Raindrops on Roses

Last Wednesday we visited Morden Hall Park in South London. It was a wet day in a wet week but the rain stopped for a few hours, just long enough for us to get some fresh air and have a wander in this lovely spot. I really like places that are in the middle of cities but don't feel as though they are. Those tucked away spots, green and quiet, which offer the feeling of calm and space. They feel like a secret waiting to be discovered. It was a glorious couple of hours, despite the oppressive grey skies and the threat of more rain at any moment. The children, like dogs let off a leash, ran and jumped and splashed. We admired the rose gardens and played pooh sticks in the stream.

Do you like the rain? I don't much care for it, if I'm honest. It makes me feel depressed, restless and irritable. I, with the weather, usually feel like this: Sunny = happy. Rain = grumpy. I was really interested to read Sarah and Jennifer's recent posts on their love of rain and I learnt a new word: pluviophile. A person who loves the rain. Yes, the logical part of me knows we need rain, our land needs it, the plants need it, my garden needs it, but my mood drops with the barometer. I can feel my whole body relax when the sun comes back out from behind a cloud. I don't mind rain in the evening or at night. In fact, there is something comforting about being tucked up in bed, listening to the rain outside. But during the day? No thanks. 

I wonder if there is a word for somebody who love blue skies? 

Friday Happies

1. That morning when it stopped raining just long enough for us go out for some fresh air and jump in some puddles, when we visited Morden Hall, a beautiful National Trust property in South London. (I took lots of photos and I'll do a post soon - it really was a breathtakingly lovely spot.) Time with my lovely Abigail, time with her girls, my goddaughters.

2. That same afternoon, cuddled up with Angus, watching Frozen ("...♫...Let it go...let it goooo... ♫...") and drinking tea. I liked the film very much, but I enjoyed the cuddle more. 

3. The way this embroidered blossom, made up of hundreds of tiny french knots, feels when I run my fingers over it.

5. A visit to the superb Natural History Museum (or the "dinosaur museum" as Angus calls it) on Thursday.

 It was so, so busy, and we probably only saw about five percent of the exhibits, but is was a wonderful day out for the children, and for us. I could stand in the main entrance hall for ages, watching people, just enjoying being in that dramatic space. 

It has been a fantastic half term holiday, full and busy, but with time and space to stop and savour as well. It has pretty much rained non-stop but I did my best to ignore it. We stayed with my dear friend Abigail, who lives in South London, and did lots of touristy things with the children. I also went to my first WI meeting (as a visitor, I'm not a member) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It is just my sort of thing. It was in a pub and people were drinking! I'd expected a draughty church hall and cups of tea. I may look into my local groups and see if they have room for new members. 

I'm completely exhausted. We had a nightmare journey back up north today and what would normally be a four hour drive took eight and a half. The kids were good until Sheffield, then they bickered incessantly until we got home. I aged during that journey, let me tell you, and I'm very glad that we have a reasonably quiet, pottering sort of weekend ahead of us. 

The Colour Collaborative: May - Childhood

Some colours from my childhood: pink suede pixie boots; yellow buttercups and the "do you like butter?" trick; pale blue school shirts; the cream and brown stripes on our boat, Kittiwake; pink cloud-patterned wallpaper on our bedroom wall; yellow for "Winchester", my school house; an orange Garfield lunch box; green grass cuttings that set off my hayfever; pale red tomatoes in my Grandpa's greenhouse; the dark brown dress I wore as part of my Brownie's uniform.

But the colours that stand out most, that I remember most clearly, come from books. 

I have always loved books and was what you'd call a bookworm as a child and teenager. I was often accused of having my head in a book, especially on long car journeys, and read paperback fiction voraciously; Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Arthur Ransome, then moving on to Agatha Christie, Virginia Andrews. But since having my own children it's the picture books that call the loudest, that move me the most. The pile pictured above are special. These are the ones I saved from when I was small, took with me when I left home and can never part with. They are none of them classics, I wouldn't expect anyone to have heard of them, but they hold huge sentimental value to me. They take me back in time, back to my childhood.

