so Himself had to walk down to my brother's house to borrow his but eventually it was done.

That left me with the task of the actually clearing out and cleaning. 

I have been through the boxes a couple of times since we have been living here, each time a fair bit went to charity or into the bin and we'd have a bit more space. It took a couple of weekends to do that again and some more stuff did head to the charity shop. The rest was cleaned/washed and repacked into the storage boxes before being garaged, all bar two boxes of Christmas bits and some other things we need regularly that is. I also washed down the wall and windows, scrubbed the floor, carried the papasan chair through from the kitchen where it had become a dumping ground rather than a chair to sit in, and moved my plants around a bit. 

That's not even all the plants in there, you can see why Himself calls it the jungle room! The cushion with the monkey was a jumper I knitted myself in the 80's and couldn't bear to get rid of when I stopped wearing it.

I had a couple of days off work to do some heavy duty gardening which was much needed and also caught up with my train buddies* Liz, Carole and Simon for a long overdue lunch with lots of prosecco. It had been over 2 years and lots had happened in between. (*we all used to work at the library and caught the same train to work each morning.) 

July was flying by and all of a sudden it was my birthday weekend! 

I finished work on the Thursday and we grabbed a quick dinner before walking over to Nephew Number One's house for a drink and a catch up with him and his partner. He and I are both big spiced rum fans so I took over the bottle I bought in St Ives.

It's the second one in from the left and sadly it wasn't great so I won't be in a hurry to get any more. As you can see we did give it a thorough taste test!

On the Friday my friend Charlotte came over. It had poured with rain up to then but the Friday was glorious so we went for a lovely walk and then had lunch in Prezzo because I had a voucher for a free bottle of birthday prosecco. We sat out on their balcony and ate and ate before waddling back here and collapsing in the garden loungers. It was so lovely to catch up in person, to actually see each other face to face, so we literally talked ourselves hoarse! 

She bought be the most awesome Snoopy tea towel which I can't possibly use, and this very cool book.

Saturday was my birthday so after presents and breakfast in bed, boiled eggs and bucks fizz in case you were wondering. I wore the dress from St Ives complete with this amazing necklace from lovely Mim.

It was ridiculously hot and due to get even hotter the next week so Himself ordered a new fan and we popped into town to pick it up. Despite leaving the windows and curtains shut in hot weather this house is always like the fiery pits of hell by the evening when the weather is hot, I think it's because it's a really well insulated house and it's south facing. Our bedroom is unbearable to sleep in at night so we have a floor standing fan up there which points across the foot of the bed and aids with sleeping. Working from home has been hard though when the weather is toasty so the new fan was for the kitchen. 

After we got back we just retired to the garden moving our loungers round with the sun to keep in the shade. My Mum called in with prosecco and some birthday pennies,

 Followed by my brother and then my sister in law after she finished work (they bought me this fab bag!) so more chairs were added and more corks popped. A blissful lazy day.

I was thoroughly spoiled

among other things with books, a sample above and this lovely necklace.

The following weekend was my Mum's birthday so we liberated Dad from his care home and headed to Prezzo again for a family dinner. This time there were 8 of us for lunch and a good time was had by all. We wheeled Dad down one side of the shopping precinct and up the other so he could have a look around, his first chance in about 18 months before delivering him back. 

Sunday was Mum's birthday so we headed over to my brother's house before going to pick her up and take her out for Sunday lunch, after which we went back to Mum's for the rest of the afternoon. I was super excited to see Bobby the cat again but he was certainly NOT excited to see us! It has just been him and Mum for so many months now he was outraged at having his house invaded and sulked, though never very far from Mum. Wherever she is he is.

I'll leave you with some garden pictures. 

I have been loving all the baby birds, in particular this little fella who has been well trained by his red breasted parents and follows me everywhere when I am out in the certain knowledge he will get treats! 

