May 2017

 Following on from my previous post, the rest of May just seemed to whiz by.

 The end of May saw my birthday come round once again.  I took a week's annual leave starting on my birthday so was able to celebrate in the afternoon with my Mum, Emily, Claire, Alice and Megan.

 It was really warm that day so we filled the little pool with water so the girls could paddle and cool down a bit.

We did have birthday cake but, to be honest, ice creams were what we actually needed.

On Saturday, we had a birthday tea again and this time we were joined by Norma, her daughter in law, Emma and little Rebecca

During the week we went down to Pevensey Bay.  Although it was quite overcast to begin with, it did warm up and I ended up getting slightly burnt.

 I have been back in the UK for 26 years but I still find it strange seeing pebbles instead of sand and no real waves.  I guess we were a bit spoilt growing up in South Africa.

 I think we do need to find a sandy beach though so that the girls know what it's like to not hurt their feet while at the beach ;-)

 Alice and Rebecca

 Cousins

 The tide came in while we were there so we had to move our spot further up the beach.

 You have to have ice cream while you're at the beach!

Week 19

Working full time doesn't lead to many exciting photo opportunities during the week ;) and sometimes there aren't that many at the weekends either.  This is one of the reasons I hesitated before coming back to blogging.  

So this week, I'm going to take you on our amble into town on Saturday.  We wanted to get out of the house and I needed to go into town and wanted to visit Mum, so let's start at the beginning ...

When we walk into town, we face a bit of a hill from the end of our road up to the main road.  When we started walking to work a couple of times a week we could judge how we were doing by whether we could talk while walking up the hill - I have to say, at first we walked in silence quite a bit!  Now we're noticing it's getting easier and we can generally chat on the way up.  When you get to the top of the hill, this gatehouse faces you from the opposite side of the main road.  I've always liked it and when the gates are open (which isn't very often) you get a beautiful view.

We turn right at the top and walk along the main road towards town.  It can be a busy stretch of road in the mornings as we have a Primary and Senior school just up on the right hand side.  

St Swithun's Church tower is a landmark in the centre of town and can be seen from miles around. 

There's something about dandelions that makes me want to try and take a decent photo.  If I were ever to get a tattoo I think it would be of a small dandelion with the seeds blowing away - free and starting out on a new journey! 

Emily had also brought her camera to do some filming as we walked around.  We were a bit like tourists in our own town.

This statue is of Sir Archibald McIndoe who was a plastic surgeon at the Queen Victoria Hospital during the Second World War, treating badly burned RAF pilots and bomber crew, including a number who flew in The Battle of Britain. His patients formed The Guinea Pig Club - the name was chosen to reflect the pioneering nature of Sir Archibald's work as he developed procedures and treatments which were new to plastic surgery.

The statue stands in front of Sackville College which is about 400 years old.  It is a Jacobean Almshouse which was built by the Sackville family in the 1600s.  It is still in use as an Almshouse today.

 This little parade of shops is just past Sackville College.  Going from right to left is the funeral parlour, The Fireplace Centre, a bespoke tailors and Daisy Chain florests.

Daisy Chain always have a pretty display outside and in their windows.  

 I love the old buildings in our High Street which date back to the 14th century.  I once did a walking tour with the school when Emily was in Junior school and it opened my eyes to the little details in these buildings - it was fascinating.  During summer we often see tour guides in town explaining the history to visitors.

 This lamp hanging above the gate always catches my attention. Other things I notice are the old drainpipes, the chimneys and the carving on some of the buildings. There is so much history here.

 I'm afraid once we got into the centre and started browsing in the shops the photography was forgotten for a while.  However, as we started to make our way towards Mum's house, I had to take a picture of the Waitrose car park of all places.  Although it's a car park, it can be so pretty - in Spring and Summer I love as the new leaves come out on the trees and it looks so bright and fresh.  In winter it's the lights glowing in the evening or the snow lying on the ground.  Can you call a car park pretty??

