Apples...

Lots and lots of apples from the in-laws garden waiting to be made into lovely things for the freezer.

Changing..

Not sure what its like in your little corner of the globe, but here in the north of England, this morning felt decidedly autumnal - which just isn't on. As much as I like autumn, we just have not had enough summer yet, I really think the weather should start trying harder. I'm not sure if its the terrible weather, or the 'nearly time to go back to school' mentality that we must have had programmed into to us years ago, but I have to say I'm in rather a reflective mood. I'm having a week of circulating those age old questions, how do we find a balance in our life, do what we want whilst still paying the mortgage etc etc. Somebody told me the other day the gap between what we have and we want is what motivates us in life, and I know that this is very true, but sometimes I wish the gap was a little smaller! I realise that there are no real answers to these questions, and that we just have to plod away at it, but I think its important to acknowledge the difficulties in the creative life, the sacrifices we make and share them with like minded people. Basically, I'm having a moan, feel from to moan back at me!

One day there was a bird...

He's not totally sure what he's doing or where he's going yet, but he's made an appearance in this work, so we'll see where it goes...

He may well be going through some of the same issues as are being discussed over here, he's a very philosophical little bird.  Perhaps I should call him Pip, and yes I know but it can be a boy's name too...

Escape...

There's some very strange things happening in the world today, escape to your imagination...

Gentle Saturdays...

Spent a lovely Saturday with my fairy god child, walking to the swings, eating vegetables from the garden and general gentle times. Ready for a whole day of making tomorrow, in preparation for an upcoming project.

This weekend...

This weekend brought unexpected visitors, a visit to Brantwood and sandwiches on the jetty. I also bought this book by John Ruskin, which I'm very much looking forward to reading.

Tea on the beach...

So, trying to carry on from the last post, after work today we packed up our tea and took it down to the beach to make the most of the last rays of sun.

Hiking and biking...

In an attempt to make the most of the rest of our time off, we've been heading into the great outdoors (trying to ignore the weather). Yesterday we went walking in the Yorkshire Moors, with some really impressive sky's, and today we've been biking in the lake district in glorious sunshine, you've got to love the British summer! It so nice to live close to glorious countryside, it would definitely be my first choice of place to move to...

Stormy Wednesday...

Lots of storms this Wednesday, hopefully its blowing away the bad weather ready for the weekend sunshine...

Sunlight...

Sat in the sunlight streaming through the window in my kitchen this morning, I can think of a million and one better things to do then go to work...

Hazy weekend...

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, and if you were lucky enough to see the sun, made the most of it. Am I the only one that thinks that the weekend was slightly surreal? Here in the north west of the UK we had bright sunshine, warm enough to sit in the garden in summer dresses. Looks kind of grey today, and I'm wondering if it was all some kind of lovely dream...



Via toast



Cake and family...

I've spent the day with my Grandparents celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary - that's 60 years - can you imagine being married that long. Have a look at these beautiful pictures from their wedding day and honeymoon in the Lake District, everything just looked so elegant then...

Busy week...

I realise that its been a week since I last posted, I don't know where the time has gone. Work has been hectic, we've had a lovely weekend visiting friends and going to the Elbow gig in Manchester, and then all of a sudden it's Monday again... Some exciting things have happened. I've received the address of the ten people that I'm sending postcards to as part of iHanna's postcard swop. They range from New Zealand to America, and I'm busy collecting things to create mine. We've also finally managed to put up our collection of pictures in the hall (the picture below isn't great, I'll take some better images in day light!)

The stuff of life....

I'm in a very philosophical mood today. Maybe its down to the methodical process of making bread last night, or perhaps it was the programme I was listening to on the radio this morning about the concepts of free will, determinism and fate (I would explain, but although I understood when I was listening, I'm not sure I could explain it!). It's a mood that over takes me from time to time when I have to question if we have the balance of life right. There just seems to be too little time to fit in everything that I want/need to do (working, cleaning, being creative, cooking, reading... I could go on). So does this mean that I have my priorities wrong. I'm sure its an issue that effects everybody at some point, if anyone has figured out how to find the right balance, I'd be very keen to know!