Glorious

How wonderful May is. When the weather plays fair it's just about my most favourite month of the year. I adore the autumn but May is so very beautiful. The hedgerows are bursting with blossom, pottering about in the garden without a coat really is possible, there are two Bank Holidays, Springwatch is back and its our wedding anniversary (7 years today - not bad!)

Funds are a little too tight to splash out on celebrating and really all we wanted was a chance to chat with each other. So, on Saturday night (thanks to the grandparents), we went for the most wonderful twilight walk along the lovely Caldon Canal that slips through our village.

Gosh what a peaceful evening we had. I think we passed two other walkers but mostly we had cows, sheep, herons, tawny owls, some tench or perch popping up to eat the midges and lots and lots of swallows and house martins for company.

We strolled along, chatting and exploring and stopped at a smashing little pub we know for some refreshment. I'm still thinking about it now; amazing how good a few miles of gentle water, gazing at bluebells, cow parsley and hawthorn blossom frothing along the banks, and the time to really talk can make you feel. We got home just after dark, very relaxed and remembering what it really is that makes us not such a bad pair together.

Saturday here was superb. One of those blissful days when there sky is the brightest blue and not a cloud to be seen. As usual we popped along here and the display was simply amazing. We did all the traditional fete activities (bumped heads on the dodgems, ate drippy ice lollies and watched the Maypole and Morris dancing, you know the sort of thing.)


Today the cloud crept back in and thunder rumbled far away down the valley. Our lovely friends who live hundreds of miles away, called by en route back south and we had a fun afternoon catching up together and scoffing. The rain brought the birds and their voices out later on. As the light dropped they grew louder and louder and the May blossom glowed along the hedgerows.

This is the view from our bedroom, I think it was blanketed in snow last time I showed it. Now the valley is the greenest green, speckled with yellow buttercups and tiny white daisies. It takes your breath away. Glorious May.

Dragging my feet

Oooh coming back from a lovely holiday can be a bit tricky can't it? Work has been a bit overwhelming frankly and mixed with too much washing than is really reasonable for an average family, a grimy house and a garden having riot; well it's all a bit much to be honest!

So nothing for it but to indulge the thrifting instinct and spend a few quid on some old tat which is absolutely guaranteed to cheer me up.

Luckily there's a twice weekly flea market in the town where I work, almost outside the office door. For some reason I can't quite fathom, I didn't discover it until a few weeks ago (and its huge!), I think I thought it was just your usual dish cloths, fruit & veg and ready made curtains sort of market and I shop in a charming little version of this in our local town on a Wednesday, so I'd breezed past the work one on tons of occasions.

What a mistake, I daren't think what I've missed so far, but already I've brought home some fantastic vintage finds including one that scored me "best mummy ever" prize - only a complete Tracy Island with all the rockets for £6. Honestly my little chaps eyes almost popped out on stalks.

Anyway these are my best finds lately:

• £5 for a vintage cut-flower basket - the last one of these I saw was £30, this'll be just the thing for bringing home the blooms from the allotment (if the slugs don't get them all!).



• £1 tins - the flowery one is a new home for my seed packets and the first aid tin has made me sort out our shambolic bathroom cabinet into a sort of useful order (how long will that last?)
  
• Vintage watercolour - a bit more than I'd usually spend but this lovely picture reminds me of our holiday so much.
  

  
• £4 job lot of spotty crockery - bargain Tesco seconds, just a couple of the spots are wobbly. There's tons of it, even more in the dishwasher!

Aaaah, that's better. And I'm almost getting over the housework mountain too. Fridge cleaned, windows cleaned, lots of wet washing draped about the house (its still raining can you believe it) and there are some delicious looking plants outside my back door waiting to fill the new front garden border.

After all that graft, I think I need another holiday. Hurrah for Bank Holidays!

Home Again

Well we're back in the Moorlands but our shoes are still full of Cornish sand and our hearts and minds are still wandering the cliff top paths and the perfect beaches we discovered last week. We had the best, best week full of everything we'd been hoping for and we only got rained on once!

Now I really could ramble on forever about our week of pottering around Lostwithiel and popping down the charming Fowey, Polruan, Mevagissey, Polperro, Charlestown and Looe on the south coast and up to Rock, Padstow and our very favourite place in the entire world, Port Isaac, on the north, but instead I'll let the pictures do the talking I think. But be warned, there are oodles of them!

So there were:

:: Windy cliff tops, breathtaking views and blue, blue seas and sky on some days.

:: Plenty of staring out to sea, messing about in rockpools and discovering creatures of the deep (well a deep rockpool at least - a cushion starfish)

:: Lots of lovely, lovely cottages; I could just imagine myself curled up inside with a book by a fire, listening to the sea crashing in. (This first one has been in lots of magazines, I think its the holiday home of the designer Jan Constantine). And isn't this row of little houses in Fowey beautiful, just the colour of Neapolitan ice-cream!

:: Some very seasidey door-knockers



:: The wildflowers were astounding; thrift, red campion, bluebells, dead nettle, cow parsley, Valerian and gorse just everywhere. I loved this little nautical garden and the colours and textures of the pebbly beach next door to it.

:: Fishing boats galore, bringing in the prawns and crabs for the delicious sandwiches we treated ourselves to for lunch on Friday. And I've wanted to go mackerel fishing since I was a little girl but we didn't get around to it - oh well, just have to go back again soon!







:: And we got a bit creative on the beach too.


It was the very best of holidays, just like the ones Woody and I had when we were small and our boys had so much fun. Its lovely to be home but even better to be back with special memories to last for ever.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone soon. Xxx