Still On Holiday Time

We are being treated to a spectacular spring so far down here on the south coast, with blossom everywhere you look, blue skies and temperatures in the low twenties/mid seventies. We've enjoyed a really magical, carefree Easter break, with late starts, long sunny days, relaxed bedtimes, time with family and friends...an empty diary and no agenda, no plans. The children had Maundy Thursday and Good Friday off school as well as the two weeks following Easter, so it feels like a we've all had a really long rest. Spring, I love you.

Mantel update (because I know you've all been worried): I picked some forsythia and kerria from my mum's garden and displayed the stems in a a huge glass vase. 

I wanted pussy willow but I'm about two months too late for that, but this looks beautiful, a tangled mass of yellow. 

Two pictures (a screenprint bought in Cornwall and my Winterwoods cross stitch) have been propped up there too. I think I like this arrangement for now.

The living room is hard to photograph - it's either in shadow or flooded with afternoon light, which is gorgeous to sit in but impossible to capture on camera. It's all angles, this room. But I wanted to try and show you how high the ceiling is. Only the attic is above this room, as the rest of the upstairs is above the other rooms. It's a funny house. And both the ceiling and the right hand of the chimney breast slope, it's not your eyes. 

We welcomed our first house guests over the weekend. My friend Abigail and her family came to stay the night and the weather behaved perfectly so that we could take them to our new favourite places. On Saturday afternoon we walked on Hayling Island beach. It was cool and quite breezy but the light was so bright and crystal clear it made your eyes hurt. I forgot my big camera but the one on my new phone is a lot better than my old one, so I could snap away quite happily.

I love the way my two fit in with Abigail's children, just getting along and playing, sharing baths, making up games.  I think there was some kind of dolly breakfast in bed scenario going on here.

On Sunday we visited a place I will definitely devote a blog post too sometime, a tiny and ancient church set in the most stunning South Downs countryside.

I'm pretty sure that old cars parked outside old pubs must be photographed. Like good sunsets and interesting clouds, it's in the blogging handbook.

I love my new local area so much, the mixture of coast and countryside just ten minutes from our house. Love it. 

Even the Sunday afternoon homework couldn't dampen the holiday feel.

I fear there may be many more balcony sunset views this summer. Sorry.

This morning, after the school run, John and I had brioche and coffee for breakfast and chatted about this and that. You see, I'm still on holiday time! I'm even drinking a beer from the bottle while I write this. 

I think it's time I came back down to earth.