Nearly Happy

Hello there, yes I am alive and I have not been abducted by aliens! It is well over a month since I last posted on a regular basis and this I am not happy about. Let me explain....

You all know that at the beginning of June I started my new job in a library. In short it is amazing, I thought maybe after a few weeks the novelty would wear off but I am still loving every minute.

I Love My Job
A 45 minute drive to work
I Love that I get to sing all the way
Story times and rhyme times too
I Love to see kids get involved
Crafty things to make and glitter everywhere
I Love that I get to act like a kid
The lovely people I have met and work with
I Love the warm welcome I have had
The understanding and encouraging boss
I Love that we are so similar
A 45 minute drive home
I Love the road that in places is cocooned by green trees
I Love my job!

Even during some recent flash floods, that made the drive home very interesting, the drive still doesn't bother me. Even when we have had unexpected staff shortages and the library has been so busy that the shelves looked to have been ransacked by ram raiders, I didn't get stressed we just dealt with things as they came along.

Today I was in charge of the summer reading challenge craft activities and got to help some lovely kids make masks in all shapes and sizes. It was like a glitter explosion, we had lions, dogs, butterflies, spiderman, batman and some amazing masquerade masks. Below is a picture of the mask a lovely little girl and her mum made for me after I had admired hers, with it's sparkly feathers and jewels it was a work of art. I love mine with pretty curled leaves and metallic markings (which don't show up well on the photo) it is very sophisticated and worthy of any masquerade ball, I just wish I had one to go to. I am tired now and still covered in glitter (it seriously gets every where doesn't it!) but I had an amazing afternoon.

Any way back to my explanation! My childhood had it's issues, my teenage years...yes well we all know those, my twenties passed by in a blur, it is only now in my thirties tat I finally feel in control of my life. My beautiful family, my amazing job, my wonderful boss, the fantastic friends I have now (not all of you I have even met in person) all add up to one nearly happy me. What is missing you ask? I know it looks like I have it all and really ought to be grateful, however in all this happiness I have let my writing and reading slip. I am annoyed with myself and I only have me to blame for this lack of motivation. I could reel off a raft of excuses like; 'it's been hard getting used to this new routine' 'my new job is physically and mentally tireing' blah blah blah! Tonight I made a promise to myself to finish catching up on the blogs I love to read and also to set myself a new writing schedule and stick to it! Maybe then I can just be happy, instead of nearly there...or will I?

Are humans destined to make sure that they are never totally happy? Does there have to always be a but?

How is everyone in our corner of the bloggy world? I have missed you all loads xxx

Weekend Wonders - Mud, Petrol Heads and Strawberries

So, given the title are you confused yet??

I have had such a lovely weekend that I thought I just had to share it with you, even though I am writing this on a Monday night and probably won't post it until early Tuesday morning so it is technically speaking not a 'weekend wonder' but what the hell I like breaking rules!

It started on Friday night drinking a bottle of wine and chatting to a friend (who is not my husband!) for five whole hours. I have no idea how we filled the time but I loved every minute of it and it was definitely worth the slightly fuzzy head the morning after!! There is something quite special about sharing a moan or a secret with a female friend that I have never really indulged in before, however I will definitely be doing so again!!

Then Saturday morning I got to shop, who doesn't love that!!! Now normally at this point I would consider my weekend complete and it could be in the running for a spot in my top ten weekends, yes I am very easily pleased, however it was no where near over. The girls had been packed off to Granny's for the weekend and we set off on our little adventure.

The British Grand Prix! Sorry I am getting my giddies now. There were a number of things that could go wrong; potential closure of the car parks (with not many alternative ways to get there), collection of tickets on the day at the event, the weather! Hence my usual giddiness didn't hit before the event. However we made it there, actually to the best parking space we have ever had at the event, the tickets were collected without a problem and the rain held off in the run up to the race. I even got to have starwberries and cream when I got into the track. The only downside...the tickets ended up being in a grandstand made out of glorified mechano, ok so that was a slight over exaggeration scaffolding but given my fear of heights (which is getting better) to sit up there was a little nerve wracking. Yet when the race was under way I forgot all about where I was and loved every minute! I thought I would share a few photos of the day:

This is how muddy some parts around the track were, and worse!

The Red Arrows show before the race.

The other half sporting opposing team colours, good job I love him!

Me getting into the spirit of things.

Picture of the McLaren garages thought the barriers on our post race walk down the pit straight.

Even some cute cars to look at whilst sat in the queue to get out of the car park!