The veggie containers have been going great guns, we have had so many courgettes! Also beans, carrots and radishes. I really must stop growing tomatoes though, they always get blight so I currently have bowls of green tomatoes all over the kitchen which may or may not ripen inside. 

I also tried growing dalihas from seed along with Monty from Gardener's World and despite the best efforts of the slugs who chomped them to the point of extinction I finally had my first flower.

I tidying and re-potted most of my pots and tubs and they have paid me back with a wonderful show. I do keep finding new things to buy, the last time we moved one whole van load was my plants I think it would be more than that now!

The Seaside Town with the Most Beautiful Light in Britain.

 So it's no surprise St Ives gets as busy as it does. We had deliberately chosen to go when the kids were still meant to be in school in the hope it would be quiet so it was disappointing to find it was busier than we had hoped it would be. Mind you by sheer fluke I did manage to miss the G7 summit by a week which was a huge bonus I had no idea that was due to be a skip and a hop down the road when I was looking at St Ives as a holiday destination! 

As it happens that did have a knock on effect for a lot of people because there had been a couple of positive covid cases. Meaning they had had to trace who they had been in touch with, and then where all of those people had been eating. This basically resulted in about two thirds of all the restaurants in St Ives being closed due to staff shortages as they all had to isolate! As it was pre-restrictions being lifted you had to book places to eat in advance so suddenly there were a LOT of people frantically trying to find somewhere else to eat. Ironically we were fine because Himself hates fish, so we had gone for Italian and pub food meaning none of our reservations were cancelled!

We do want to visit more of Cornwall but as it was still lockdown we decided we would go somewhere we knew, as we had both fallen head over heels for St Ives it was a no brainer. We even went back to the same B&B because despite the downside of being up an insane hill, it was lovely. This time though I booked the room with the sea view, we were not disappointed. 

No Pimms with the landlady this time and no cooked breakfast either, but there was a bigger kettle as well as a toaster in the room, then cereals, milk, bread, butter, fresh fruit, snack bars and biscuits downstairs. You just helped yourself each day. We bought eggs at the Co-op in town as we had brought our electric egg boiler with us so we could have a more substantial breakfast prior to the walks we had planned each day.  

We arrived at about 4.30pm did a hasty unpack and went straight out to reacquaint ourselves with this gorgeous place. Seeing what had changed, which shops had closed and which ones were new and just generally unwinding after a 5 hour train journey. 

Crazily we had left in a torrential downpour but this was the weather when we arrived. Bliss.

We had a late dinner reservation so we mooched about the harbour and two of the beaches before going back to sit in the bay window of our room and drink in the view, I swear I felt myself getting lighter by the second as I forgot about work and all that shit. We changed and heading out for dinner which was the first of our two Italian dinners and delicious. We walked back via the beach so

night time beach selfie! 

I took my denim jacket with me which became a bit of a nightmare as I haven't worn it since I broke my shoulder. Denim jackets have no give in them and even with help I had to wrestle myself into it each time we went out, lesson learnt there.

Now there is a view I would happily wake up to each morning, minus the iron obvously! 

Our plan for the day was to walk most of the Pilgrim's, or St Michael's Way. We had a leisurely breakfast before walking down into town and out the other side to catch a bus towards Marazion, our idea being to walk the route backwards. It's too long to walk in one day, but our plan was to miss out the bit we had already done between Lelant and St Ives which made it a more manageable 12 mile walk. There is a hill you can climb in the middle which give stunning views in both directions so that was also part of the plan.

Look at this gorgeous view, it helped make the fact the bus was cancelled and we had to wait 45 minutes for the next one a bit easier to take. As it turns out we should have taken that as a sign for the rest of our day...

We got off the bus about two miles from Marazion and walked from there down to the beach to start our route from the beginning of the causeway to St Michael's Mount, sadly the sea was in so we couldn't start from the island itself.

