Bohemian or country mouse?

 Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes on my last post.  As I said I was feeling very positive and ready to start on my bonus years and to that end I decided that I would stop trying to be the person I felt everyone expected me to be and instead to do what I liked (as long as it didn't hurt anyone else) and be who I wanted to be and one of the things I did was to take a leaf out of a French friend's book and become a little Bohemian and to hell with what people think.

In my youth I had always shunned bright colours not wishing to be noticed and my colours were mainly subtle greys, olives and mustards.  I never had beige but I think I was a beige person if you know what I mean?!  I lacked the confidence to go for the modern 60's fashions and colours and I lived in Sherborne too which was very conservative with a small "c" as well as a capital one and several years behind London in fashions.

As I have got older I have gained in self confidence and gradually I have chosen more colourful wardrobe as the drab shades of my youth did me no favours at all and after my birthday I had mentioned to a friend that I was thinking of dyeing my hair as some kind of statement and she was all for it and egged me on to buy the purple dye.  So I did dye my hair - not all of it just a section and I was actually quite pleased with the new me.

 

The colour was meant to last for 6 - 8 shampoos but just a week later when I washed it for the second time this was all that was left of my "statement"!  Here I am my normal mousey colour with only the faintest tint of purple left!  I hadn't realised till I took these selfies just how much grey there now is in my mouse.  So what now?  Shall I go for broke and have a tattoo instead, get it permanently coloured at the hairdresser's or sink back into my country mouse personna? I'm joking about the tattoo as I would never have the courage to have that done - it took me two attempts to get my ears pierced and I am not keen on tattoos let alone on old ladies!

Blissful bluebell birthday!

 

On 5th May 1944 this little girl was born so in 2014 she reached her 70th birthday!  What a different world she sees in the twenty first century to that which surrounded her when this picture was taken!  At that time the UK was still at war, food was rationed and times were dangerous and difficult (and photos black and white!) but of course she knew nothing about all this all she cared about was having her mother's love and affection which she had in plenty.  How times have changed - perhaps more rapidly than in any previous 70 years it's hardly surprising that some of us can't keep up with it all!  I had intended to link this post with the last one and talk about all the changes I have seen in the past 70 years but then I thought you might prefer to join me in my birthday celebrations instead?

I chose to spend my birthday walking in the bluebell woods near Eype on the south coast near Bridport and to have lunch at the quirky little cafe at Down House Farm.  What a wonderful way to spend a special day - I can honestly say it was the best birthday ever!  Join me on my day out if you fancy a walk in beautiful countryside.

  

Having parked the car we set off on our walk through the village and then along the South West Coast Path - sometimes the sun came through and sometimes not as we made our way along the cliff tops - not getting too near the edge remembering what had happened to the coastline during the winter!

After about an hour we reached the cafe we were headed for - it was only just mid-day but we decided to eat whilst the going was good and the cafe garden not completely full of others out on the Bank Holiday in the fine weather.

Here is the cafe hidden amongst the plants.

It was hard to chose from the extensive menu...

...but we both chose the fish pie with salad and very tasty it was too eaten in the sunshine of the pretty courtyard.

After lunch we set off for the woods - I loved the way these pretty harts' tongue ferns curled at the tips as they unfurled as did the bracken fronds we noticed too looking for all the world like little sea horse tails I thought!

Our path led along here and we were thrilled with the bluebells we saw but another couple walking the opposite way said that they were even better further up the path.

And indeed they were!  I had never seen quite so many and all that indredible blue which is so difficult to capture and the faint perfume filling the air.  I got a bit carried away with the camera!

We walked for miles and always there were bluebells with an occasional glimpse of the sea a different blue.

They were of course our native bluebells not Spanish ones which are quite different and not this amazing colour see here for more on bluebells and how to tell the difference.

Some were flowering in the open as if they too wanted to enjoy the distant views.

And here and there a crab apple with its lovely blossom - in the distance you can see Golden Cap - not so golden in this picture as the sun wasn't shining on it at that moment - the highest point on the south coast of England.

Back into the woodland again and still the ground was carpeted with the bluebells.

Pure santosha - a walking meditation!