In short a really great weekend was had, just back to reality now :-(

Random Thursday - Welcome Break

Life has been hectic of late, what with events to organise and staring a new job. We did however manage to squeeze in a quick break away to the south coast. The weather wasn't great, some sun, some rain and plenty of wind but we had a great time.

I don't know about anyone else but the travelling is as much a part of my holidays as the time away it's self. I breathe a sigh of relief as soon as the car hits the motorway to head south. Even the way home this time was a little slice of heaven:

'Today was a day when the mist appeared to swallow the sea, right when we were saying goodbye to it's majestic wonder. As we sped away from the calm of our ocean break away the rain began to ease and the sky started to show a hundred shades of blue through the slashes in the multi-grey of the cloudy canvass. I marvelled at the changing canvass as images began to appear; from the swan gracefully gliding across the sky to the etherial kiss I felt like I shouldn't be a witness to. The further north we travelled the clouds descended in the distance and almost looked to eat the hills in it's path. It made it impossible to see where land met sky on the horizon, they were so low it looked like you could reach them on a small set of step ladders. I wondered for a while, what would a cloud feel like if you could reach up to touch one? Yet to the other side of me the sun shone so brilliantly behind the multi-layered patchwork, trying desperately to assert it's strength over them, reminding me momentarily of Aesop's fable of The North Wind and the Sun. As the sun began it's final encore the splashes of pink across the remaining canvass of cloud were spectacular to see, eventually giving way to an almost luminous deep blue, inbetween the clouds and rain showers to greet us home'

View original here, not a perfect version of what I have tried to describe, but it would have been slightly dangerous to stop on the motoway to take a photo, much as I would have loved to capture each change as an image to re-visit time and time again!!

I hope all is well with you where ever you are and that you have avoided the fires and freak weather of the last few weeks. Stay safe!

Weekend Wonders - Unexplained Absence

You may have noticed, you may not, that I have been somewhat absent around the blogsphere of late. I am truly sorry that I haven't had the time to read and comment as I usually do, I promise that I will catch up eventually!

I volunteer with a group that helps to look after our local park and make sure it is a fabulous place for people to use. Wednesday 20th June was not only my eldest daughters 8th birthday, it was also the 100 year anniversary of Marsden Park being opened to the public. As part of the Friends group I helped to organise a mass celebration for the centenary, which was yesterday. We had a brass band, traditional Lancashire clog dancers, sporting activities, magic shows, Punch and Judy shows, a travelling zoo, various stalls, along with the local nursery joining us with their annual garden party and a wonderful historic exhibition charting the history of the park right back to the 1600's when it was a private family estate.

On Friday we had rain of Biblical proportions with localised flooding. It had me awake all night wondering if we were even going to be able to continue with the event that we had all spent so much time on. Come Saturday morning the rain had stopped and following some adjustments with the site plan the event got under way, all be it a little delayed and a couple of activities down due to flooding problems. The rain that was fore casted for Saturday stayed away until just before the end of the event and more people came to support us than I could have hoped for. All in all a great day was had by all who attended, which made up for the stress of organising it!!

Follow this link to some great photos of the event, I was so busy I didn't have chance to take any myself!!

In short I should have some time spare now I am not sat up till the wee hours of the morning finalising the logistics for the event and will be able to get back to reading your lovely insights and commenting as usual, not to mention I have some serious writing to do!!!! First though, some sleep!!

For now I will leave you with some of my favourite parts of the park visit the Friends of Marsden Park Site if you are interested in the history.

The Sundial (taken by Harriett)

The Troll Bridge

The Wishing Gate (taken by Eleanor)

My Girls Favourite Place!!

No So Random Thursday

Sorry folks, busy, busy, busy. I promise I will be back with my usual insights to my mind soon and I will catch up on all your blogs after this weekend.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

200 Tuesdays - My Dad

When fathers day comes around it naturally brings up memories of my Dad, already written about here.

As I am currently short on time, as is usual at the moment, here is a poem inspired by my Dad.

We're Ok

What would I be if you were still here

If I never had to shed a tear

Many more nights of playing with my hair

Or whispering goodnight as we climb the stair

How many more lives would you have saved

Instead you had to endure and be brave

We lost you little by little for a while

We grew to be strong and survive in style

Your passing led me to the right place

to see my husbands beautiful face

Two gorgeous girls now of my own

I hope to never leave them alone

Our memories I still hold dear

Though you are no longer near

We are happy now in all we do

Though every day we still miss you

Tagled Lou has also recently been writing about her Father here in a beautifully written piece about his passing, I urge you to take a look.

Random Thursday

Soul mates - discuss!

Do they exist? Do we have more than one? Are we destined to find them?

How is that for random??

view original here