All this sun

is making me happy and wanting to get out there. But, I have the type of skin that does not respond well to rays. It goes red, blotchy, sometimes little bite like things appear and the freckles come back.

My granny always said 'freckles never lit on a dim skin'....so I am happy with them, but oh for an even colour. Still, I admit if I did have a golden toned dermis, I would probably keep it covered like I do now.
Too many bits have had to be frozen or cut off!

So, when I do go out it is with 'that hat', a scarf, long(ish) sleeves, a ton of sun block and glasses. Not a good look, but there is no sunburn.

Today, suitably attired, we took mum in law and little dog to Cuckmere Haven. Juno has a new halti, this is to stop her from pulling and straining at the lead while grunting and choking. Such a disturbing sight. A mad, thrasing dog at the end of a small lead....ugh! She is maintaining a brilliant display of resistance to the halti and will frequently lie down without warning, or scrape her entire body along the ground to get it off. This latter tactic backfired a bit today when she was thrashing around on the bank of a small river, when PLOP, in she went! She is not a water baby. The sea was not fun for her later, her toes were in, but she was very worried to see me and Big J paddle. She was trying to herd us back to shore.

Life with a dog is a good life, in all this sun....

Leading

It is a learning curve this leadership thing. 5 months into the new post and it is beginning to make sense. It is not easy being the hard one ( I am a big softie actually), the nay sayer and the one to deal with problems. It is however, incredibly rewarding and nice to know that I still love what I do just as much, even though I am slightly out of the gang so to speak. All I hope for is the the women in the department share the passion. We would be AWESOME.

Silver is the new crochet!

Hello lovelies. It has been a very long while since the yen to blog has gripped me.

There has been much to share and tell, trips to France, both the south and to Paris. A trip to Edinburgh to see the university with Hannah and to catch up with a friend from my uni days in Australia and his fab family.

There is still too much going on in life to really allow the blogging to blossom in full, but things are on the up and it seems I have dealt with a mammoth mid-life crisis in my stride. Having said that, I think that mid life crisis is a dreadful expression if you take the words the way they read. We are all in mid life if you think of it, in the middle of living it every day, not half way through it. And crisis, it has a dozen synonyms, but only a couple of antonyms, PEACE and CALM. So in the process of living my life, I had a sort of epiphany about it and how I want to use it and, I feel relatively calm!
It is still being sorted out, but it has given me such a boost of purpose, of focus and a stronger sense of self. All good things.

Then the absolute icing on the cake. Last year Big J gave me the coolest birthday present, a session with the incredibly talented and lovely EMMA at SILVER PEBBLE in one of her silver workshops and I used it in June.

It is a long time since something has been so exciting to do/learn. She is a very thorough, patient teacher and her own work is just lovely. It was such fun, and for want of a better word, interesting, fascinating in fact.

I came away with these beauties:

which I physically made myself. Yes, Emma helped, but she is very hands off and encourages everyone to do their own thing. Since then, my own Em and I have tried out some of the techniques with Sculpey, with some good and some wonky results. Can't wait til I have the time and dosh and feel brave enough to try silver on my own. I have a ton of ideas and have been collecting lovely shaped objects to use.
It is not the new crochet really, I still love the feel of working with yarn, it is just new and exciting.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN

http://campervanbeethoven.com/fr_home.cfm

are playing at the Haunt in Brighton on 31 May....and the support band is Machine People

Go Adam. The gig is nearly sold out. 

 

What, still no crochet?

Really missing the whole hooky thing, but can't reach for it just yet. It does not help that my lovely cushioned handled 3.5mm hook was found with little chew marks in some small dog's bed recently. That grip will never be the same!

But other very good things have happened to someone very near and it has been such a boost to the spirits today. Someone I love dearly has let me know that in their senior years they decided to have a chat to their doc about something that had bothered them for a long time, since their youth in fact. They felt that now, we are much more open about issues and they had long suspected that things were not quite right. It turns out that they did need a little help and from family history it became clear that depression was an illness present in a number of the members. One sadly, even took their own life. That person is now stronger and happier with treatment and all around them say the change is palpable. How very brave and how much braver still to tell your own daughter. 

I have my demons too and have been dealing with them actively for some years now. It has never been a secret in my generation but it is something for the older generation to reach out. Odd how the knowledge makes sense of so much and a relief in a way as well,  but the best thing is that the suffering has been reduced. 

mid life crisis

Suddenly our street has a rash of new cars. A BMW next door, a Mercedes in one forecourt and a Porsche in another. Our old beast got us to France and back last week and then promptly called in sick. Many hundreds of pounds later it is ready to be collected and brought home tomorrow. I have always thought that cars were a thing of the male mid life crisis and given the age of the men who have these new cars in our street, it stands to reason. But what do women do?

How about a radical career change and heading back to university....?  Is it time to answer that call? Lots of thinking, asking, researching going on.

Slow roast

Up with the birds 'redding up' as my mother calls it. Guests tonight for a slow roast beef a la River Cottage..... Lovely chat with long lost cousin and brunch pencilled in for next Sunday. The house smells of beeswax furniture polish - delightful and fresh.

I had a long talk to my mother this morning, a real talk. She lives so far away, and with my dad having treatment for bladder cancer, one tends to avoid anything serious. She was wonderful. It did me the world of good.

On with the work now....six for dinner and one brand new vegetarian!