From there we headed to Marazion Marsh, the walk cuts across the marshes but we had a mooch around there first so I could look at the bird and plant life. Weirdly there was a sign on the post next to these steps saying the pathway was closed for construction work, yet there was no other indication anything amiss so we carried on. We tried to find the road where you could join the walk but got lost so we went back to the marsh and followed the path there. 

A little way in there was another sign, one of those big yellow ones you see next to road works, again saying the pathway ahead was closed but as it was just a grass footpath through marshes and woodland we couldn't figure out what they were for. Well we finally found out, two miles into the walk we reached where you have to cross the train tracks and here was where the construction work was clearly taking place! 

There was no one there and you could see from the way one of the barriers had been pulled back and bent someone else had clearly ignored the construction and carried on. We decided it wasn't worth the risk and turned back as in theory there was another place to join the walk in the direction of Penzance so we headed that way. Would you believe it not one, not two but in three places the coastal path that links Penzance and Marazion was closed for some sort of construction work. I couldn't help feeling that they had had the whole of the spring and early summer when everything was in full lockdown to do the work but instead they wait until the holidays are just beginning. By the time we had made it round these closures it was way too late to continue with the walk as we had to get back in time for a dinner reservation and we would complete the 12 miles in time. So we decided to walk into Penzance and have a mooch about but by the time we got to the outskirts by the train and bus stations it was raining. As we passed through the bus station we spotted a bus to St Ives just about to leave so we took it as a sign and dived on it.

We ended up walking over 6 miles just trying to get started! but as I said to Himself we still had a lovely day out until the weather changed and it's a reason, as if we need one, to come back again and actually complete the walk.

We got in, got changed and went straight out for dinner as we had a fairly early reservation, our second Italian which was not as nice as the previous night but very entertaining courtesy of the people from the Peak District at the table next to us waxing lyrical about "Not only Mr Tom Cruise but also Mr Harrison Ford" being in town for filming. 

From there we went to the Co-op and bought a bottle of wine which we took back with us to drink sitting in the bay window watching the night fall. Bliss.

The next day was warm and started bright but slowly became more and more grey and overcast.

We walked the coastal path towards Zennor, going further this time than before but we still couldn't go all the way. It's a very challenging part of the South West Coastal path, involving scrambling over rocks which I knew I couldn't do with my shoulder.

I don't know if it was due to the lovely warm early spring weather, followed by all the rain this year but the abundance of flowers on the cliffs was breathtaking. 

There were so many orchids too.

When it started to get challenging we headed back. First port of call when we got into town were for some chips after which we just mooched round doing some shopping, visiting a craft fair and whatever else took our fancy. 

I bought a new rum to try and a gorgeous handmade elephant necklace, as well as gifts for Mum and Dad. I was also going to buy a dress for myself but Himself whisked it off me and bought for my birthday in July instead.

 We bought an ice cream and took the scenic route through the graveyard by the sea back to our b&b. It was so peaceful and again the flowers here were lovely.

There were even orchids growing all over here too, so beautiful.

Dinner was at a pub that came with great reviews. I had the most delicious piece of fish with homemade tartar sauce because unlike Himself I adore fish. 

The weather was starting to turn but not enough to stop us walking round to Porthminster beach and back barefoot along the beach and through the harbour as the sea was right out.

Over night it started to rain and by morning was pouring so we ended up having to kill time in a couple of cafes before picking some sandwiches and drinks for our train journey home. Not that it dampened our love for the town one tiny bit. It was a blissful break and did us both the world of good.

A May Round Up.

 No idea what happened there but my follow up post didn't happen! I can't believe how quickly time is passing at the moment, I never seem to have 5 minutes let alone an hour to blog.  

Anyway I shall carry on as if it were just the start of May. 

I did indeed go into Oxford for the 1st time since before Christmas, to meet my friends Charlotte and Alex. Alex had moved back home to Wales last year and I have missed her a lot. Technically she works in Birmingham at the moment, though like many of us she has been working remotely. However she had to go into the office for a day so took the opportunity to visit Oxford too. 

