My Word for 2018

My word would be

Confusing

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Just ... Dogs in Socks

Just two dogs in socks wishing all the followers and readers of this my'Smaller' blog 

A Very Happy Christmas

Mavis 

And Suky

Happy Christmas everyone

🎄

Just a Chicken in a Box

Just a chicken

In a box

Little Jill

With her sore eye

Having a day of rest before visiting the vet

And rather fortuitously a hamper arrived  for us yesterday

With food grade paper straw

Perfect non dusty bedding

For a chicken with a sore eye

💜 

A lavender heart

For my Lavender Pekin Bantam

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Escaping the Madness

While the shops filled up with people

With their trolleys

Full of tinsel, wrapping paper and too much food

I bought a Poinsettia

Jumped in the car

And escaped the madness with the dogs

And Alan came too

The peace and quiet

The biting minus temperature wind

And the weak Winter sunshine

Was exactly what was needed

To bring back calm and commonsense

We will be back on Christmas Day

I wonder if once again we will have the beach to ourselves 

💛

Just a Mass of Contradictions

Who am I

I'm a girl who lives in jeans

And dresses like a boy

I prefer the check shirt to the frilly blouse

And flat sneakers to high heels

My short neat nails

Are always bare but clean

Yet I got ridiculously excited 

Over a gloriously deep red nail polish in my Advent calendar

My hair is short and mussed

Yet if it's mussed the 'wrong' way

I get annoyed

Smooch up my hair and I'll have you for supper

I love my animals to bits

Yet hate my furniture covered in hairs

Don't tell them

They don't know

I did call myself  'vegan'

Then realised that most of my shoes are made of leather

And I love fish and chips

So I guess I'm 'plant based' ... except when eating fish and chips

I like a neat house

And orderly cupboards

But open the freezer

And be prepared to catch whatever leaps out at you

At times I go all minimal

And then excessively maximal

I wouldn't care a fig if all my possessions

Vanished in a puff of smoke or a fire

As long as you save my dogs

My cat

My chickens

Fifty of my books

... and my teddy bear

I started a self sufficient lifestyle

And then realised my sort of self sufficiency

And my husband's sort of self sufficiency are not the same thing

I am Self Sufficient

I don't need solar panels

Water tanks

Workshops

And a Veggie Patch

To prove it

I just need me

The girl behind the cabbage

That doesn't eat cabbage

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Just a Pug

Just a Pug ...

... sulking in a coat.

Suky is a much happier doggy in just her own fur

Oh that we were all that happy in our own skin

The weather for the last week of my Smaller Life was dire

So dire

Even Pugs were wearing coats

Van life is on hold now until 1st March

I think I need a back up plan ....

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A Smaller Life - A Smaller Price Tag

I was in a shopping mood

But not with a shopping budget

So I rifled the rails in four charity shops

And found treasures to buy in three of them

A 'Klass' top

A 'VanHeusen' floral extravaganza 

A 'Fat Face' fine knit

A bog standard 'George' check shirt that called out to me

A Principles 'Ben De Lisi' top

And finally a stripey  Marks and Spencer 'Autograph' top

I also bought a taupe coloured scarf

A long, wide Pasmina style number

But that's to use as a door curtain

Sometimes Smaller lives get draughty

Not a bad haul 

Six things for me to wear

And one for the 'van

For less than £30

I'm happy ... and still solvent

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A Still Life

A Still Life 

Just a mantlepiece 

Filled with bits and bobs

Things that are useful

Things that are beautiful

William Morris would have approved 

Treasures

From my still life

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I Choose Less

Suddenly

You get to an age

Or a time in your life 

When there could be so much to do

The decision is 

To do more

Or less

I choose less

For now 

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Punctuated and Back

I love travel

I also love my cosy Smaller home 

I don't do so well in the spotlight

But I can support the one there

For a limited time

Slightly more than half dressed is my thing

And cussing is too

I never impose on someone else what they should do

But if asked 

I will say what I would do

But I'm forever being told 

What I do is not right 

Not acceptable

Not understandable 

What do I say to that

Bollocks !!