 We made it down to Mum's and stopped to have some lunch with her and a chat.  We've all had colds this week and unfortunately Mum's was worse than ours had been.  Going home we carried on down the hill taking us in a circle back to our house. The sun had come out by now and it was very pleasant.

 I'm not sure what this tree is but it was covered in masses of these pom pom like flowers.

Back at the top of the hill again and we're on the main road once more and on the homeward stretch.

I did enjoy sitting outside with a cup of tea and my book after all that.

xx

Week 18

Well, it's been a while once again but let's give this another try.  I think perhaps the easiest way for me to dip my toe back into the blogging pond is to do a simple overview of my week - nothing fancy to begin with, just (as my blog name suggests) life in general!

 I feel like I'm finding my feet again after the separation and I've decided it's time for me to eat more healthily and to walk more.  An example: fruit in the afternoon instead of biscuits or cake and Emily and I are walking to work at least a couple of times a week.  To be honest, I actually enjoy the walk - especially in the evening when it gives me a chance to unwind on the way home.  Needless to say, it's always so much nicer when the weather is bright.  I may not be as keen when we head back towards winter.

 We had a few busier nights this week which is quite unusual for us.  On Tuesday our landlord came round to help sort out the bathroom sink.  Wednesday evening was haircuts round at Mary's.  I feel so much better now that I've had mine cut again as it had just got that bit too long.  Emily had the front of her hair shaped a bit more and it looks very pretty.  Mary has a cat called Roxy (below) who reminds me so much of Charlie, my cat who was also pitch black, who went out one day a couple of years ago and didn't come home again.  We have no idea what happened to him and I do miss him.

 On Thursday evening I went out to a leaving dinner for two colleagues.  We went to a local tapas restaurant and had a lovely meal.  I wasn't too late getting home but I was still extremely glad when Friday was over and it was the weekend.

 I don't know about yours, but our weekends seem to fly past.  This last one was no different.  I was glad to get the grass cut at last as it had grown so much.  The last couple of weeks we'd had rain and the ground had been too wet for cutting it - it always looks so nice when it's been cut.

 The back garden is still looking a little patchy after I raked out the dead patches and put down some grass seed.  Today when I went out to have a look at it I could finally see the new grass starting to come up.  It looks so fine and delicate compared to the rest :)  I'm really hoping it'll help to get the lawn looking good for summer.  The little flower bed is also starting to fill out a bit and fortunately, the bamboo doesn't seem to come back as much.

 Claire met a friend for lunch on Sunday so the girls came to our house while she was out.  We had a great time - Megan did a jigsaw and let Emily and myself put in the odd pieces.

 Alice was busy drawing pictures for us all.  We  had watched How to Train a Dragon on Netflix and Toothless (the dragon) was a hit all round.  I do love my picture of Toothless and Hiccup which has now joined the gallery on my kitchen cupboards.

 Claire got back just in time for us to go and pick up Mum and then go down for birthday tea for Chez and Ciaran at Norma & Chez's house.

 Time for Chez to blow out the birthday candles.  Ciaran was happy to sit in the corner with Rebecca and leave Chez to it.

 Alice and Megan are always happy to get a chance to play with Rebecca and I'm looking forward to seeing their relationship grow as they do.

 After dropping Mum back at her house on the way home, Emily and I decided to go for a walk down Forest Way. I really wanted to see if there were any bluebells left and we did get to see some.

 It was such a lovely evening and, even though you can't tell in this photo, there were still a number of people out walking.

 I think it must have been coming up to either feeding time or milking time because all the cows started making their way up to the top of the field.  There were a number of calves out with the herd but not close enough for me to get a good shot.

 We did our usual walk down to the bridge before turning round and walking back again.  It took us slightly longer than normal because we kept stopping to take photos.

 I'm not sure what's been planted here but I love looking about across this field towards the hills. The view is just stunning.

 What is it about dandelions that makes you want to photograph them? I loved the light catching this one.

And finally, some wild garlic.  I never knew what it looked like before but when we arrived at the start of the walk there was a notice on the gate showing some of the different plants you could see.

So that was week 18 and we're into week 19.  Let's see what this week brings!
R xx