Looking for Lakes

We have been without a car for a few weeks and walking into town and back was starting to be less fun, amazingly James' mum's friend came to our rescue!
She has begun car sharing, leaving her's vacant and she suggested that we have it...

so we are now back on the road! 

We can now get some compost and things to build a polytunnel and really get the garden going.
After seedy sunday we are consumed with ideas as to what to build and where to put things, though this spring we will concentrate mostly on the front patch, building beds and getting some veg in. 

I have got some cheeky charity shop bargains recently one of which was a really lovely atlas book which is so so sweet, and as we don't yet have an OS map of the area it was nice to see where else we might explore. 

There has been some really lovely weather recently, and with the car we decided to go and find some lakes which we noticed were not far from us, and are also near old tin mines and a castle! 

We took the car down some pretty rural tracks! But (as you can see) it was so so worth it!

It was so nice to be out exploring! and also we have some guests coming to stay in the coming months, so we're trying to scope out some magical places to go with them!

Places like this really do make me feel so glad to be here. When things get a bit too much, you can always go and put yourself somewhere in the landscape, breath and gain a bit of perspective, you know? I feel incredibly lucky to have places like this nearby.

We haven't yet found the tin mine or the castle, which leaves us a great excuse to go back for more adventures, not that we really need a reason!

Happy lovely full moon times to you. xxx

Homage to Hardy (amongst other things)

So I've been terrible at all this blogging, I find it difficult to decide what is worth externalising for viewing. There's a weird sense of a 3rd person thing, whereby I am hugely aware of this sort of construction of self... I can imagine that some of the blogs I stumble upon are a false construction of self for the purposes of others. I seem to get so caught up in this I find it hard to even post about myself, as I don't want to be false in anyway.

Anyhow, my headspace has been minimal of late, so I'm taking the time now to make a few posts to catch up with what I've been up to.

A few weeks ago now, (gosh, I can't believe its been so long!) my mum came up to stay from Dorset for a couple of nights before taking me back to visit friends and have a bit of a chill out.
Whilst she was up, we went for a little mooch around the charity shops in Tywyn and on the way back came through a beautiful place called Happy Valley.

It was really lovely to be able to spend some time together and explore my new surroundings.

On the way through the valley we stopped at a car park and went to find the Bearded Lake...

We had no idea how far we'd have to walk, but I didn't mind as it was stunning.

Here are a couple of photos of the lake which was so so peaceful.

After a short stay here in Wales, we drove back to Dorset, with a brief stop in Abergavenny for a look around the farmers market and to get a little lunch. 

Back in the shire I caught up with some friends and their babans (which I shall share in another post) and got to spend some quality time with my mum, this involved going to some galleries, drinking coffee and also going somewhere I've not been since I was tiny...

Up the road to Hardy's Monument.
<3
I have vague recollections of this place from when I was younger, perhaps 7 or 8, and have since read many of his books. The thing I really love about his novels is the importance of place and the landscape, the images he creates and the attachment the characters have to the space in which they reside. I find with Hardy, I can really identify with the places he describes, mostly due to the fact that I grew up in the same area as he wrote about.

It was just as magical as I had remembered...

(mum looks so little aside this amazing structure!)

This monument can be seen from the A35 between Dorchester and Bridport and looks out to the coast as well as inland to the moor-like areas, woodland and farmland. 

 There are aspects of this place which seem to be a part of me and are so eloquently described by Hardy, I will end this post with a quote from one of my favourite books of his...

"The rambler who, for old association or other reasons, should trace the forsaken coach-road running almost in a meridional line from Bristol to the south shore of England, would find himself during the latter half of his journey in the vicinity of some extensive woodlands, interspersed with apple-orchards.  

Here the trees, timber or fruit-bearing, as the case may be, make the way-side hedges ragged by their drip and shade, stretching over the road with easeful horizontality, as if they found the unsubstantial air an adequate support for their limbs.  

At one place, where a hill is crossed, the largest of the woods shows itself bisected by the high-way, as the head of thick hair is bisected by the white line of its parting.  The spot is lonely." 

The Woodlanders Thomas Hardy

xxx

phew

We have had some friends up over the last few days, which has been so lovely.

It's so nice to see people who I can just chat to (or even to sit with in silence), with no self consciousness or fear of making an arse of myself.

We mostly spent a lot of time eating amazing food and drinking lots of red wine.

None of which I have photos of because we ate it before documentation crossed my mind!

We didn't spend the whole time eating though, we went for a walk through the forestry on a quest for this waterfall which Jamz and I had spotted from the top of the hill. 

It was in a bit of the forest where they had recently cut down a load of trees, so it was a bit strange, sort of like a grave yard, with remnants of tree looking like bone scattered across the ground.

We did find the waterfall, though not a path to take us right to it. Next time I think we'll go along the top path over the hill... or maybe check out the other waterfall which we spied which might be more accessible.

Having A&N over has also inspired me to make more things!! 

It has been a while as all of my stuff has (and some still is) in boxes.

Though I am determined to get on it, organise my space/life/shelves and get some stuff on etsy.

Hope you've had a nice week so far?

xxx