I dropped off some paperbacks at the book stall at the train station on my way into Oxford, and delivered some reference books to the Oxfam bookshop when I got there. The rain was so torrential I actually had to take shelter under some scaffolding with my umbrella up until it eased a little. Charlotte & Alex met me outside the shop  and we walked to North Parade and managed to have tea & cake sat outside a cafe between showers, this was back when you could only eat outside at cafes or restaurants. From there we headed to university parks and meandered about having a good catch up. 

For lunch we managed to find a table outside at Vaults the cafe under the university church in Radcliffe Square. Posing for a quick selfie by the Radcliffe Camera after we had stuffed our faces on their delicious food, forgive the demented hair, it was that windy!

We also squeezed in a browse around Blackwell's before Alex had to collect her case and head for her train. I needed to nip to Marks for some undies and from there Charlotte and I went for a blissful browse around John Lewis, both spending our pennies in the haberdashery section. 

By the time we left the sun had finally come out and as neither of us was in a hurry to go home we popped into the garden at The Red Lion off George Street and had a drink. I actually ended up getting home later than Himself! Oh to be a lady of leisure. 

The other big excitement was FINALLY being able to visit my Dad again. They had allowed my Mum to visit since April but by the beginning of May they said up to two people could visit. We had to go 30 minutes before to do a lateral flow test, fill out paperwork & have our temperature taken, before being shrouded in PPE. The visit was only 15 minutes at first but I can't begin to tell you have amazing it was to finally be able to see him. Since then we have been visiting weekly, I now do the lateral flow test at home and the visits have increased to 30 minutes but we still have to do all the other checks and wear PPE. We are also allowed up to 5 designated visitors now so my brother and nephew number one can also visit.

 From the end of May we have been allowed to take him out, but only for an outdoor visit. On my brother's birthday we liberated Dad for the whole afternoon and had a family picnic in the park next to the care home. He loved it though I think seeing so many people at once was a bit of sensory overload after being away from us all for so long.

Himself and I went to nephew number one and his girlfriend's house that night. We had seen it briefly when they moved in in November but that was in full lockdown, so it was lovely to be able to visit properly and get a full guided tour. They have decorated since that visit and really put their stamp on it.

 We had a great night and finally left at 2.30am, with Himself being somewhat worse for wear (I had sensibly stopped drinking. He was good for nothing the next day so I left him snoozing and pottered in the garden.

I've been quite busy in the garden when I have had some time. I have been taking it steady as I gain strength back in my arm. Actually there has been a big change in the garden, you may remember me grumbling about the huge conifer 

the one in the middle of this picture to be precise. Well the lady next door popped round to say they were having a tree surgeon out to take the overhanging branches off the conifer, and the tree you can see behind it, on their side. As well as reduce the height of the conifer a bit. I confessed I would happily see the whole thing come down and she got quite excited by that until I pointed out that sadly as we are renting I couldn't approve it. I offered to ring our landlord to see if he was up for it coming down as I know he plans to build at some point. I did ring him and he was amenable so I passed his phone number on for them to sort out particulars. 

It turned out the tree surgeon was a one man outfit and said it was too big a job for him to remove the whole tree but he did reduce the height by 10 foot. 

Well he clearly didn't remove enough height for our neighbour because over the next 2 weeks he got his own chainsaw and did this

then this

and finally this

I mean fair play he cleared up and disposed of all the tree but it turns out he never even called our landlord who was a bit peeved as you can imagine! Though he did say if we were ok with it then he was ok with it. So yes...

Anyway now we have a lot more light in the garden!

I felt obliged to tidy up at bit at the end of the garden and there was a pile of rubble so I decided to build a rockery on a flowerbed near the kitchen that nothing seems to grow in. On the big new housing estate about a mile from us there is a small Asda and they always have plants outside. I have to say I have been blown away by the quality and the price and have been back several times now to stock up.