Punctuated and back.

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A Challenging Break

I'm taking a bit of a break from this blog while I set myself a little Challenge.

I'll be blogging about it HERE.

The first Challenge on this brand new blog is:

Shopping and Eating for £1 Per Day for 28 Days

I love a good Challenge, and this one is taking me right back to my roots.

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Some Days

But I am learning

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Roaring Inside

So many feeling the same way

So many ticking over

Tick tock  tick tock

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Have Faith

So true

Have faith in yourself

Have more faith in yourself

 Than you have in others



You will not let you down



Love your choices

Love your life



It's the only one you will get


🖤

Move Mountains

There is a mountain in my way

It is one of my own making

And it needs moving

I do not have the words 

To begin the conversation

That will cause my mountain

To crumble

And topple

But I know 

There is a clear path ahead

Somewhere

In the meantime

I'm looking for my magic

🖤

Today I asked ...

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The Risk

It doesn't have to cost much to live

To do the things you need to do

You can choose to live simply

Or choose to acquire things

Things will outlive us all

They suck the pleasure from life

They steal the moments

They fill your head with want

And your heart with a desire for more of their kind

Things lead to things

I don't want them

I don't need them

Except books ...

Books are good things 😁

🖤

Two Rivers

Early morning

Walking by the River Wyre

It clears my head

Settles my mind

Inspires me 

A little doggy

Running ahead

Enjoying the morning

The peace

And the freedom

But waiting every now and then

For a contemplative  Mum to catch up

Different  day

Different river

This time the River Dunsop

But this time two dogs

Two people

And the River

💚

You Can Count Me In

I have a thing about numbers

Here I should stop for a moment

And point out I am terrible at maths

But numbers of things

Fascinate me

I did Project 333

Because it had numbers

I counted all my books for my blog

Because I wanted to know the number I had

I read over and over

About folk living with 100 items

And imagine myself doing the same

Well almost

My car is a Fiat 500

On television I watch people living in Tiny Houses 

With listed square footage

And imagine myself doing the same

(I'm down to 432 in my Smaller Life)

I have an urge

An almost irresistible urge

To downscale my life to

100 books

100 dvds

100 household items

It would be very achievable

Maybe one day

You can count me in.

💜

The Salt Path

I have just finished reading this

Brought to my attention by Sue at The Cottage at the End of the Lane

When it was nominated for The Wainwright Prize ... it didn't win

It should have

It's a brilliant read

But now I am struggling

How do you leave a world you submerged yourself into

And enter another

Which you cannot imagine will be as good as the last

Yesterday I picked up and started two more books

They have been added to the car boot sale pile

Ready for next years purge

❤

A Wet and Windy Dog Walk

The sunshine left us

The rain lashed sideways

I sat outside the cafe with the dogs

Hood up, my back to the wind and rain

They wouldn't let dogs in

In my Smaller Life

I live near a town that welcomes dogs with open arms

Into charity shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs

Even my little black feathered friend decided the weather was getting totally shitty

He sheltered

I went home.

🖤

Breathe in the Amazing

❤

To Mis-quote Elvis

To totally mis-quote Elvis Costello 

(my preferred Elvis)

It's been a good year for the tomatoes

And the apples

And the blackberries

And the spinach

And the kale

And the cucumbers

And much much more 

But nature has the right idea

The trees are indeed about to show us 

How lovely it is to let go

The first tinges of Autumn are appearing

And along with the falling cooking apples

We now have leaves

Crunchy

Lovely 

Leaves

💛

A Smaller Life = Less Beans?

Just because it's a smaller life 

It shouldn't mean less beans

When the fourth can of a multi pack 

Contained less than the stated amount

A photo was taken

A form was filled in on the company website

Politely mentioning my dismay at my lack of beans 

Two days later  an apologetic letter

Landed lightly on my door mat

And two £2 vouchers for Heinz products

Were my consolation prize

My tiny larder will be replenished

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