Primary brights with a seventies tone for camping trips on the beach, for adventure, campfires, swimming in the sea, barbecuing your own sausages, throwing your own handmade party and making decorations, for flares and freedom.

Beautiful cool, muddy colours for a tale of three children who go for a walk one winter's afternoon and find an unloved toy bear, stuck in a tree, who rescue it and take it home with them. A spare, icy palate illustrates knitted hats and scarves, snowy fields, bares trees and a cosy house. I think the illustrations in this book (The Winter Bear) by Erik Blegvad, are individual works of art.

Rosy carnival hues for this story of a rabbit who was never ready, who missed out on the family trips to the cinema, funfair and football because he could never find his mittens; earthy-toned brights for his triumphant trip to the circus, his reward for learning to be organised. (I love the moral - tidy your stuff, kids, or you'll miss out on the fun!)

These are the real colours of my childhood, I think. I was born in 1978 and would say that - in terms of music, fashion and cultural references - I'm really more a child of the eighties. But all of these books were published in the seventies and there is a definite, defiant, glorious retro tone to these colours. No wishy washy pastels, no pink for girls and blue for boys, no glitter or fairies. Just big, fat, gorgeous blocks of colour and tales of children and animals having adventures. These are the colours that stay with you.

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There are other childhood books I loved - which are still available - and which I've bought for Bella and Angus over the years, like The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Where The Wild Things Are, the Brambly Hedge stories and Dogger or anything by the wonderful Shirley Hughes. And I've loved reading with them and sharing those stories and colour-filled illustrations, layering new memories on top of my own original ones. I'd love to hear of your favourite childhood picture books, what titles or authors you especially loved and why you loved them.

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If you'd like to read posts by the other Colour Collaborative bloggers, please follow the links below:

Annie at Knitsofacto

Sandra at Cherry Heart

Jennifer at Thistlebear

Claire at Above The River
Sarah at Mitenska

What is The Colour Collaborative? 

All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.

Giveaway!

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful bank holiday weekend. Thank you for all your get well wishes, you are so kind. Despite colds and almost incessant rain, we had a very relaxed kind of bank holiday.

I have a giveaway for you today, very kindly offered by Vinyl Impression. I am really, really excited about this because I adore these wall stickers. The gorgeous typography, the sentiment, the floral imagery; to me they celebrate both spring and home, two things you know I love. 

The giveaway is for any sticker from Vinyl Impression's The Joy Press range. Follow the link to look at the full range. I've picked out my favourites here, below.

Beautiful, aren't they?

To enter:

•  Follow my blog, either through bloglovin' or Google Friend Connect.
• Leave a comment telling me which wall sticker your prefer.

The giveaway closes on Friday 6th June.

That's it! Then I'll announce a winner and contact you for your address and then Vinyl Impressions will send the sticker directly to you. 

Please note: All the wall stickers in this giveaway are open to international readers (hooray!) with the exception of the Hanging Flowers sticker, which is open to UK residents only.

All photos are used with kind permission of Vinyl Impression.

Edited to add: This giveaway is now closed.

Friday Happies

It's raining and has been for the past two days, and probably will all weekend long. I am just getting over a horrible cold/throat virus thing that's left me feeling tired and a bit bleugh, a lacklustre.

But never mind, it's Friday! Even better, it's half term next week, yay! No Sunday evening school uniform ironing for me this weekend. No packed lunches to make every morning next week. A break from spellings and reading, after school activitties and rush, rush, rush. And so it's time to dig deep and find those pockets of happiness, to remember those wee moments that made me smile and lifted my spirits this week.

1. Lilac, "foraged" (ahem) from a tree overhanging the old railway line. It smells utterly divine.

2. My new favourite breakfast: porridge, strawberries and maple syrup.

3. The alliums in the garden are looking spectacular.

The bees like them too.