Until eventually we left the woods to come out onto a narrow road which we then followed noticing the number of different wildflowers growing in the verges.

 I noticed bluebells, cow parsley, buttercups, primroses, violets, red campion, purple bugle, yellow deadnettle, periwinkle,and celandines to name but a few.  Unless on foot one rarely notices just how many flowers there are alongside a road.  Somewhere however we must have taken a wrong turn and we came out onto a main road which we had to walk along for a while till we were able to get back onto a footpath - not to be recommended on a Bank Holiday Monday or at any other time I dare say!  Scary with no pathway and no verges either!

We reached home about 5.00 a little later than I had expected and I hastily set forth to ice the Half and Half cake I had made the previous day.  Half and Half cake since my favourite is coffee walnut sponge which Mr M doesn't care for so I had made up a sponge mixture and put half of the mix in one sponge tin and added walnuts to the remaining half to use in the second tin.  When cooked I cut each one in half to be sandwiched together with coffee icing for my walnut one and chocolate for Mr M's half - I'd never win a prize for my cake decorating skills and certainly not if done at great speed whilst waiting for the kettle to boil!

We enjoyed a well earned sit down with our cuppas and a slice of cake each - no candles but a little silver Happy Birthday plaque which I have had for years - no expense spared here when it comes to birthday celebrations!!!

Reaching 70 seemed to me to be more significant than any of the other "Big O" birthdays or even the 21st that had come before - not sure why.  It is definitely not the beginning of the end but bonus time which I intend to use to the full and it is with a positive feeling of new beginnings that I am moving onward and I thought how lucky I am to have reached my three score years and ten and be fit and able to walk for hours, to have my birthday in May the lovliest month of the year, to live in this wonderful part of the country with places like this if not actually on my doorstep then near at hand and to have Mr M who had his 70th years ago fit and well enough to be able to join me on my walks - lucky girl eh?!

Thank you all for your comments on my previous post - I am glad I am not the only one who finds computers a complete mystery!

Once upon a time

Photo from Google images

Once upon a time, not so long ago, an elderly lady decided to purchase a portable computer since she enjoyed keeping in touch with her friends by e-mail and writing her memoirs too and fancied a laptop which she could use in the kitchen, in the garden or the conservatory or elsewhere rather than being tied to the desktop computer which she had heretofore shared with the little old man who was her husband.  Now this old lady was never one to rush into things especially the purchase of something quite expensive so she thought about it a great deal before going to a shop and making enquiries.  Sadly the young man in the department which sold computers and such like spoke a language she didn't understand and she left the store saying to herself that she really didn't need such a thing and perhaps a new pen and some notepaper might be a better bet for someone like her.

Some months later however she was in another store and egged on by her husband she spoke with a delightful young woman who actually talked in a language which she could understand and although, as I said, not one to rush into buying anything she said that she'd give it some more thought and come back tomorrow - which she duly did.  However not only was the young lady not there that day but the computer which had been more or less decided upon was not now in stock at that branch although another branch not far away had several.  Once again the old lady wondered if this was a sign that she should put her credit card safely back in her purse and forget about having a computer of her own.

However encouraged by the old man they went to the other branch where they did indeed have several of the make and model she wanted but they would not be able to set it up for her which the young lady had told her could be done for an extra £30 and which she had wanted done thinking that it would be really "hers" if she didn't have to ask anyone to help her get started..  So yet again she said, "Let's forget the whole idea" whereupon the young man obviously scenting a lost sale dashed off and spoke to the technical manager who said that they could do it but just not straight away since their own computer system was "down" but since the old lady didn't need it straight away, and indeed didn't need it at all, she agreed that it could be sent to her when it was "done".  She naively thought that it would be all set up and ready to go just needing to be switched on and had indeed said this to the man who said that the virus checker and the Word program (plus a couple of others she'd never use - she did wonder why these programs couldn't be sold individually and not in packages as she knew she'd never use Excel but might have liked Publisher) would be installed and ready to use. The lady felt guilty when she left the shop having paid with her credit card for the computer she still wasn't sure she truly wanted especially when she saw the numerous homeless people begging on the pavements outside for how many hot meals would the cost of a computer buy even though she knew that she probably wouldn't have given that amount to the homeless anyway. 

