Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

A tragi-comic interlude.

I have decided that I am incapable of managing in the modern world....those of you who wish to retain a mistaken impression that I lead a perfect and productive life or if you have a weak stomach stop reading now....the rest of you read on...

...you may remember my whimsical wishes to stop the clocks and concentrate on the simple as ways to retain the happy, relaxed and creative days of summer.  Well we are less than two weeks into the Autumn term and all those feelings of contentment have already disappeared and the top of my head is tingling with high blood pressure.  Let me describe my week...

Mon 8.45am, already a little late for school due to an unexpected load of early morning washing (more of that later) but rushing to try and get there at the best time possible, the exhaust pipe fell off my car.  Already more than half way there and knowing I had to get Sam to school anyway I carried on sounding like the worst kind of boy-racer, causing everybody from miles around to come and have a look at what was making the noise.  A couple of hours later, after the most excruciatingly embarrassing drive to a garage and the panic of being stuck with no car and no way of getting back home (we used to have a bus to our village once a week but it was cancelled 4 years ago) I was rescued by a heroic friend and delivered home.  Quarter of an hour later I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom with a twisted ankle after slipping on the diarrhoea (you may have guessed what caused the early morning laundry now!) that my beloved dog had kindly left for me to step in ( I kid you not!), I confess dear readers at this point I cried.....

Yesterday, a neighbour spent his afternoon disapprovingly shoveling up the beautiful leaves from outside MY house, whilst he cast baleful looks at MY Autumnal trees.  I loved those piles of leaves and was looking forward to kicking through them with the boys, enjoying all the colours and the crisp crunching noises....why do people move to the country when they hate nature so?

This morning, hoping to make up for my lateness at school on Monday and also trying to maybe be on time for work, just once, I was up to wave my husband off on his travels at 6am.  Things were progressing nicely and all was on schedule for an exemplary performance on all fronts when my car keys did an amazing disappearing act.  When 25 minutes later they were found hiding in the sleeve of Sam's school coat (which had been shaken and returned to the car at least ten times by then) it was back to my regular tardy drop-off time at school and sneaking into work, blood-pressure raised, hair pulled-out, late as usual for me.

None of this happened in the summer, I didn't have to be anywhere on time and we moved to our own little tune.  No strangers entered our gates, only friends and loved ones and with nowhere to be my stress levels stayed at zero.  I am obviously just not suited to living in a modern age and the solution I have come up with is moving to a hermitage...I thought this one might do?

As I suspect moving may take sometime, I expect to be back here with a more normal crafty post at the end of the week, that is if I haven't scared you all away with tales of doggy disasters....

Holiday Album - Santorini Part 3

Today, in the last of my posts about our trip to Santorini, (and I assure you I have enough pictures to keep going for weeks, I have to be strong!) I am going to take you on a walk from Perissa, up over Messa Vouno, stopping at Ancient Thera before walking back down to Kamari and the water bus back to our starting point.  We started early to avoid the sun as we made our winding way up the mountain and arrived at the top, with aching legs, by about 11am.  Ancient Thera was stunningly beautiful, the views were amazing and we were blown about with a strong hot wind that felt like a giant hairdryer.  The walk downhill, in full sun, felt endless and we didn't have the heart to tell people we met coming in the other direction just how far they still had to walk.  Kamari, with it's bars and cold drinks seemed like an oasis by the time we got there and the water bus back, with legs dangling in the water, was one of our favourite memories.  Anyway, enough talking, come and enjoy the walk with us - without the heat or sore legs!

 

Holiday Album - Santorini Part 2

Today, as you can see, some photos of our trip around the Caldera in a double masted sailing ship.  We started from Port Athinios and followed the coast along past Fira to Ia.  A brief hop across the open mouth of the caldera took us to Thirassia, where we stopped briefly to eat.  We made sail again heading for the passage between Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni (the two volcanic islands in the middle), where we stopped long enough to see the sun sink gracefully into the sea before heading back to port and our coach back to Perissa.  It really was a magical experience and one I hope the boys will always remember, I know I will....

