what i did on my holidays

...um...well...not a great deal, if i'm honest...

bearing in mind, though, that we haven't been away for a year, not doing much doesn't really matter, as we were too busy just chilling out.  of course, the rain didn't help all that much, either...  but it was nice and, forthwith, some pictorial representations:

first stop, the Headland Camping and Caravan Park, Tintagel, where the peace and quiet know no bounds.  you can just breathe in the tranquility.

that's Talulah at the back of the row - she has her roof up.  we hadn't been there ten minutes before the guy on the pitch next to us was taking pictures of his kids giving the VeeDub wave and saying "Duuuuude!" in their really tiny little voices.  sooooo cute!

then we headed off down the coast path and around the headland to Tintagel Haven.  it's one of my favourite places in the whole world - i would sit and watch the sea there for hours if i could get away with it...

as you can see, the tide was in.  the large cave in the centre of the picture is called Merlin's Cave (natch!).  when the tide is out, you can scramble over the slippery rocks in there and come right out on the other side of the headland.  this is the place hubby taught me to skim stones when we first came here about 12 years ago.  i'm pretty good at it, if i say so myself, and still ridiculously proud of being able to... *grin*

when hubby finally managed to drag me away from the border between earth and sea, we toddled off up to the cafe on the headland to have those cornwall essentials:  a pastie (for him) and a cream tea (for me).   oooh - heaven on a plate! :D

Talulah's bed, by the way, is totally awesome!

behind me you can see Mango The Rat's cage.  yup - she comes too!

later that evening, we discovered that we had a stowaway...

this handsome fellow is Spot The Spider.  a well-travelled fellow indeed, we found him in all sorts of unlikely places around Talulah, and he stayed with us for a day or two.  however, one night, he mysteriously disappeared, and hubby woke up feeling suspiciously fuller than he had when he went to sleep...

it also rained fairly hard that night.  as you can see - Squeaky is a genius when it comes to sorting out a leaky skylight...

the following day was beautiful, if extremely windy.  the pixie hat became my constant companion on this holiday - i rarely took it off, hence spent most of the holiday looking somewhat silly.  but then - there's really nothing new about that.

next stop:  St Ives. 

and the sun shone for our arrival.

(that sign we're making with our hands, BTW, is the VeeDub wave i mentioned earlier)

however, the following day...

it pissed it down. ALL DAY!!!  D:

at times like these, you make your own entertainment.  what we made was pouches for the magnets to hold Talulah's curtains up (which i'm still sewing on, BTW. a minimum of six on each curtain.  four curtains done, eight to go...*groan*).  it was a really lovely way to spend a rainy afternoon, and the time flew.

the following day, it had, thankfully, ceased to rain like the end of the world was nigh.  Talulah is lovely to spend time in but really, even i was getting cabin fever by the end of the day!

so we took advantage of the break in the weather and hotfooted it along the coast path to St Ives. 

 

...just...

...gorgeous!

there were many lovely things to be had in this ancient fishing village / haven for artists, the deli we found was quite heavenly (homemade brownies and gingerbread, delicious goats cheese, and charcoal biscuits - all organic and totally nommy!), but the little details of the town (which i believe is getting on for 700 years old) are utterly delightful.

seriously - how many places could this door lead to?  on this plane or any other?

this one delighted me beyond measure, being such a tea-obsessed slurper.  really, they ought to rename it Squeaky Street.  or possibly Teabelly Alley (a personal favourite)

*snigger*  no comment.  none whatsoever.  no cheap jokes, either.  ;)

following our days in St Ives it was, sadly, time to start making our way homewards.  but Talulah is an old girl, and needs to take her time when she's ambling around the country.  so we had to pick a place to stop for the night on our way home.  hubby, genius at picking new places to go that he is, picked a tiny little end-of-the-road place called Brean, on the Somerset coast - right at the edge of the levels.  the geography and scenery around there is awesome, but i don't think you can really appreciate its stunning beauty until you get yourself up high, and can see the whole world spread out beneath you.  we only discovered this when we climbed up Brean Down - a great chunk of turf-covered rock that thrusts up and into the sea between Brean and Weston-Super-Mare. 

look!  there's Talulah on the beach! :D

the vast expanse of sand was utterly breathtaking, and the land is just as flat for miles around, glowing with a million shades of green.

and the sun shone all day.

:)

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blogging in the sunshine, and Minotaur

Good afternoon, dear reader!


This is coming to you live from my knackered garden, and the sun is shining, so I can barely see what I am typing. But who cares? I haz warms, and have bared my neck and arms and legs for the first time in what feels like forever. And I just saw a butterfly flutter by... *sigh*

Well, actually, the “live” thing is a bit of a fib, since the wifi signal doesn’t work this far away. ‘coz, y’know – I live in Chatsworth House, innit? XD No, really – I’m typing this into Word then I’m gonna cut and paste.

