Tag: love

A little break away Part two..

We’ve finished our small break away in the Devon countryside and taken a long and protracted drive across the south of England to the garden of England. Kent.

Devon to Kent

We are here to attend a surprise 50th birthday celebration, and thank god we are not doing anything tonight as I’m absolutely cream crackered (Slang for Knackered). Britains highways are crumbling away and to be honest they are not fit for purpose. An allegedly “fast route” of 250 miles should have taken 4hrs and 55 mins, so we finally arrived at our destination 7hrs and 30 mins later. Awful, and a bloody embarrassment to this island as are all forms of transport we operate in this country. It really is a pathetic state of affairs.

Anyway that aside the last couple of days in Devon were beautiful. I saved a baby rabbit from the attention of a wild cat, our beautiful best friend (our dog Alf) even though extremely ill loved the time with his mate Herbie, they played together and brought smiles to our faces, tears to our eyes and love to our hearts, as anyone who knows Alf, knows this is not expected with his illness, it was lovely to see the old Alf. if only temporarily. He’s a beautiful soul, not an angry bone in his body. Just a gorgeous little dog.

Baby Rabbit

We’ve headed off to Kent now whilst Alf has headed back to the East Midlands in the company of my Brother and Sister in law who know how to look after him and how to treat his illness. We will be back with him in a couple of days.

Alf and Herbie.

Now in Kent we’ve booked in at our hotel that is a lot less luxurious than the farmhouse in Devon, but comfortable all the same. A quick visit to my Sisters for a Coffee and whilst sitting in her back garden we get dive bombed by a juvenile Seagull on its first flight. But he seems unable to get airborne so his parents start to dive bomb us in the garden, protecting their young I suspect.

Baby Seagull

So what with all the chaos that has prevailed, with all the noise and aerial activity we have decided to retreat indoors to leave them to it. Hopefully they’ll be able to get junior airborne once again.

Back to the hotel as tiredness has silenced me and I need some rest. Tomorrow we are off to the dog racing in Sittingbourne for a meal and some light entertainment. Hopefully there will be no further animal shenanigans.

Peace to you all.

A little break away

Not been answering the standard sometimes mind numbing questions that WP throws out on a daily basis as I’m currently enjoying some time away in and around the coast of Devon. Family time, good food and drink and company and a few nice little walks away from it all on my own some.

Beer – Seaton – Beer. Lovely walk
A little east Devon walk

I’ve been swimming and taken loads of photos, here are a selection below.

Rose and Crown Bath
Rose and Crown Bath
Alf having some icecream
Our accommodation in Devon
Our dining room in Devon
View of our accommodation in Devon
Our pool
A selection of local beers
The orchard and the dog
Beer
Beer high street
Beer high street
Dogs more welcome than humans
Beer beach
Beer high street
Poetry post
View in to Beer
Marshmallows and chocolate digestives

We’ve brought our dog Alf with us as it’s probably the last holiday he’ll have with us due to his illness. He’s thoroughly enjoying it and tiring him self out constantly. It’s lovely and we are all enjoying our time with him. Time is precious.

I’ll return to normal operation when we get back if I can be arsed. Having too much of a good time.

Have a pleasant day everyone.

That’s all folks

List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

  • You will be born
  • You will live a life
  • You will be taxed for everything
  • You will make good choices
  • You will make bad decisions
  • You will experience deep joy
  • You will experience excruciating pain
  • You will grieve
  • You will love
  • You will die

You choose your direction in life. Make it good.

Peace to all.

Neither, I believe

Are you seeking security or adventure?

I have security in particular aspects. My job and my relationship being the main ones.

Adventure, nah I’ve done all of that, I’ve got numerous tee shirts to prove it.

For me it’s now comfort. I have it in my relationship but not my job. I have itchy feet in that aspect.

When I’m in a position to vacate this role I would have then found the comfort I seek.

It will come.

Patience young man….

Retirement beckons

An everlasting love and appreciation

What’s your definition of romantic?

To me, being part of a relationship as well as being married for 32yrs+, that’s when romance takes on a different role than it did in the early days.

Back then it was chocolates, teddy bears with love hearts on them and roses.

It changes with time.

The wife still likes gifts, but chocolates weigh on the hips, the teddy bears have become handbags (she has a mahoosive collection) she hates roses, but loves other flowers.

Romance now takes a more caring attitude, we look after each other’s needs rather than wants. Time makes those changes.

The one outstanding sign of romance for me is that after all these years, you even get excited at seeing your partner even after only being away 12 hrs at work. You constantly look forward to seeing them and to me that shouts love, commitment and romance.

I’m so looking forward to seeing her when I get home later. I’m excited.

That’s romance.

Peace all.

Hedgehogs. I love them…

You may have heard me going on about the Hedgehog visitors to my garden. I’ve kind of built the garden around them with wilder areas and Hedgehog highways and ramps all over the place.

Tonight I was upstairs in the bathroom and I could hear a hell of a racket out the window, a really loud crunching sound. I sneaked on the security lights and grabbed a quick photo out of the bathroom.

Not one but two. How beautiful

There wasn’t one but two. I suspect they are from the same family as they are not known to comfortably share their dinner with another. I loved this it’s really made my day, as it shows just by making a few changes to your garden, leaving out a suitable food and fresh water, you can keep these rare animals safe and give them a foot up.

The fact we are bordering a large city with busy roads all around is another problem.

I’m just so glad I’m doing my little bit to try and preserve them. They are gorgeous 🦔

It’s gotta be Mum

Write about your first crush.