Here are the alpines I bought at 3 for £5 and a couple of other reduced plants.

and here is my new rockery! I've since bought a couple more to fill in the gaps.

As I am still working from the kitchen table and tend to stand at the window drinking my tea or eating my lunch I have bought some colour for the table outside.

Mostly petunias, from left to right at the back Blue Star, Blackcurrent Sorbet and Velvet. 

I planted all my out of date seeds and most of them sprouted

I also started my container vegetable garden.

I've been doing full on battle with the slugs, they have been relentless this year. Much worse than usual. I go out every evening and pick them off by torchlight. No poison pellets for me with all the bird life and hedgehogs. I have tried the wool pellets,the broken egg shells, the grit to no avail but have found the copper tape quite effective.

The birds have been an absolute joy, though the juvenile starlings are SO noisy! 

This laburnum tree and honeysuckle are like a bird high rise. It has a blackbird nest at head height, with a collared dove nest above that and goldfinches nesting right at the top! Today there were baby chaffinches, one of my favourite garden birds. It really does the soul good.   

I think this flowerbed in the middle of the lawn was once a pond but it is now a circular alpine bed. It is full of cyclamens so I have to be careful how I dig. I tend to fill the gaps with pansies and the like

As a rule I leave things where they self seed and this foxglove is no exception. However it is insanely huge and has now dwarfed everything else in the little alpine bed. In fact it's actually as tall as me! Ridiculous but the bees love it.

For the last bank holiday in May the weather was unusually glorious so we took ourselves out for a walk.

We ended up doing 10 miles and spent 7 of them carrying a box of eggs! We passed a house selling fresh eggs and when we looked they were from heritage breed hens and all sorts of colours like white, blue and green so how could you not? 

It wasn't meant to be 10 miles but we got slightly lost, in countryside like this who cares though? 

So that was May as ever I will end with my purchases. I was looking for something on Etsy and you know how it suggests things you might like.

Well

I fell in love with this glass whale when I clicked on the link, I just had to have it. He now has pride of place at our bedroom window. You can't really see but he has a moon and stars etched on him. I then saw another glass picture listed as 'from a seller near you' I absolutely had to have it. I am obsessed with the full moon, apparently as a cancerian it's in my dna, I'll go with that. 

Anyway after I paid it turned out it was from the US! My heart sank at the thought of the import charge but amazingly enough it arrived without getting stopped by customs.

I'm afraid this photo doesn't do it justice, it's gorgeous.

Finally handbags, well there had to be a few!

 The white one is heavily beaded, I have no recollection of buying it or where from!?! It just arrived in the post one day. You know your handbag habit is bad when that happens!

The red leather one has 2 side pockets that someone had decided to super glue shut, I managed to ease them apart again but the glue has left a messy stain.

These two were Ebay purchases.  I need to polish them and try and find space for them in my out of control collection. I feel the need for another cull, not that I ever seem to part with more than one or two at most. It's bad, very bad.

Well that was my gallop through the rest of May. I will *try* to get back very soon with June and our blissful trip to Cornwall. Adieu.    

Walking Back to Happiness.

 Well this may turn into an epic post or it may become two!

As ever I have had a post in mind and then for various reasons haven't posted anything. In the early days this was due to only being able to type one handed and after a day at the keyboard for work I was in no fit state to type for leisure.

I have to say working from home has been a boon with my injury. I was able to either start a bit later or pop upstairs for a lie down in my lunch hour in those early weeks when I was getting very little sleep. Thankfully after 5 weeks I was finally able to lie down in bed, albeit with my shoulder and arm propped up on a rolled up jumper. 

I can't even begin to describe the joy that came at 7 weeks when I could finally sleep curled up on my side again. It really is the little victories! 

I had booked a week off work in April to spend doing some heavy duty gardening, I'd had a soil delivery and everything. I was feeling pretty downhearted that I wasn't going to be able to do anything at all but by the time the week came I was able to spend a few hours each day gently pottering about. Luckily for me the weather was absolutely gorgeous too. I did have my limitations brought home on the first day when, hoping to take advantage of the gorgeous sunshine I did a load of laundry, then realised I couldn't actually reach up to peg it to the line! Cue much swearing.

