Rose Vintage

Life.....

These last few months are ones that I would really rather forget so I hope you will forgive my lack of posting. My family has unfortunately experienced illness and a very sad bereavement. My dear Father-in-law passed away last week and it has left us all very shocked...

I am hoping to be back in the swing of things very soon so in the meantime I hope you will bear with me until I feel like posting once again. I am still reading and very occasionally posting on all your lovely blogs. It has really helped me to read about other people's everyday life...

See you all soon x

P.S I heard the cuckoo for the first time today....it cheered me up no end!

January

As a rule I'm not usually that fond of the month of January as I've always felt that it to be a bit of a nothing month with Christmas long gone. This year though it's been different and it's all been due to the beautiful colours I've been seeing in the sky. The picture above was taken from my bedroom window early one morning last week. It was the most beautiful dawn that I had seen in a very long time and the thought of it kept me uplifted all day. Isn't it strange that something like that can have such an effect?

This is another early morning and you can see the moon just behind the trees.....

This is last week when we had just a bit of water!

And finally the recent beautiful full moon rising through the trees in our back field...

Amazing huh?

Simple Pleasures

There are certain funny little things in my life that I regard as important but I suppose to anyone else might seem very ordinary or even mundane. For example, I always look at the cowls on the top of my neighbour Lu's Oast house as I walk back to the house from feeding the chickens to check which way the wind is blowing and it's something that I do almost everyday almost without thinking. For those of you who don't come from Kent, Oast houses were originally used to dry Hops for beer making and the cowls on top would turn in the wind and help keep the fires alight in the kilns below. There are not many working Oasts these days so alot of them have been converted to homes. It made me realise that there are a lot of little things that I do and see everyday that I get a great deal of pleasure from.   

Lu and I often get together in the early evening to sample a 'cheeky little Chablis' or the latest Sauvignon Blanc on offer in the supermarket.  You may know that we live in on an old converted Hop and Fruit farm, I live in the old farmhouse and Lu and her family live in the Oast. Not surprisingly there are lots of odd little passages and paths that link the buildings to one another that we all use and that are separate to the main drive and entrance.  This little passage we call 'The Snickett' and I use it to pop round to Lu's in order to sample the wine of the week! There are Greengage trees all along the path and this year thankfully, they are full of fruit. It's quite near the river so I have to watch my footing on the way back especially after a glass of wine or two!!

This is one of my favourite views in the whole house. I spend a great deal of time in the kitchen and at the sink so I love to look out across the fields. It is the best place to see the changing seasons which I love and just a few days ago I watched the swallows and swifts collecting on the telegraph wires getting ready to fly south. They have flown on now and I will miss their acrobatic flying along the river collecting the bugs and flies when they are on the wing. The fields seem quite empty with them gone and I loved to see my mad springer running around trying to catch them as they swooped low around the field getting ready to fly on...

When I drink my early morning cup of tea I often look at this wreath that a girlfriend of mine made for me. It was wonderful gift given to me when she came to dinner once with a few friends. She is such a talented, arty girl that unfortunately I don't see as often as I used to. I love the colours that she has used and it looks wonderful on the beams in my kitchen.   

Well dear readers, I hope you are all having a lovely September....the weather has certainly perked up, and maybe just maybe I will get my Indian Summer after all!

Busy....

It's been a busy time of late, hence the lack of posting!  I have been doing lots of Shiatsu so my poor little blog has been a bit neglected.  I really had not realised how much a part of my life blogging had become as I really miss posting and commenting on other people's blogs!  Still I am happy to be using my Shiatsu skills and I get a good deal out of helping others and that includes our four-legged friends!  Not much done on the sewing front either as I have had to put my sewing machine away. I usually keep it ready to go in the little room I use for Shiatsu but I have decided that for now I will have to sew somewhere else in the house!

   

I have been meaning to share these photos with you all for sometime now.  Our local church has a flower festival every summer and this year my friend Heather (who is also a member of my embroidery group) asked several of the group if we would be willing to exhibit some of our embroidery. It was all displayed in a small room off of the main body of the church and looked really lovely.

