Wish you were Here!

Last week realising that our diaries were unusually free of commitments we decided to take an on the spur of the moment holiday.  So where did we go?

The Mediterranean?

The Amalfi Coast?

If I tell you we needed no passports or visas, no dilema over what to pack, that there were no foreign currency requirements and that we spent no time at the airport waiting in a queue, that our self catering accommodation was a real home from home perhaps you will guess that we didn't actually leave home at all!

We did however shop in colourful local markets

Eat delicious lunches!

Visit delightful gardens

Enjoy several great walks...

And perhaps the highlight of our week was a ride on the bus!  Not just any old bus you understand but the X53 which runs along the Jurassic Coast and through some of the most stunning scenery along what is a World Heritage site and linking Exeter with Poole.  We had been meaning to travel some of this route for ages and somehow never got round to it so on Thursday we set off for West Bay through the countryside on a lovely summer morning (Yes I know it was Autumn but here it was summer!)

Having parked the car we had a wander round West Bay whilst we waited for the bus - our bus passes at the ready! (There are many advantages to being elderly and the free bus pass is one of them!)

We had decided to travel to Beer - a little town on the South Devon coast - and from there to walk to Branscombe on a circular route which would bring us back to Beer in time for the return journey.

Rather like Wells the street in Beer has a stream running along either side but in Beer's case it is lined with pretty flowers although you do need to look where you are going!  After a cup of coffee we set off up the hill on our walk to Branscombe Mouth.  The distance in miles is not far but it was an up hill and down dale sort of walk which made it seem further.

After clambering down a steep flight of steps through the woodland we finally arrived at our destination where we had lunch - a sandwich and a drink at the cafe on the beach.  

 Then of course we had to climb again on our homeward route this time inland.  I don't have many photos of the return walk probably because I was concentrating on actually making it to the top as I found it really hard going!

We did of course make it back to Beer and this was the final straight!  We had a welcome cup of tea in a pretty cafe and rested our feet before having a wander down to the beach - we had made good time and had an hour or so to wait for the bus which runs every two hours.

Although it felt like a summer's day the days are getting shorter and the sun was going down by now and we wandered back up the street to the bus stop which had a welcome bench on which we could sit.

The journey back to West Bay was good and the scenery in the evening light was lovely.

This is Seaton.  We got home just after dark (about 7.30 now) after a fabulous day out and feeling very happy after our walk and all that fresh air.

Sherborne for shopping at the market - see photo at beginning as well.  The flower displays everywhere are still very summery.

And in the afternoon a visit to Kilver Court Gardens which were lovely

Yesterday we did our longest walk yet but I will save those pictures for another time.  As you will see we had a wonderful holiday at next to no cost (I think the most expensive thing was the entry fees to Kilver Court and they were reduced for Seniors!)  Cost to the environment = negligible.  Enjoyment factor = enormous!  

Today at yoga the watchword was Santosha which means contentment and as I lay there at the end of the class relaxing with a soft warm breeze coming in through the open French doors I was, I really was content - content to be living in such a fabulous part of the world, content to have stored up some wonderful memories of a lovely week, content to be me and at that particular moment I wouldn't have wished to be anywhere else!  Just as well as this evening whilst I wasn't looking the grey clouds rolled in and it was dark before 7.00 - the weather man tells us we will not see such high temperatures now till next April or May so I will be glad to have my memories to feed off during the colder months.

Living in the Slow Lane

If you haven't already seen this post  do pop over and have a look.  It made me think about how many of us life our lives at such a pace we never really enjoy the NOW!  It is something I have spoken about before but I am still trying to achieve.

 I went with a lady from my yoga class to hear a talk by a Buddist monk recently and I realised how impatient I am since he was so calm and seemed in no hurry to begin his lecture and I found myself thinking "Oh get on with it "!!  However when he did begin to speak he suggested that before we listened to the lecture we should all take 5 minutes to just be.  We were told to shut our eyes and just watch our breath in and out not trying to alter it nor to make judgements about it but just concentrating on it and on any sounds which we could hear.  It was a very long 5 minutes but it certainly did put me in a more receptive frame of mind!

One of his suggestions was that we might take just 10 minutes every day to sit calmly not doing anything - just being and although I was full of good intentions - after all how difficult can it be to sit still for 10 minutes?! - it's is often bedtime and I haven't done it!

It's not as though I achieve great things with all my dashing about and always being ahead of myself thinking of the next thing whilst doing the current one either.  I am sure if I took more time to really think about what I am doing NOW and less about what I am going to do LATER I would enjoy life more and quite possibly achieve more into the bargain!!

I don't know if I have shared this little prayer with you before if so my apologies but it says it all really and was given to me years ago by my mother who knew me only too well!

Slow me down, Lord!

