Birthdays

It is the younger Venerable's birthday today - and we have spent a few lovely hours together. We have chatted and laughed and put the world to rights - all over coffee and cake!

The Younger Venerable is one of my heroes. She has managed to be light and love to so many people throughout her lifetime without seeming to try too hard, just being her caring self in everything that she does.

Happy Birthday, YV!

The Boy and the Girl are starting to feel more settled in their school routine, I do believe that they quite missed each other in their separate schools last year! They chat in the morning on the way to the bus stop and I hear them giggling, or disagreeing, on the way home long before I can see them from the window - happy days...

His Lairdship is working as hard as ever and hoping for a transfer in the very near future; in fact we are all hoping for that as soon as possible. I do miss him during the week - and not just for babysitting! It is the simple companionship of an evening, having someone to share a laugh with and to cuddle up next to on the sofa...

Five smiles for the day:

1. Sharing birthday smiles
2. Home-made lemon curd
3. Cats cuddling up next to you
4. Enjoying the last days of the summer
5. Dinner with friends

Cheery smiles, D x

Being...

Sunshine is one of my many favourite types of weather - it lifts my soul to the blue skies and I sing as I do my chores around the house and garden. I like to sit outside when I am all alone and just gaze at the trees as I have a lovely fresh coffee, quite often accompanied by a biscuit...

We went to the vintage day at the local water mill with the Venerables on Sunday - it was Senior Venerable's birthday - and we thought it would be a good thing to do. It was more than good, it was amazing... We strolled in the sunshine as the music from the folk group floated in the air. We watched the spinning, the smithying and the green oak worked. We ate scones and chatted to craftspeople who really knew their stuff and were more than happy to share that love with everyone who asked. We learnt about the mill and the process, we saw the flour baked into loaves and got to sample them. We even watched the morris-dancing, albeit briefly. We learnt about making coracles and the Girl was taken for a ride in one on the millpond. The Boy had a close up view of the workings of the steam engine, where no one else was allowed.

We came home weary but fulfilled with our hearts and minds buzzing about the beauty of the simpler things in life - strolling and talking, birds and insects, music and laughter. 

Such things as these make life wonderful...

Five sunny smiles for all of us:

1. Family time and ties
2. Outdoor music
3. Hand-crafted things
4. Birthdays - no matter which number
5. Scones piled high with jam and cream

Cheery smiles, D x

A sunny Saturday

Just a quickie on this lovely sunny day...

Five smiles for you:

1. Sunglasses
2. Unexpected invitations that you are free to take up
3. Friends popping round
4. Home-cooked meal with extra veggies
5. A red, red sky at night

Cheery smiles, D x

Last day of summer

Well, the six weeks of precious time with my family is coming to an end - and for once, I am very sad. The Boy and the Girl have become such wonderful people in this past year, I am bursting with pride whenever I think of the gorgeous beings that they are now.

The Girl is off to a new school tomorrow and is looking forward to it already. Her clothes are ready and she is planning to lay them out tonight so that she looks her absolute best in the morning. Her big brother is already at the school and I am not sure how he feels about it! He is certainly eager to see his friends again - we seem to have been away when they are home and vice versa. I have a feeling that mornings are about to become very interesting indeed - at least we have enough bathrooms to stop most of the arguments!

Being a supply teacher I am back to work too, at some time in the near future. One of the things I love about my job is the spontaneity of it - I never know what I am doing from one day to the next but that's fine by me.

His Lairdship has managed to spend more than two full weeks of the holidays with us and it has been a real joy. Our family feels complete when he is here, as is only right.

Five smiles for today:

1. Back to school haircuts
2. Early nights...
3. ... and relaxing baths
4. New exercise books - oh the smell...
5. Sharp pencils and clean pencil cases

Technically this may be six but I just could not resist!

Cheery smiles, D x

Testing, testing, one, two three...

Oh I have sooo much to share with you - and it is all good!

As you can imagine, the last few months have been extremely hectic and I shall share that with you bit by bit - you don't need to be overwhelmed by someone else's life, your own can be busy enough!

These last six weeks have been the summer holidays for our children - and The Boy and The Girl have had a whale of a time! We started with a week in Northumberland and had so much fun... The rugged bareness of the landscape is so very different from that down here in sunny Suffolk. Where we have gentle rolling hills reminiscent of the once flooded landscape, Northumberland has a landscape which has forced its way out of the waters and then continued onward and upward towards the birds wheeling in the sky...

We flew on brooms at Alnwick and played with jesters, we got lost in the Labyrinth at Cragside and claimed the hill at Hadrian's Wall - a real, proper family holiday. I love it up there and was so happy to spend time with my Look-a-like S and the marvellous Long-suffering G! We all just needed to relax and reconnect with ourselves and our family - we succeeded... We played together, ate together and laughed together - such happy memories were forged in the old chapel.

One of the most amazing things was the opportunity to meet Nell, the blind and deaf dog. The fact that she can hear from just one ear and see nothing and next to nothing from her eyes does not change the fact that she is the most gentle and caring dog I have ever met... Awe-inspiring!

Okay, my five smiles for you:

1. Family holidays come rain or shine
2. Sharing laughter with friends
3. Walking on history
4. Birds in the sky
5. Delicious new recipes for cake

Cheery smiles and love to you all, D x

Oh good grief!

to quote Charlie Brown... When life suddenly feels very hectic without you actually doing any more in life, without adding anything, why is it that the things you really enjoy are the first to be pushed to the outskirts? I've thought about this as I have raced from vet's to doctor's to optician's to school recently and have come to an important decision. It may not be life-changing but it is life-affirming... It is perfectly alright to take some 'me time' when you are feeling this pushed - in fact, it is vital, how else will you cope with everything that life throws at you?

So this is what I now intend to do - take time for myself when I feel at my busiest. And also get a good night's sleep, although I must confess that I am not so good at that and then I wonder why I feel tired the next day...

So, in the interest of my (vague) sanity, here are five smiles for today:

1. Celebrations of all things in life - great or small
2. Hugs 
3. Amazing friendships
4. The smell of dry earth after rain
5. Finishing works in progress

Cheery smiles, D x

I'm back...

I apologise most sincerely for the delay in writing - it has been one of those busy wonderful times in our household.

Here is a large list of things that have made me smile in the last couple of weeks:

1. Sunshine
2. My cats enjoying the sunshine
3. More importantly, my children outside playing
4. Working in the sunshine in the garden
5. Planting our new rose in the front of the house
6. Finishing things that I have been making
7. Spending time with my parents
8. The Venerable Lady buying yellow shoes
9. Swimming in the rain
10. Daisies in the garden
11. Foraging walks with the Marvellous Mrs M
12. Clearing out
13. Making little smiles for other people
14. Being pestered for more smiles - you know who you are! Thank you xxx
15. Smiling at people in the street
16. People smiling back...
17. Wonderful wool shops
18. Beautiful jumbly haberdasheries
19. Midweek meals with the Friends Over the Road
20. Baking
21. Having a wonderful family and friends

Some of these things are ones that I take for granted, but each and every one of them is, in some way, a smiling miracle. 

Cheery smiles, D x