WALES

There's something magical about driving west towards the mountains and the sea. Amazingly there are at least two good things to be said for the M4 - that it gets you there quicker and that the vistas it opened up are just the best. That whole sweep of Wiltshire where the beech hangers top rolling hills of chalky furrowed farmland, makes my heart lurch every time.
For more Wiltshire pics go to digifrog which links some awesome pics to mood music inc Younger Brother.

And then there are the two Severn bridges - both beautiful, so that makes four good things....and then you get to Wales, five. The link is to a lovely little walk around the Severn Beach shoreline: fresh and tangy and dated and right on the brink of this powerful river and ancient kingdom.
And Wales is always magical, more about that tomorrow....

Ridgeway

Yes! Daylight at 8p.m. Walked to the start of the Ridgeway and looked out over miles of vale and escarpment to the Thames valley in the far distance, and further away still the Cotswolds. Every year as the days grow longer into May a little madness takes hold of me...
The downland was scattered with violets and the sky was blue until the last. Makes you want to walk and keep on walking...........if you don't know about it follow the link - it's a good one.

Me and my friends

I know its a bit shallow, but I had such a great time with my three friends today at a boden party and lunch by the grand union (canal). The pic is this summer's best seller which is flying off the shelves. I really want to be a serious, greenly political grown up but the enormous pleasure I get from people watching and shopping regularly leads me astray. It was sooo good to see my friends and lots of other ladies looking ab fab, and heartwarming to hear the sisterly chat in the ad hoc changing rooms - rather like the Bennetts before the Ball I thought..........!

Earth Hour & British Summertime

Don't forget Earth Hour tonight at 8.30 pm - click on the Earth Hour header to pick up the link. Looks like this is bigger in Australia & Canada than here but the lights are going off in London with Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Nelsons Column and City hall all signed up. Will it do any good? With G20 looming it cannot do any harm. What profile the 'green agenda' will have at G20 remains to be seen, my guess is that there is quite a bit of blagging going on and a few pushes from Climate Camp and co are not too far out of order.

So looking forward to British Summertime starting tomorrow, light evenings will transform my life.

EARTH HOUR

Click on the header to find out more. There are some amazing pics of Earth from space as the sun sets and the lights go on. My lights, your lights. Really pretty but not sustainable. So I will go to bed early and read by candlelight next Saturday night, what will you do?


Found my way back to Amaravati today for a quiet hour. The peace surrounded me as I entered the gate and in the temple was palpable. For a while it was hard to clear my mind as there were other people there, two small boys unable to sit still. But as their father gently instructed them I joined them in concentrating my breathing and the story of Siddhartha came to mind.
I read Hesse's book as a teenager and I think it is time to reread and retell it. Now, time for my bed and my book and a meditation on "Your soul is the whole world" ...........

HERORATs

Check out this website - the amazing story of how real, live hero rats are saving the world now!

Intrepidly clearing landmines, sniffing out T.B. these plucky, not so little, African Giant Pouched Rats deserve our support. Your kids will love them, you will love them, I love them!

ESPADRILLES

As soon as the sun comes out, off come the trainers and out come the espadrilles - I just have to have totally comfy feet! This (click on header) is my favourite espadrille website, i promised boots but these are more seasonal.....

HENGISTBURY HEAD

Got up early on Sunday in a serious bid to throw off those blues, and drove to the coast at Hengistbury Head. If you haven't been it is an amazing place - look at Wiki click on header - where nature, history and popular culture collide: Iron Age hill fort, £100,000 beach huts, gastrocaf, skylarks and much much more......
Under clear blue skies and despite a nippy wind, kids, dogs, more kids and more dogs frisked and played. Adults huddled or cleaned out hut stuff and boat stuff or persuaded reluctant children to eat moules frites and chilli nachos.
The long haul home around a very slow M25 only slightly tarnished a very shiny day.

AMARAVATI

Spent too much time this week working and surfing. Definitely not enough daylight to feelgood. Just checked - in 2 weeks time brit summertime begins - I need it, I need it now!


Sooo walked in the woods, coffee out on the high street, and a couple of hours gardening:
it took about a year to fill my composter, then left it for another year. Today opened it up and heaps of satisfyingly crumbly brown compost. Apart from the odd bit of avocado, eggshell and twig it was perfect, so i gave the borders a treat and can now start all over again............

By half three those elusive feelgood chemicals still hadn't surged into my bloodstream but across two huge fields, its spire just visible in the east, is Amaravati and it is there that i took myself for an hour of contemplation. Click on header.......

Brought up short by the sight of cars parked everywhere - a meditation day - but the temple was empty, just me and someone much better at being quiet than i am. Could not completely clear my mind and meditate but in that silent space some of the storm of my thoughts ebbed away........

Would i call it a day ? Would i heck! This is my battle with that big black cloud and it was still there smacking me about a bit so i went and swam a few lengths and roasted a while in the sauna and finally, finally, here i sit, downloading and uploading and surfing again. I'm definitely looking for something and tonight it might be just around the corner, if you know where it is hiding, please let me know..............