4. A perfectly new, pristine, freshly unwrapped bar of soap. It's like when you break the seal on a new jar of instant coffee with a spoon. I wish I liked instant coffee, just for that pleasure.

5. A spring ritual, taking my patchwork quilt off the bed, washing and line drying it, then packing it away until next autumn. Then it's another joyful ritual to get it back out in six months time.

Hurrah for simple pleasures! I feel better just for writing this post. Have a great weekend everyone. Come back Mr Sunshine, we miss you.

Salts Mill

I thought I'd share some of the best of Yorkshire with you tonight. I've been meaning to write this post since last Thursday, when I met Lucy for coffee at Salts Mill, which is about half an hour from me. But I was too busy, then it was too sunny and I was too busy enjoying the sun, then I was too busy again. 

Salts Mill sits slap bang in the middle of the picturesque village of Saltaire, on the outskirts of Bradford. Founded by Victorian industrialist Titus Salt, it is built on the money from wool and spinning, yarn and textiles, and the huge old mill now houses shops, galleries, cafes and office space. If you ever find yourself in this part of West Yorkshire I really recommend a visit, it's an inspiring and calming place.

The mill itself is a monolithic structure, magnificent and forbidding. The proportions are vast. There are four flights of stairs between each floor, which gives you an idea of the ceiling heights and the sheer scale of the building. 

But inside - oh wow. The space and industrial feel make for a striking gallery/retail space. This is the 1853 Gallery which houses a lot of David Hockney's work, among other things. Those windows! I had to tear my eyes away from them to look at the art.

My destination is always the second floor, home to Salt's Diner, an interiors shop called The Home, and the book shop. The book shop is completely, utterly gorgeous, full of friendly staff and well chosen stock which is beautifully merchandised. Dangerous on the wallet!

The picture windows are immense, framing views of other industrial buildings and the surrounding Yorkshire hills. I spent as much time staring out of the windows as I did browsing stock.

All things considered, I exercised tremendous restraint (in my opinion - John might disagree) and bought this book, which I've wanted for ages, and a selection of postcards of Hockney's Yorkshire watercolours.

 I left the old mill and walked over the road into Saltaire village. I wanted to look around Rad Studio. Last time I came to Saltaire, with Jen, it was closed. What a treasure of a shop, so full of colour and personality.

I love the way the shop windows frame the surrounding scenery so well, so symmetrically. 

It was a lovely morning, a few hours of calm in a hectic week, time to chat with a friend and time alone to wander and browse. Coffee, shopping, art, conversation - food for the soul.

The Sun Has Got His Hat On

This weekend we:

• woke to blue skies.
• drank iced coffee in the garden.
• admired the cow parsley along the paths.
• went to the local carnival.
• ate ice creams.
• forked out cash for overpriced inflatable slides.
• bought a chocolate shake from the cutest caravan.
• walked home in the afternoon sun past the church.
• got the barbecue going.
• drank rose in the garden when the kids were in bed.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the stars align and the weather is glorious when it is John's weekend off. Oh, it was a gorgeous weekend and we made the most of it. This time last year, almost to the day, I wrote a post called Carnival, in which we did very similar things but in the rain. Well, we went again this year and it was sunny and what a difference it makes! Everyone so happy and smiley, enjoying the outdoors, the kids in shorts and t-shirts, me in my flip flops, John wondering if last year's sun cream is still ok to use (I'm never sure - we used it anyway).

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Do you remember how I shared the appalling state of our car with you last week? Well, rather hilariously, John found out on Friday that he has to car share to a meeting this week and give a lift to two colleagues. Cue manic car cleaning this weekend. He spent two and a half hours this morning washing and waxing it, vacuuming the insides, polishing the windows, dusting the dashboard. He even bought some upholstery cleaner to get rid of the juice stain! We now have one fragrant, shiny, tidy car. For about a week, anyway.

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I have almost finished replying to all the comments on this post. It was exhilarating, reading them all, joining in the discussion. Thank you. Normal service will resume now.