Take Time to Live in the Moment.

What if all I want is a small, slow, simple life?

What if I am most happy in the space of in-between?

Where calm lives.

What if all I need are minimal things?

Simple ingredients.

That make simple foods.

A snugly bed.

Spaces to explore.

The world outside our doors is a mixed-up place at the moment.

The bad seems to outshine the good on a daily basis.

But you must look for the good

You must always look for the good.

The good is in the simple day to day life that calms the soul and keeps us on an even keel.

It's in the people that rush to help when temporarily bad swamps good.

It's in the smiles you see if you stop for a moment as you hustle and bustle about your business.

It's in the happy faces of the moment.

We need to take the time to live in the moment.

Our lives are made up of moments.

Many, many moments.

Some good, some bad ...

... but all ours.

Let's cherish our moments.

Sue xx

My Prescription

Yes, very quiet.

I want to read a good book ... and yes this is proving itself to be a very good book ... drink black coffee and eat simple food.

After a week of feeling pretty wiped out with an almost flu-like cold, all of the above seem very appealing.  I've added in occasional forays out into the fresh riverside air for Puggy comfort breaks and human leg stretching, but not much more will be accomplished this week.

That's my prescription for myself.  

What's yours for when you're feeling under the weather?

Sue xx

Selling from Home

We were due to do a car boot sale this weekend, but right until the night before the weather forecast was a bit hit and miss, and to be completely honest we really didn't fancy loading the truck up in the rain on the off chance that we would be able to sell the next day.

Instead, I spent a couple of hours photographing and listing things on Facebook Marketplace and when Saturday dawned bright and sunny it didn't matter too much that we weren't all set for the car boot sale ... we had two buyers on their way to pick up two of listed items.

You don't need another bookcase when you have half as many books, and after serving us well for a while in the garage holding lots of bits and bobs that we needed keeping off the floor, this long low bookcase ... formerly a display unit in a friends delicatessen and then a shelf in my gift shop, then a bookcase in three of our homes ... was finally destined to belong to someone else.  I think I had more than my money's worth out of it.

Also off to pastures new was our apple store we bought when we had visions of us being completely self sufficient in whole fruits for the Winter.  It never happened, what we didn't eat instead of trying to store whole we instead chopped and froze ... much less hit and miss.

In fact, this is the only apple the apple-store has ever seen.  Alan's version of 'visual merchandising'.  The store has been in regular use in the chicken shed for the past few years though, a handy set of drawers for all things 'chicken'.

So we didn't need to leave the house, the buyers came to us, gave us their money and took away the things that they wanted.  Win, win ... a good mornings work and another £60 in the coffers to go towards our Sark spending money.

Simplifying our lives is proving to be very rewarding and very satisfying.

Sue xx

Bridges and Water

I love being near water and when we're at the Van I am truly spoilt with canalside walks only a short drive or walk away depending on where we pick them up.  In hot weather, we drive into Garstang and park up and join the canal at any of the bridges that intersect the town.  It means that little Puggy legs don't have too far to trot to be close to the water and its amazing smells and sights.  In the cooler weather, when her little Puggy legs and snuffly nose can go further we simply cross the busy A6 from the caravan park and wander down country lanes that eventually lead us to the same canals.

There's so much to look at on a canal path so walks are never the same two days running.  There's the wildlife, the other towpath users ... cyclists, runners and dog walkers, but our favourite pastime is checking out the boat names.  The cute, the comedy, the obvious mishmash of two Christian names.  Our current favourites are 'Pist n' Broke' ... an obvious work in progress, and 'My Newt' ... which is the teeniest, tiniest little barge you ever did see!!

But on the days when I stay closer to home each morning the sound of the river rushing by as I walk with Suky along the riverbank is soothing, and I've been known to sit on a damp bench for far too long just to stay in the vicinity of the water for longer.  There's so much to delight the senses, the fresh morning smell, the sounds of birds, the water itself or the ducks squabbling noisily amongst themselves over titbits thrown from the riverside caravans.

Of course, if you have water you usually need the means to cross it and bridges are another thing close to my heart.  The main bridges that lead into the caravan park have the river flowing under four of them, the road into the park under one and a pathway to the opposite bank of the river under the sixth.  Along the top of the bridge, the trains run busily day and night taking commuters from Preston to Lancaster and the Lakes and pulling goods wagons, relieving the road system in the area.

Truly a hardworking set of arches.

The other bridge on the caravan park is the new one over the river, built no doubt after the floods of the last few years that totally made getting into or out of the park impossible when the road flooded and stayed flooded.  It's this one that now sees new caravans brought onto the park and old ones removed, and each morning and evening it is used by the dog walkers crossing the river to let their faithful companions have the freedom of lead-free running for a while.

It holds no real beauty, but it is functional, solid and serves its purpose well.

I might not like it as much as the ones that look lovely, the ones that echo as you quietly call out 'helloo' as you walk under ... I just have to, it would be wrong not too.  

But Suky loves her bridge to freedom.  Will we go to the left, the right ... or is it 'coffee and cake' day and we will run straight down the road through the fields and end up in Suky's most favouritist shop in the whole wide world ... beating the ''bone shop' by the smallest whisker.