My finished (at last !) blue cushion was my contribution.... 

 

A beautiful display created by one of the congregation. I just love the combination of the blue and silver. The church looked absolutely beautiful and I spent a wonderful afternoon looking at all the displays

I am also thrilled to be the recipient of a couple of awards, one from Sandra over at Shropshire Girl.

Started by Bella-Enchanted the award is to be "awarded to those that are just nice people , good blog friends and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world". Thankyou Sandra x

And thankyou also to Marie over at Wild Rose for this award - thanks Marie x

I've Been Tagged.......

by Sue to name 8 random things about myself!

1. When I gave up work I decided that I wanted to do something totally different and I trained as an Equine Shiatsu Practitioner. I did a 2 year diploma course and a year post-grad. I love using this skill and while it will never earn me a fortune, I get a great deal of satisfaction from working with horses. Shiatsu is like acupressure and uses the same theory as acupuncture. It has it roots in TCM - traditional chinese medicine and I find the theory, fascinating!

2. I love listening to the shipping forecast especially in the winter! I think it's something to do with being in the safe and warm and listening to all the different names out at sea and thinking of all the ships out there!

3 . We have a lot of animals! 5 dogs, 3 cats, 2 horses and about 16 chickens. Going away is not an easy task but we sometimes manage it!

4. I love watching the psychic-medium John Edward on Sky. His programme is called Crossing Over. He is coming to London in September and I missed getting tickets for his show by a whisker!

5. I have to watch something while I am ironing in order to take my mind off of it. I find it so utterly boring. It's usually a costume drama of some sort. I cannot remember how many times I have watched Sense and Sensibility.

6. We used to rent an old railway cottage when we lived in West Sussex and we had to get used to a few 'ahem' extra residents. Odd bits and pieces used to move about but I never found it worrying, surprisingly. I think this is what started my interest in the more spiritual side of life.

7. I love listening to Irish music. Clannad and Enya are a couple of my favourites!

8. There is something wonderfully domestic about  a line of washing flapping in the wind and the smell once it is dry is just divine. It's the best perfume ever!

Now I am supposed to tag eight others but nearly everyone I've looked at has already been tagged so I think I might just pass on this one....Hope you don't lose too much sleep over it!

A Bed of Roses

There are a few things bugging me at the moment. Our hayfield above is one of them! Usually by this time of year, the hay is cut, baled and in the barn but not this year. This means that we have not had 5 clear days of sunshine for haymaking. But you know I consider myself lucky only to have this to worry about when I hear all the awful stories of flooding in Sheffield and surrounding areas.

I have always considered my blog a form of escapisim and just recently I have wondered if this is really how it should be? The definition of weblog is 'an online diary' so should it reflect everything that goes on in my life? Maybe.The temptation is to portray a wonderful life even if this is not how life really is. A couple of my favourite blogs have recently posted about issues that are affecting them. One regular has sadly admitted that her long term relationship is over and that she has to give up a home that she has created and make a new life for herself and her children. Another witty,creative girl has to come to terms with how best to help her beloved child. Heartbreaking stuff, all of it. It made me wonder just how many of us would have been brave enough to post about it?  The breakup I can certainly identify with having been through the same situation myself and it was with some sadness that I read that this blogger would not be posting for awhile as life was just too awful. I know I felt just on this side of sanity most of the time during my breakup and I think had I had the support of the blogging community I might have felt a lot more human. When I posted recently about the menopause, the support I received was incredible and I really felt I was not going it alone. Hopefully we will hear more from this blogger, if only to offer her the ongoing support that might just make an awful time, bearable...

It also struck me afresh just last night how wonderful the creative blogging community is. I was having a  telephone conversation with Sue about embroidery threads. I have never met Sue but we were able to have a very easy conversation not just because we have similar interests but because I was able to ask after her mum and about her daughters wedding, all details that had been revealed on her blog. I came off the phone feeling like I had known Sue for ages! 

This is my latest embroidery project, it will be a cushion once I have sewn it up properly, hence the edited picture! One good reason for buying more threads! Thanks Sue!