Eventually the parcel arrived and she attempted to figure out how to use the machine.  Of course it didn't have the necessary program for downloading her photos even had she been able to figure out just where to plug in the camera!  Neither did it link to the wifi system at her home, it didn't have Firefox which she was used to but only Explorer which she wasn't.  The Word program was quite different to the one she was used to not to mention the integrated mouse being difficult to use.  Not being a very patient sort of person she became so frustrated and cross that she turned it off and shoved it in a cupboard in a fit of pique saying she wished she'd never bought the stupid thing, that life was too short to spend messing about with it and that she'd get rid of it unless the old man wanted it.

A few weeks passed and she often lay awake at night thinking about the computer and wondering why she had been silly enough to buy it being too stupid to understand the first thing about it and how to load all the necessary stuff on to it without help.  Why was it that it seemed everyone else knew all these things and why was technology of any kind such a mystery to her?  One day she came home earlier than expected from an outing to find the old man playing with her new toy and loading the required things onto to it but she still wasn't interested and didn't want anything more to do with it - how childish for an old lady to behave in such a way!

During these passing weeks the old lady felt as if she was under some kind of cloud and although the computer wasn't the only problem life was putting her way at this time she somehow blamed all the other things on it.  She was, let's face it, a bit afraid of the thing - it lurked in the cupboard like some menacing beast which might attack her should she open the cupboard door.  Of course this situation couldn't go on for ever for after all her motto for life was "waste not want not" and surely it was wasteful to have the thing not used especially as by now the credit card bill had been paid.  So one day when the sun was shining and she was feeling more positive about things she decided that she must take the bull by the horns - a very apt metaphor - and attempt to make use of it now she'd got it.

It would be nice to be able to say that she has now trained the beast but sadly that is not true and she still gets frustrated with it as she can't do some of the things she wanted to do and still wishes she hadn't bought it but at least now that the old man has given her a normal mouse to go with it she can use it to write although as yet she hasn't found out how to print what she writes!  And at least when the elderly couple want to watch a TV programme they have missed on i-player they can sit comfortably on the settee and watch it on the laptop rather than perched on stools in front of the desktop computer.

One good thing to come from all this was that feeling so fed up with technology altogether and thinking that she was obviously born in the wrong century and how much simpler (not easier for of course life was hard and is still hard at times for everyone) life would have been a hundred years ago she gave up using the desk top computer too or at least not as often did she check her e-mails or look at blogs or the internet and she realises just how much time - which she surely has much less of now that she is almost 70 - she was wasting on what had become an addiction or OCD  and how much better it is to spend time outside in the fresh air with Nature.  But sometimes she does miss all that writing and maybe one day she will be back posting if only she can find a balance and keep the time she spends on the thing to a more acceptable level and if she can actually tame the beast to work for instead of against her!

A walk in the park

Thank you so much for all your good wishes and kind comments on my last post - I had written it earlier and scheduled it for the end of the month as we were going away for a few days.  I did wonder if I would be able to summon up the energy for our little holiday which had been planned way back at the end of last year, when we got a very good deal on both hotel and train fares being so far in advance, but I am pleased to say that having had some good nights' sleep by the time Wednesday 26th arrived I was feeling a bit better and up for a change of scene - we went to London where we stayed in a hotel just off Kensington High Street. The following are some photos taken on our last day when we took the bus to Green Park and walked from there through to St James' Park.  How can I have reached my advanced age and never been there I wonder?  It was beautiful as you will see.

Fluttering and dancing in the sunshine were thousands of daffodils - you could quite forget you were in the middle of London.

 Across the lake we looked back towards Buckingham Palace which we had walked past from Green Park before reaching St James' Park.

 And in the other direction to what looked like fairyland but what was in fact Government offices!  Do click on any of my photos for a better view - this one in particular looks better enlarged.

Not only daffodils but plenty of crocuses too.

