Five on Friday

Hello,

I'm delighted to be joining in with Amy's Five on Friday. 

I'm keeping this simple. Five photos and a few words.

The sun broke through the early thick fog to reveal a beautiful day. It was just too lovely 

to stay indoors so husband and I ventured out for a walk, heading for the wood at the 

back of our house. 

After trudging along the very mud path which mostly follows the perimeter of the wood we 

headed out towards the university playing fields. The groundsmen were out aerating the 

football pitches. The pitches are always immaculate.

After coffee in the cafe at the business park, we headed home, taking yet another

 photo of these gorgeous daffodils....

 past the water....

and back into the wood, almost home. 

Hope you enjoyed that walk. 

Thank you Amy at love made my home for hosting Five on Friday. 

Please head over to Amy's blog and see more Five on Friday's.  

Best wishes

xXx

A walk in the woods

Hello,

I am stripping very old wall paper from our hall today. I am really quite ashamed of our 

hall. We have lived in the house 15 years and we have yet to decorate the hall. 

Sadly, the hall looked pretty shabby when we moved in, badly applied wallpaper, which 

overlapped in places and painted a dirty beige. Over the years we have even stuck photos 

and Christmas decorations up using blue tac which then took away some of the paper 

when we tried to remove them!! So you can imagine how bad it looks.

Anyway, this morning while stripping paper the sun just kept calling me to go outside, 

to go outside and enjoy the bright day. So that is what I did!

We live in a town in  the Midlands: our house is almost at the top of a hill. 

The hedge at the bottom of our garden marks the boundary for the town. 

This is the view of our back garden (goals, rebound nets and washing lines included!). 

My destination was the wood at the top of the picture. You can just make out a greenish
path working its way diagonally across the field from bottom left.

 So I'll take you with me on my walk into the wood.

This area will be a carpet of blue once the bluebells are in bloom. 

I'm pretty sure this tree must be home to some of the woodpeckers we see in the garden 

(green and lesser spotted). They are such shy birds. 

For some reason we always walk round this wood anti-clockwise, 

today we 'branched out' and walked it clockwise! 

We can't be accused of not being adventurous!

Reminders that we are not far from urban life. 

A short diversion into the science park. 

I must come back when the daffodils are in bloom.

What a super place to sit in the summer at lunchtime and contemplate...

Back into the woods. 

The sight of this tree brings back memories of the children and how they used to love to climb on it and make the horizontal branches wobble.  

Tiny homes for tiny woodland folk.  

We are very lucky to have such a beautiful wood so close to explore and enjoy.

And for completeness, here is the view from the front of the house. 

We can see right across the roof tops of town to the countryside beyond. 

It always feels like we live in a house which has its front in town 

and its back in the country!

I hope you enjoyed that short walk, making the most 

of the winter sun and our local wood. 

Wishing you an enjoyable weekend.

Has it been sunny with you too? 

xXx

"swishing and swooping, tumbling and turning"

Hello, 

Do you watch 'The Apprentice'? This is one TV show that all the family in our house like. 

For those of you who do not know the programme, over a period of weeks candidates

 vie to become the business partner of Lord Alan Sugar (he of Amstrad and Tottenham 

Hotspur fame). The candidates divide into two teams and take part in a variety of 

challenges, such as selling pet care items at a pet show or developing a new brand of shampoo, 

and each week the team that makes the least money loses and at least 

one member from that team is fired). 

In a recent episode the candidates were charged with writing and printing a children's book. Team Connexus wrote a tale about a dragon-elephant hybrid creature named Snottledink  - it was really very good. Team Versatile opted for a story about Bizzie the Bee's search for honey. Poor Bizzie got blown about by the wind all over the place and one of the candidates memorably kept repeating, while swaying her body - 

"swishing and swooping, tumbling and turning". 

This is exactly how my mind has been feeling lately. 

There are many changes afoot - mostly related to that fact that my family is 

becoming more independent. It is a fact of life and I wouldn't have it any other 

way but it does take a bit of getting used to. After 20 years of three main 

elements to my life: children, work, home, my life now seems 

much more: work, home. 

 I feel my life has changed much, even over the last 2 months. 

Younger son left for University last year and elder son is in his final year so you 

would have thought I would be accustomed to their empty bedrooms, but I think 

because this year both of them are much more settled and established in their lives 

away from home that their combined absence has only now really hit me. 

I miss their lively conversations - the house is so much quieter. 

I miss their bodies not filling the space. 

I miss the coming and going of people. 

I miss that I no longer have to fill my brain with things to remember to do 

and that I no longer juggle transport for after school activities 

I despise myself because I find myself enjoying the fact that the house stays tidier - grrrr! 

Daughter is still at home of course, and misses the boys, frequently 

complaining that she does not like being an only child!

  

So I have been doing much soul searching, readjusting, trying to see 

this all as an opportunity and not a threat. You know, trying to think 

positive about it all. Realising that maybe the time is approaching for me to regain 

some of my independence after 20+ years of daily hands-on child care.  

As Thursday was such a beautiful morning I took myself up to a local wood for 

a bit of restorative fresh air and cogitating space. This is one of my favourite 

places local to us - it is just 3 miles away, I even cycled to it! 

Well, ok, it is a while since I have been on my bike so I cycled 

down the hills and walked my bike up them!

 I was so glad I went out, soon after I returned home the sun disappeared. 

Sorry, this is a bit of a self-indulgent post. Sometimes I just need to 

write my thoughts down to help me sort out 

their "swishing and swooping, tumbling and turning".

I've considered and debated with myself at length!  
If you have got this far, thank you for sticking with it and it has all helped.

And you know, I really think it might be time to start planning new adventures for 

that time when daughter leaves home. It might even be time to start saving 

for that longed-for campervan and a map of the world.  ;-)

xXx

PS. Thank you for reading. 

I'm not looking for sympathy, please save that for those around

 the world who really need it.