I got Himself to move a big bag of compost next to the table I use for potting up so I was able to plant some seeds. I can't begin to tell you the good it did me just to be out in the fresh air doing something I love. Our resident robin was next to me the whole time supervising.

I chat away to him/her, I'm sure the neighbours think I'm insane and talking to myself. Mind you all the close attention became clear on the 3rd day when he/she arrived with two adorable babies in tow. I spent the day nipping in and out fetching handfuls of smashed up peanuts for them to eat.

As ever my bird feeder has been a source of much joy when you can't do much else but stand at the kitchen window with a mug of tea and watch the world. I soon spotted someone else watching it with even more intense attention.

No Mr Sparrowhawk, no. I went and chased him off a few times. I know it's meant to be a sign of a very healthy ecosystem, but frankly my inner ecosystem was too fragile to cope with murder and mayhem at that point in time. 

Whilst I was outside and standing very still, kind of figuring out what I might be able to do next I spotted one of these on the bird feeder. I have never seen one before and once it had flown off took to the internet to find out what it was, a Red Poll. I never cease to be amazed at what visits this suburban garden.

I've been plugging away with the daily exercises for my arm. I had a call with a different physiotherapist, it really is farcical! Him trying to describe how to do an exercise over the phone and me not understanding what the hell he's on about. Mind you I did burst out laughing when he asked me in his very broad Yorkshire accent if I was able to "reach round and touch your bumcrack" (sadly not) I couldn't resist asking if that was the official term for it.

When I had my follow up at the fracture clinic the consultant rolled his eyes and said 'I have NOTHING good to say about the service since it's been outsourced.' According to him, and indeed the 2nd physio I spoke to, my injury needs face to face treatment, but even if I was put forward as an emergency they couldn't guarantee I'd get any at all, and even if I did it would be at least 6 weeks. It really is ridiculous in the extreme. I have gained a fair amount of movement and range but but recently I seem to have plateaued which is very frustrating. 

Other than working I have been walking. I'm so grateful I can still do that and get out and about in the fresh air. I finished the fateful Cabot Trail challenge and got my hard earned medal. 

I followed that with the Mount Fuji challenge because I loved the beautiful medal. that was 43 miles and I did it in 2 weeks. 

I'm now doing The Kruger National Park challenge which is 265 miles. I'm walking pretty much every day which is hopefully going to help with the lockdown weight gain as well as the fact I need to build up/maintain my bone density. I was always an enthusiastic dairy eater, particularly cheese and yoghurt, but since the fall I've been drinking milk everyday too.

Since lockdown I've also discovered the joy of online events. I have enjoyed talks by TV personalities like Monty Don, Nadiya Hussain, Tom Allen and Escape to The Chateau's Dick and Angel Strawbridge, authors like Marian Keyes and musicians as eclectic as Gary Numan and Bananarama! 

I have been thoroughly enjoying the serious of talks hosted by the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. I am now a life long fan of their Head of Exhibitions Dennis Nothdruft! 

I also found a fascinating one for the M&S archives and have followed a couple by the V&A. It's going to be a while before I go to exhibitions again in person, so this is a good way to live vicariously. You also get a very in depth, knowledgeable and close up tour.

I have a favourite walk around here along an old disused railway line to the village of East Hagbourne, oh if money were no object I would buy a house there like a shot. 

Once I was able to actually use my camera again I took it out with me. Has anyone else noticed this year seems to be particularly good for primroses and cowslips? 

I have never seem so many cowslips.

Well that will do for now. More anon including FINALLY getting to visit my Dad for the first time since September, voting, handbags and tomorrow I'm off into Oxford for the first time since December. I'm excited and nervous at the same time, it's funny how what was once my daily commute to work is now an adventure!