Sue xx

Spot the Mistake ... or How Many Tit-Heads Can You Get in One Sentence.

Spot the mistake in this photo. 

Those of you that know me well will know that I always, always, always use plain white kitchen paper.  But some tit-head in the kitchen paper stacking section of the supermarket obviously mixed them closely together, or maybe it was some tit-head customer put one back in the wrong place ... well anyway, this particular tit-head of a shopper picked it up and slung it into her trolley without even noticing.  

Unfortunately, as it was a pack of four jumbo rolls this particular mistake is going to haunt me for months!!

I am in the process of minimising my usage of throwaway single-use kitchen paper, but I'm not rushing it.  I think some new habits need to be acquired gradually and with thought.  Hopefully, I will eventually make myself some re-usable cloths, the sort I can mop up spills with and then chuck into the washing machine, and also hopefully work out suitable ways to change the way I do things when I grab at a paper towel for food usage things.  But for this to work, I need to be aware of how and when I use them to make changing this particular lifelong habit viable as a long term solution.

One mistake I'm finding quite tasty though is the discovery of some 'volunteer' New Potatoes harvested when I was tipping out a bin of compost that had held potatoes last year.

Not all mistakes are bad ones then  😃

I apologise for the few days of silence, but when I have nothing to say ... I say nothing!!

Sue xx

A Simple Life ... Where Does it Begin?

So what triggers the yearning for a simple life, what triggers the urge to no longer want more, better, best?

There can be many deciding and contributing factors, but I think for me initially it was moving back to a more basic way of life.  Growing our own food, rearing our own animals, jumping off the conveyor belt that is modern life and realising that you don't have to go out to earn money to buy stuff that really does not benefit the life you wish to lead.

There's a lot to be said for the make do and mend mentality that goes along with living simply.  Once you start to look after and appreciate the things you have, buying more becomes gradually not as necessary.  Having the latest or the best is no longer a need or a want.

You learn to appreciate what you have, to make the most of the smaller things that make your life special ... a beautiful day, a well-grown courgette, a doggy walk over the sands with faithful companions.

What do most of us like best about holidays?

After chatting with friends, it came to light that the most appreciated holiday bonus is the lack of excess.  You pack just enough for the week, so you don't have to think too hard about what you are going to wear each day.  A good holiday is a t-shirt and jeans or shorts each day, and maybe alternating a nicer dress or two in the evenings.

If you self-cater the kitchen has everything you need ... and no more.

So there's no worrying about which food will be better on which plate, you plate up with what you have, and the atmosphere is all the happier for it.

You can choose to go all-out luxurious or plain and simple, but what is the same for both is that you do not have lots of possessions to look after.  What you took is what you must care for and the limited brainpower needed for that is refreshing.

Pretty, simple cottages make your heart happy when you get 'home' after a day out exploring your new surroundings.

There's not lots of housework to do, and even if you give everywhere a wipe down each day there are usually few trinkets and unnecessary things to move out of the way.  So any clean up takes minutes not hours.

With less stuff comes less to think about and that is why holidays, even self-catering ones, are relaxing.  Your brain is in 'holiday' mode and can chill out.

It was holidaying in all these cottages that set me on this new path, one which crept up on me in a very unassuming way.  Sneaking into my subconscious without me realising what was going on.  Going home after a week living so simply just highlighted the excesses we had acquired without even noticing.  

Jettisoning all this excess has left us both feeling freer, calmer and much happier.  Our current year-long amnesty is proving very liberating.  If we don't like something,  simply no longer want it or have a use for it, it can go into the car boot sale pile or be photographed and sold on Facebook Marketplace.  No questions, no guilt, no recriminations.

Truly liberating and the start of a whole new raft of adventures.

Learning what matters, and what is really necessary to enjoy life is the best thing ever.

Sue xx

Missing the Quiet of Van Life

I'm missing the quiet of my Van life.   The calm and peace of the riverbank.

The simple food, cooked or not cooked just for one.

And sleeping with a gently snoring Pug in my bedroom ... although saying that sometimes she does get a tad louder and squeakier as she chases unknown menaces in her sleep.

The reason it's so much noisier on our Welsh hillside all of a sudden is the National Eisteddfod which is going on all week just a few miles up the road from us.  It has brought with it the need for much more frequent trains running on a now exposed line, with no trees to muffle the sound of their passing.  So much extra traffic is passing by the house on the road from very early in the morning until late at night, and alongside all this noise and movement is the constant thud, thud, thud as fence posts are being driven in in the fields that run alongside the railway as the modifications along the track continue.  And then later through the night, the large trucks bringing huge rocks to shore up the railway line embankments queue up along the road directly outside our house, their orange revolving lights lighting up the bedroom in the weirdest way,  waiting their turn to deliver their boulders.

 Even now as I sit in the office trying to get this to read right,  the sounds are merging to form an almost hypnotic and annoying medley of noise befuddling my brain and weirdly making me crave more caffeine than I know is good for me.

I think it's time to hit the road and head for some peace and quiet.

Sue xx