DEPRESSION

Noooooooo!

After a five day anaesthesia induced high that big black cloud crept up behind me and slapped me in the back of the head. The week got looonger and colder and i got so tired that i barely made it through friday. Got through it normally, that is, so's you would notice. I wasn't going to slit my wrists or anything, just jack in the job and sell the house and leave the country and....

but i couldn't be arsed, and I get massive panic attacks about being away from home, so i just hunched up in front of the screen for four or five hours and this is some of what i found: Jean Paul Gaultier totally reflecting my mood, http://www.eveappeal.org.uk inspiring me to organise a fundraising tea party, and something to think about:

Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that are forever blowing through one's mind. -Mark Twain

So, I am going to my bed and my book, which I hope will replace that storm with the words of The Bonesetter's Daughter to ease me into my dreams....

Another River

A new header again today to illustrate this post.
A few years ago there were hosepipe bans every summer and our local river bed was dry.
Today we followed the Gade up to its source which was higher than I've seen it in the past fifteen years. We waded up, then downstream and in places it was over our boots and running at a jaunty pace towards the Thames.
We saw bones and stones and an abandoned digger and it was bigger than sam... and that was our poem. An hour out that put the whole day into perspective.

On The River

Got up early and headed down to the city. the river is one of my favourite places on a sunday morning. took quite a few big sky wide river pics and redid my banner when i got home!

The tide was big and the boat ride to Greenwich was inspiring; I never tire of the cityscape and the way the Thames cuts a swathe right through it.

v saddened to hear on car radio of deaths in Antrim, i really thought peace was permanent there now. my heart goes out to the people there.

vicky cristina barcelona

Just got back from seeing Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Great soundtrack, Penelope especially lovely, some funny bits, but i thought over rated. The spoken narrative is very Woody, but i think v dated. Click on the header for trailers.

My favourite Allen films are 'Zelig'- well worth getting out on dvd and 'The Front' which he is in but didn't direct.

Obama mama me

From 'Alphamummy' - see my blogs: the top ten books people most often lie about reading:

1) 1984 by George Orwell (42 percent)
2) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (31 percent)
3) Ulysses by James Joyce (25 percent)
4) The Bible (it doesn't say which testament! 24 percent)
5) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (16 percent)
6) A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (15 percent)
7) Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (14 percent)
8) In Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust (9 percent)
9) Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama (6 percent)
10) The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (6 percent)

Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to "impress" someone they were speaking to.

I've read four of them, most recently Dreams From My Father which was inspirational. Diss it if you like, squeeze your face up like a lemon. But someone has to save the world and Barack is my main man. Just go there......

By the way I'm a Hillary fan too, she's picked herself up and is doing a great job, go girl!

Ironic, though, that it has been the USA that's got me interested in politics again...................

Banner pics

Changed header as promised. would like to archive these in a 'previous banners' list but not sure how. Also to archive selected posts rather than all weekly/ monthly.....any tips?

anaesthesia

so, my first day as a blogger is almost over, and it was all just waiting to pour out.

all it took was a general anaesthetic yesterday to put me right in the mood.
I have to admit i was an anaesthesia virgin and already i am a total convert....
i think what i like, nay love, about prescription drugs is that someone has worked v hard to get the dosage just right and no hangovers. when you get to my age kiddos, you know what you like!

boots

i promised boots and here they are - totally unsuitable for me -
but on you just great, don't you think?

Pic of the day

I know, this pics a bit gloomy. i took it on 2nd feb when we were snowed in - nothing nicer (than being snowed in, sure i can find a nicer pic tomorrow).
i will change it esp if i find out how to resize it as a banner....oh i just did by cropping - is there an easier way?

This isn't the original pic- that has disappeared into cyberspace...it was a bit gloomy though...... so i replaced it with this rainy spring morning which turned into a very nice day for me!

being 50.... don't blog off yet!

i thought i'd better be upfront about it, esp as i'd explained about being tedsmum, but honestly i still feel 15 some days, it really hasn't changed. I guess all the under 30's have blogged off somewhere else now, just as i would have, but just in case you hung around, this is how it is......

when i was at school there were kids in my class who had already hit forty, and that's how they've stayed. i always wanted to be about 15, got there and stayed there. Some days i can't believe it until i start to walk the dogs or throw a grandson up in the air and i'm stiff and achey and puzzled about it.
But the air smells as fresh and the sky is as blue and the birdsong, 20 or more robins removed from that one that sung on my fifteenth morning, all just the same. really.

worse still, i can remember the boys and the hayfields and the first bottle of vodka and the not having a hangover like it was yesterday, and what was i doing yesterday? who knows, the mind is a sneaky rat.......

WHO is tedsmum?

I've been tedsmum for about 30, yes thirty, years now, and I am still tedsmum!

When ted was about thirteen, his friend kirk would say "tedsmum, is he allowed out ?", or "Is that a spare bit of pizza, tedsmum ?" and it caught on and i liked it, soooo.......

nowadays I am more often "graaaan'ma", which sounds just as good to me, but all the granma names were taken so after all, as i said, i am still tedsmum!