Probably the first and only person to give you love and security unconditionally. Your Mother.

Well, not your Mother but I’m talking about my Mother. That wonderful person who sacrificed so much in her life to ensure I had a good life. Right up to the day she drew her last breath she declared her everlasting love for me. No one has ever done that and I doubt very much you will ever find such a love as that maternal instinct only mothers possess.

My first crush definitely. Never to be experienced again.

Stay safe guys.

Anything interesting happened today?

What notable things happened today?

It’s just after 5 in the morning and the only notable thing that has occurred so far today is that I have woken up.

And to be honest for everyone that’s no mean feat. The fact we have awoken from our slumber is something to be grateful for. You have another day on this planet, another go at trying to have a good day, another day to mend relationships and to forgive those little misdemeanours and mistakes.

Another chance to be a better person.

I’ve had my first cup of tea of the day and my next big decision is whether to make another.

Tea – typically British

Start the day with a blank canvas, and go paint a masterpiece.

Hopefully you’ll get another go at it tomorrow. You just never know.

Just do it. And enjoy it.

Happy days all.

The simple joys of a garden

To many it probably looks a mess. To me it’s a place of happiness, it’s an art work being constantly touched up, it’s a labour of love. Six years after I started this garden it’s now finally starting to take shape and today I even had the wife’s seal of approval. And that crowns it for me.

My garden

People watch these shows on tv and instantly expect a beautiful renovated instant garden. This simply doesn’t happen.

My garden has been a massive experiment over the years. I’ve lost count of the amount of different plants I’ve placed only for each of them to fail after one season, then you have to ask the reasons why.

Our front garden is Sth facing so I have sun on that most of the day and plants like Lavender and lilac always display spectacularly, baskets and salvias love the front garden, but the front is not as advanced as my back garden, and I’m going to give it attention towards the end of this summer. I’m currently adding plants one at a time. The aim here is a typical country garden in the middle of a city. It’s a challenge.

Lavender and Californian lilac

However my back garden naturally is North facing, with only a glimmer of sunshine, so I have to plant here accordingly. Because of my neighbours, all who love concrete, and who have no green space, my garden naturally suffers from excess water run off from their properties.

I have introduced Hornbeam hedging only a few months ago that again will take time to mature, I have planted a number of ornamental trees to assist with drainage and things are looking positive. The plants I have in place are all bee friendly. We have loads of them as well as butterflies, lady birds and other insect life. I also have a small section near a small rockery area that I have left wilded, the flowers here blend in beautifully. I have a lot of wildlife in this garden, I have some small birds such as wrens going through the bushes that we have never seen here before, we have blackbirds, Robins, blue tits, finches and the pigeons and the magpies who are the antisocial members of the bird family. We also have the occasional Red Kite soar overhead, it’s amazing how the Pigeons and Magpies disappear when they are around. And naturally being the county of the Fox, they are also regular visitors.

And my garden is small, it’s only about 50ft square, and about a mile or so from the city centre.

I have a feral cat who has been a resident here long before we were, and she even chases the foxes who also enter the garden. Just take a look of her protecting the garden from a fox in this small video below:

Cat chasing Fox

The crowning glory is that we have regular hedgehog visitors. We leave nibbles and water out for them at night, we have introduced a highway through the garden with access from our property to others. We have ramps in place alongside the steps to help them about the property. Seeing we are right in the city we are probably one of only a few places of peace and serenity for them in this mad crazy town.

One of our regular visitors
Highways and visitors

I really feel for those that don’t have access to a garden, it really is a place where you can lose yourself. It’s your own constantly developing work of art. I love having visitors to the garden, I love showing them what we have done and what we have planned, and I love helping people transform and achieve their little works of art. My garden has been a life saver for me, and allowed me to maintain my sanity when it all starts getting a bit too much.

Gardens should be compulsory, but unfortunately in this super high speed world, people just want everything low maintenance and that’s a shame.

Don’t even mention imitation grass to me – it should be banned.

The wife said, “You were right, you said it would take time, it looks lovely.” And that meant the world to me.

Thanks for passing by.

Thoughts 31/5/24

How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

Unplug

There are two ways at approaching this. Are we referring to unplugging from technology or unplugging from life when things start to get on top of you?

In technology apart from using WordPress as I am using currently for this blogging thing, I don’t use any other social platform apart from Twitter or “X” or whatever it is known as now to keep tabs on some groups I follow. I don’t partake in posting on it, it’s a vile, filth filled platform of hate that you only have to log into to witness. I don’t really need it to be honest and can delete it and feel no loss, and the world in my eyes becomes a better place. This is where social media falls down, the low life element of society now has a platform to spread its questionable ideology.

So technology in this aspect can just be deleted. In fact I’ve just this minute deleted Twitter so that’s a positive move, no antisocial media to worry about. Ignorance is sometimes bliss.

However the second aspect of when things start to get on top of you will differ from person to person. Personally for me as I have stated in the past, my job role bleeds over into my private life quite literally and I have now put measures in place to stop that. Previously I was available 24hrs, believe me you cannot do that and enjoy a healthy balance in life. You must stop and make immediate changes.

Work phone goes on when I start work and off at the end of the day. The business has been informed not to contact me via my private phone or email. All company WhatsApp groups have been deleted, I will find out what’s happened when I book on. All overtime shifts have been refused.

Result: my home life has improved, I’m a better person to be around and my priorities have been realigned. I’m resting better, my mood has improved and I’m starting to enjoy a life with my loved ones that I was in danger of jeopardising.

Work to live, don’t live to work.

Shine bright people.