 At the end of the lake we came across this delightful little cottage - what a contrast to Buckingham Palace but I bet you can guess which I liked most and which one I'd rather live in?!  It was apparently built in 1841 as the home of the bird keeper for the park.  The design was intended to be a contrast to the architecture of the government buildings nearby - it certainly is!  It has been altered  several times and its use has also changed.  It was once a store for bicycles confiscated in the park but is now used as offices.

 What a lovely garden it had and I could just imagine it in the summer months - I want Mr M to make ours look like this - right now!!

We strolled on towards Horse Guards Parade past beds filled with polyanthus in all sorts of colours.

Eventually we ended up on Whitehall and Downing Street before making our way to Covent Garden where we had lunch in a little greasy spoon cafe since being a fine Saturday all the cafes and restaurants seemed very busy - the jacket potato I chose was good and Mr M wanted a full English breakfast also good and both washed down with a cup of builders' tea!  From there we retraced our steps back through St James Park and Green Park and got the bus back to the hotel to collect our cases and then made our way to Waterloo for the 6.20 train home.

I never tire of this view taken on our way to the station.  If you are interested in seeing other places we went and more of my photos I have put those on a separate page - see "London 2014" on the section headed Pages on my side bar.  Didn't want to bore you to death but wanted somewhere to put them for my own benefit to remind me of what we did and where we went!

I had really enjoyed our few days away in the city but I was happy to be going home as I always am after a holiday.  I am not a natural born traveler and even whilst enjoying being somewhere new I am usually counting the days till I will be home again!  Since my return I seem to have been fully occupied with this and that - why do the days all seem so much shorter now I am getting older? - and I haven't been round Blogland much so forgive me if I haven't visited you lately.  I hope to remedy that soon.

Slow Living Essentials Monthly 9 - February

Having been down with a horrid virus the past couple of weeks I haven't given much thought to the various categories this month but here are some of the things I have achieved during February:

Nourish

I made yoghurt early in the month using raw milk and some live yoghurt purchased from the farm shop  - I don't have a yoghurt maker I just heated the milk to180 degrees and allowed it to cool to 115 degrees then added the live starter and poured it into a vacuum flask (pre-warmed with some boiling water) and left it overnight.  It was delicious and will become a regular make in my kitchen now - it works out cheaper than buying the stuff too.


Prepare

We bought some seed potatoes at the garden centre and here they are chitting in in the conservatory in readiness for planting when the time is right.

Reduce

I try to cut back on plastic bags and always refuse bags when offered one preferring to use my own cotton bags.  I am waiting for the day when I am randomly selected to have my self scanned shopping rescanned at Waitrose as I have the price tags all stuck to my shopping list and the self weigh fruit and vegs in my own cotton bag rather than in separate plastic ones - I wonder what they will say!

Green

  

We use public transport whenever possible rather than use the car - but this is not specific to February.  I spotted this bus in Salisbury last summer.

Grow

 I have planted some peas in an attempt to get some pea sprouts to add to winter salads - I am trying not to buy salad stuff which comes from warmer climes or has been grown in heated polytunnels and so am left with the odd dandelion leaf from the garden, various herbs, celery and hopefully pea shoots in due course.  To date there is nothing to see - not sure how long they take to germinate.
The sweet peas I planted are coming along well and I will soon have to thin out the mixed salad leaves.

Create

I have to admit that I haven't felt like being creative this month what with feeling so under the weather - will try and produce something for next time!

Discover

Something I discovered - I think it was whilst reading Country Living magazine in the library - was that this lovely bowl given to my mother by her uncle back in the 1950s is something called Mocha ware.  Not of any great value but interesting to know - it sits on a shelf in the kitchen and I use it to hold bits of paper with notes for places we hear about that sound interesting so that when we find ourselves with a free day and wonder where we might go we have some ideas to choose from.  I believe it to be about 150 years old.

Enhance

The flowers along the roadsides enhance a walk into town - or they will once I am feeling 100% again and doing more walks that way - I did the return from town on foot earlier this week and was absolutely exhausted when I got home - this virus has certainly knocked the stuffing out of me!

Enjoy

I haven't enjoyed much these past couple of weeks feeling whilst I have felt so miserable but the bright sunny day on Saturday when we went to Weymouth was enjoyable - see previous post.

If you want to see what others have been up to this month click on the link below.