Ooo! Hang on a mo....*runs to fetch camera*

...

So now I’ve taken some pics and, when I post this, you’ll be able to see the estate in all its dubious glory. I’ll post ‘em at the bottom.

...

Where was I? Oh, right – I’ll get on to the main subject in a moment, but first, I want to share a tiny bliss moment I had yesterday, whilst on the bus to work.

Yes, the bus.

Nonono – there’s nothing wrong with Newbie, she’s looooovely! *sigh* But I have to concentrate when I ride her, coz she’s a sprightly little bugger, and she won’t catch me if I cock up. And yesterday, I was more likely than usual to cock up, since I’d had 3 hours’ sleep, due to .... dun dun duuuuuhhhh!!! The Return Of The Cramps!!! Heh – it’s no biggie, but the buggers always*do* seem to wake me.

Anyway...

So I was on the bus, and I saw something I’ve been waiting to see for what seems like forever. I always wait for it, and it always seems faaar too long in coming. But I saw it. Yesterday. And it filled my heart with bliss and made my eyes fill with tears of gratitude.

I saw the first white dusting of Mayblossom on the hawthorn trees.

It may not seem like a big deal but, to me, it’s the signal that, in the words of The Dooberies, summer’s on it’s way. We have a saying in this part of the world:

Ne’er shed a clout*
‘Till May be out

(*clothing)

Meaning: don’t discard yer woollies ‘till you see the blossom on the Maytree (hawthorn). Even then, it’s not an absolute guide, since the sun’s just gone in, and I’ve had to slip me cardi back on – the breeze is still pretty cold. But I care not. I care not. Because the warms are nearly here, and I miss being able to expose my skin to the bliss of the sun’s rays.

...

In other news, which was, in fact, supposed to be the point of this post (but now seems to pale into insignificance beside the pale beauty of the Mayblossom), my very first effort at writing a novel is now up on the internetz for all and sundry to read. And, having read through it for the final edit, I’m actually rather proud of it.

Oh, who am I kidding? I love it, and am enormously proud of it. It’s called Minotaur, and it’s posted on the Authonomy website.

So, y’know – go have a look. Please. Leave comments if you wish. Honestly, I hope you like it, but I won’t mind if you don’t. I wrote it purely for myself, after all, and one man’s meat is another man’s poison. But I *am* very interested to know what you think...

It will soon be available in print, too – for a given value of soon, as I’m still waiting for the artwork from hubby. But that’s ok – we know how fickle the muse can be don’t we, dear reader?

...

The sun seems to have gone in properly, now, and the clouds are gathering. I wouldn’t be surprised if it rains in a bit. But no matter. I shall go inside, and I shall post pictures, and you can see what a mess our darling chickens have made of our once lush and inviting lawn. The little buggers are eating what’s left of it as I type...

...

view from the back door.  that's hubby's poor dead bike under the cover.  Newbie is just out of shot to the right.

here we have the first view of the garden proper.  to the left is the veg patch - not growing anything this year, but every now and again, we turn the earth over so the chickens can scratch about for delicious treats.

the view to the end of the garden.  as you can see, we no longer have a lawn.  the girls have trampled and scratched and eaten it out of existence.  that's their home, on the right.  built by my clever hubby.

further up the garden is the pond.  sometimes, we get newts.  they are such gorgeous little creatures....

back down the garden, we get another view of the coop, and the girls.  the stone mushroom marks the grave of our first and most beloved rat, Jeremy.

here's where i was writing the post from earlier.  jolly comfy it was, too...  the pillar behind it was also built by hubby, to use as a base for his telescope.

the girls.  that's Alan at the back (named after a character in the delightfully bizarre and much missed series Green Wing).  Ruby (Ruby Murray - chicken curry.  geddit?...) is at the front, looking at me suspiciously, as usual.

and here's me enjoying the rays.  Sunshine Squeaky.

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warm rock (and a video!)

so i was going to say that anyone who's been on twitter in the last few days will have noticed my unusual taciturnity and general miserable grumpiness when i was on.  but why would you, right? *blushes at own presumption*  but for anyone who was worried (bless you!) the tide of hormones has now retreated and i'm much more my usual chirpily irritating self. ;o)
so friday it was on the retreat, and i managed to drag my lazy arse out of the house to go climbing at Alter-Rock with hubby.  this was, frankly, a pathetic session.  i barely lasted two hours, climbed nothing above a 5+, and my hands weren't even sore when we came away.  bloody hell, my forearms were, though! (twanging tendons!).  headed to a pub in derby afterwards for dinner with some colleagues (remember the night out i forgot to go to? this was the rematch).  my mood took a total nosedive on the way there, though, as i had learned that my shiny new bike wouldn't be ready to pick up until maaaaybe monday, but probably tuesday, and various other little things had all crashed down at once.  however, once i got to the pub (i was early), liberal application of vodka, O...Saya by A R Rahman (from the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire), half an hour to myself, and sunshine had an astonishingly positive effect.  had a great night - even if it was two months late. ;o)
yesterday, the weather was beeeautiful, and hubby, astonishingly, managed to persuade me to go climbing outside for the first time in probably six months.  look, i am a*total* wuss when it comes to the cold.  i hate being out in it, and i hate climbing in it with a passion.  but i was persuaded that we should go here:

Harborough Rocks

it's a beautiful limestone outcrop near Wirksworth in Derbyshire.  it's very popular with climbers, and is particularly good for practicing trad climbing techniques, since the faces aren't huge, the terrain is friendly and easily accessible, and it's a particular kind of limestone that's pocked with lots of holes and pockets - easy handholds on lots of the routes.  it's used by a lot of groups - scouts, guides, etc.  there was a group there from Stafford yesterday.

it was so lovely.  the sun was warm, the breeze wasn't too cold, and the outcrop faces south, so it gets the sun virtually all day.  gods - i have missed the feel of warm rock far more than i realised.  maybe we should move to Spain?... 

we took all of the gear to climb trad, but ended up soloing instead (climbing without safety equipment - just shoes and a chalkbag). it was great for me.  i have virtually no confidence left after not climbing outside for so long, so i took baby steps soloing the easier routes with lots of juggy (big, easy-to-grip) holds, whilst hubby did the harder stuff.  the only trouble with Harborough is that it's so popular (also, people have been climbing there since the 1800's), many of the holds have been polished to glassy smoothness.  friction?  what's that?  had to be sooo careful!

and as we were soloing, we could please ourselves what we did.  so when i decided that i'd had enough, i just lay in the sun, or wrote a little more of my book, or wandered around on the hillside enjoying the gorgeous day.

i also spent some time admiring the perfectly blue sky - not a thing in it except for the local corvids (thank you, unpronounceable Icelandic volcano). utter, utter bliss!  i even caught the sun across my cheekbones and the bridge of my nose!  not quite enough to bring my freckles out, though - not quite yet.

but getting there... ^_^

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a spring walk, with pictures.

today, i went for a walk. 

the original plan for today was to go climbing.  that didn't happen.

dear reader, if you are female, i'm sure you are aware of what an exhausting experience it can be to ride the menstrual cycle (emotionally and physically).  friday and saturday were particularly bad, but i thought i'd be ok today.  i wasn't.  my emotions had more-or-less settled, but physically, i was still tired and bleary.  definitely not up to sport climbing. 

btw, there are several different types of climbing, which i may explain in another post, if i ever get around to it...

aaaanyway. 

the weather was absolutely beautiful, today, and i wanted to be out in it, but not climbing.  so i suggested to hubby that we take a walk, instead.  he wasn't keen on the idea since, as he pointed out, he spends 8 hours a day walking when he's at work (he works in a warehouse).  so he got the bike going for me (yay!!!! riding to work tomorrow for the first time since october!), and i went for a walk in the beautiful breezy sunshine.  frankly, i'm still knackered, though recovering, from my hormones' assault on my body and mind, but i wanted to share the fields around the town i grew up in with you.

so...

in pictures...

this is the view just ten minutes' walk from my front door.  how lucky am i?

check out the curious little guy at the base of te tree... sweeeet! ^_^

this is Street Lane, not far from where i live.  i am told its name used to be Straight Lane, and that it is a remnant of a roman road.  the A38 continues along the same line, a little further on...

this bough was at the perfect height to lay my cheek against.  so i did. 

i am not ashamed to admit to hugging trees.  it was a small moment of bliss.

i came across this willow tree in bloom.  it made me cry, with the palpable proof of spring.  when i got closer, i cried a little more when i saw the small battallion of large black bumblebees, busily collecting nectar and pollinating the tree.  sadly, i got no pictures of them.  they were too quick for me, and too busy to pose for photos.  i did ask, but they ignored me.  apart from one that hummed up to check me out.  but she was too fast for me, too.

i sat by this dyke for quite some time, the sun warm on my face and my back, just...being. 

it was beautiful.  and peaceful.  and blissful.

it occurred to me, as i walked along, that what i was actually walking through was the remains of an opencast mine, that had been here when i was a child.  all of the trees were small and new, and the terrain was flattish, and easy to walk along.  and all around me, i could feel the earth waking up and vibrating with new life.

and the sky was...just...huge.

bliss.

it was time to turn back, by now, as i was reaching the boundary of how far i wanted to walk (there was a main road not too far ahead).  on the way, though, i made some new friends...

who just loooved having their ears scratched...

and, were, well...

...kinda nosey...

i hope you enjoyed our walk through the fields around my home town, dear reader.

i certainly did.  it made my soul feel good.