Ease the pounding of my heart
By the quieting of my mind.
Steady my harried pace
With a vision of the eternal reach of time.


Give me,
Amidst the confusions of my day,
The calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves
With the soothing music
Of the singing streams
That live in my memory.


Help me to know
The magical power of sleep,
Teach me the art
Of taking minute vacations
Of slowing down
To look at a flower;
To chat with an old friend
Or make a new one;
To pat a stray dog;
To watch a spider build a web;
To smile at a child;
Or to read a few lines from a good book.


Remind me each day
That the race is not always to the swift;
That there is more to life
Than increasing its speed.
Let me look upward
Into the branches of the towering oak
And know that it grew great and strong
Because it grew slowly and well.


Slow me down, Lord,
And inspire me to send my roots deep
Into the soil of life's enduring values
That I may grow toward the stars
Of my greater destiny.


Wilferd A. Peterson
 
 Pomona - thanks for the suggestion I have read both Peace is Every Step and The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh and found them inspirational.

Thank you all for you kind comments on my previous posts - all much appreciated by both me and Thomas! 

Monday Musings

Monday morning and yoga day - time for some musings along the way and indeed even whilst I am supposed to be relaxing and letting go (something I find really difficult!) at the end of the lesson! I became aware as I walked along that the summer flowers were in full bloom and the leaves had lost that wonderful soft Spring green and were now the full blown darker colour of summer - I wanted to shout "Stop!" things are going too fast and I fear it will be all over before I have actually become properly aware of it all.



These flowers will be blackberries before we know it and autumn will be just around the corner! Life seems to rush by ever faster and I wish I could slow it all down so as to really enjoy it all!


I thought of the 5 senses and how we take them so much for granted and yet how wonderful it is to be able to SEE such flowers as these beautiful dog roses which carried me back to childhood days when I used to have all the time in the world to appreciate the flowers in the hedgerows as I meandered along. Why not now? I have no job to go to, no children to care for, I am retired so one might think my time was in even more abundant supply but it certainly doesn't seem that way.

I resolved to try and slow my life down a little - to take time to literally SMELL the roses to appreciate the perfume of wild bluebells, the smell of freshly roasted coffee or of the earth after summer rain (something I noticed when we lived in France was that the earth didn't smell the same as English soil after rain - now why would that be I wonder?) I plan to try and notice and record the smells I come across each day - well the nice ones anyway!

Another childhood favourite and I was transported to the meadows of my childhood and the feeling of grass beneath my bare feet. Then I thought of other things which I love to feel - the softness of cashmere, the smooth hardness of glass or polished wood, the texture of silk, the velvety softness of a rose petal or the hairy stem of a daisy in my fingers and again thought perhaps I could spend some time noticing such things and noting them in a journal.

Then came TASTE - I don't know about you but I don't really taste my food. I eat it and enjoy it but I can't say I properly appreciate it and eat mindfully enjoying the textures and flavours of each mothful. Perhaps if I slowed down my eating I might eat less as I would really notice what I was eating and feel satisfied sooner? Maybe then I wouldn't have to sit waiting for my husband to finish his plateful before I can dash on to the next! The tastes I remember as a child seemed much more distinctive and the sense of taste sharper - was that because it was all so much newer then whereas now I have tasted it all before? Or do the tastebuds lose their ability to taste? Maybe it would be a good idea to try out new tastes and recipes - to cook things that required more love and attention occasionally and to really notice what they taste like.

Finally came the sense of HEARING. I have written before of the sound of birdsong but there are so many other sounds that I hear but how often do I really listen? The sound of water rippling over stones, of the wind in the trees (today was really windy) sounding for all the world like the sea, favourite music, church bells, the sound of a bee in the garden and so on and perhaps most of all the sound of a loved one's voice (I haven't been able to speak with my daughter for nearly 3 months now that she is travelling in South America and what I wouldn't give to hear her voice saying "Hiya Mum" across the miles - an e-mail isn't quite the same!)

Yes I think it is time to slow down my life a little, to truly appreciate each and every day - who knows whether I will get the chance to HEAR the cuckoo next year, to FEEL the breeze on my shoulders on a summer's day, to TASTE the first strawberry of the season again, to SEE the first spring green leaves beginning to unfurl or to SMELL the delicate perfume of primroses. At this stage in life (or at any stage really since we none of us know what might be round the corner) I should be thinking of each day as a blessed gift and really appreciating it for all it brings and not dashing faster towards my destiny busy doing things that in the greater scheme of things are of not much importance.. Several of my friends have died in recent years and it ought to be a reminder to me to Seize the day! I mean to try anyway.

PS Anyone know why when I try to post a comment on anyone's blog it now asks me to select a profile whereas it used to automatically come up with Marigold Jam? Have been to several blogs and can't post a comment until I know what my profile is!!