Holiday Album - Santorini Part 1

As I returned to work (and 'real' life) today, it seemed a good time to re-visit some happy memories of the end of the holidays by sharing some of the pictures I took of our holiday at Santorini.  A very nervous traveller I kept quiet about what we were up to but now I am safely back at home I can admit to myself (and you) how magical it was and that I am glad I was persuaded by my patient and long suffering husband to take the risk!  I took over 1000 photo's in all, so I promise I won't bore you with too many....maybe just one or two posts with the highlights?  Today beautiful sights.....

I hope that wasn't too painful for you, I showed an amazing amount of restraint I assure you!  Back tomorrow with some views of the sea (and land) from the deck of a two mast sailing ship, hope you don't mind....

Happy New (school) Year!

September has arrived and over the next few days the boys and I will return to our various different locations to begin a new school year.  Although we will be sad to say goodbye to the relaxed and seemingly endless days of summer, it is also exciting to be starting afresh.  A whole new year stretches before us full of possibility and promise (and new pencils!!)  This time of year is always one which inspires me and I am hoping that this year will be no different.  I feel like my head is bursting with ideas and the break over the summer has left me keen to try some of them out as soon as possible.  Somehow it seems so much easier to get enthusiastic about new year resolutions while the summer still rests on my skin and the ease of restful days still fills me with energy...How about you?  Are you still tied into the rhythm of the school year?  Or do you prefer to wait until after the shortest day and start your New Year in January?  I would love to hear what you think....

Holiday Album - Chinese brush painting.

Something on our summer list was inspired by a gift brought back by Daddy from his recent trip to China.  The contents were intriguing and slightly mysterious (we still don't really know what some of the bits are for, any enlightenment would be gratefully received!) but both the boys and I were keen to experiment.

What started as a lighthearted couple of hours outside, became a difficult learning experience as we struggled to make the unfamiliar tools do what we wanted.  Frustration, tears and scrumpled paper were not what we had intended but in a way were what made this such a special summer experience.  In trying to explain the importance of enjoying the experience over the end result to my littlest one, I also managed to see it clearer for myself.  My empathy for my little artist, who like his Mummy, always wants his pictures to be perfect, allowed me to see this fault in myself, so much clearer, and resulted in all of us being able to 'play' with no need for beautiful results.  At the end of the afternoon we were able to admit we had had fun and each of us had something we were fairly pleased with....even if for one of us it was not made using any of the materials from the set!

I am going to take some time away from a computer screen for the next couple of weeks.  As we are spending them all together as a family and trying to tick a few more of those items off the list before school starts back.  I hope you all have a great end to August and I look forward to catching up on what has been going on when I return next month....should have some exciting photo's to share with you by then too!

Shadow Shot Sunday.

The light this week was so beautiful and cast such amazing shadows, I couldn't resist joining in with Hey Harriet's Shadow Shot Sunday.

Holiday Album - Chirk Castle re-visited.

In some ways it seems so much longer than a year, in others, time didn't seem to have moved on at all since our last visit....

# You can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them #

...by the way she loved the hat!

Holiday Album - Homemade Hula Hoops.

A couple of years ago I bookmarked a tutorial for making heavy homemade hula hoops and then promptly lost it in the chaos of my computer (thank goodness for pinterest which is keeping my bookmarks in far better order now!)  So I was extremely excited to read the soulful mothering post by Elizabeth Mitchell over on soulemama recently and get similar instructions again.  The complexities of British v. US plumbing supplies made gathering the necessities something of a challenge but we ended up with some 20mm water pipe, some valves (which needed a bit of cutting with a hack saw to work) and some duct tape from the pound shop.....total expenditure less than £6. On Tuesday, after tea, we spent a happy 10 minutes constructing two made to measure hoops, one filled with water for a bit of extra weight and the fun commenced.....

Holiday Album - Beach fun and Garden Camping,

The summer days are passing in a happy haze, ticking activities off our list...sandcastles,

rounders and cricket,

sleep!

Garden Camping....

.....campfires,

and reading every day.

We are living in the moment, no where to be, no time scales to worry about and the result is pure and unadulterated happiness.  Makes me wonder why we save all this joy for these precious few summer weeks?  Think I am going to try and think of ways of capturing some of these sunshine days for when we go back to school.....first step is to work out a way to stop all the worlds clocks, how do you rate my chances?