For a small adventure we went on a rather quick trip to Brighton yesterday. We went strolling and window-shopping between the rain showers, stopping regularly for baby maintainance. She was happiest in the harness and missing out on too much action in the pram. Those delightful gurgling noises and highpitched baby squeals were new on the repertoire so she was busy rehearsing. Most of the time she was just taking it all in though, watching as us adults did too.
We went to see our friends in London this weekend and had such a lovely time. Oh, I just love those kids! The youngest one is talking now and he's the most polite, wellspoken 2-year-old I have ever met. I kept expecting one-word-sentences in the form of commands but got: 'can you push me in please', 'excuse me' and 'can you help me please Caroline' (he couldn't climb up the slide himself without some assistance from the rear). He's the sweetest little red-head kid, smiling all the time and coming up to me regularly to show me this and that: 'Caroline, look at this! I made that!', or to have a cuddle.
They've got a climbing frame in the back garden with a soft floor for landing on and all three of the boys are clambering and hanging upside down from it. The little one will chant 'You tan't tat me! You tan't tat me!' (You can't catch me) while standing on the lower rungs. Bless! :) They're all excellent with climbing by the way, their parents trust them to know what they're doing so they've gotten really skilled, knowing they have to depend on themselves.
The middle brother who is five is the rowdy one, feeling he has to be loud and mischievous to gain attention we think. I just grab him whenever he passes by and hug him hard and long while he struggles unconvincingly and curses all girls. We had so much fun making up games with the oldest brother, like rolling chestnuts down the slide into a plastic bag (they make the most satisfying sound rattling in) and doing monkey bar tricks.
They live in one of those typically British houses with a thin facade facing the street, a tiny little front garden behind the fence filled with pots of lavender, ivy and geraniums, a narrow two story house and a small strip of back garden with a tall fence. Airplanes fly past low in the sky, green parakeets shriek in the trees and you hear some sounds of the city although they live in a very quiet corner. I love going to their house, I always feel safe there and I enjoy the city vibes for a while. I would like to live in a house like that sometime and it's one of my favourite things to look at the back gardens of those kind of houses from the train. I didn't bring my camera or I would have taken a picture of the house, but I took some of autumn leaves today instead.
Warm breeze, barefoot, summer dresses, picnic rug, blue tent, outdoors cooking, green frogs in the bathroom,
freshly baked bread, smell of sunlotion, sultry evenings, palm trees by the swimming pool, sunlight underwater,
laughing at our appalling French, sand between the toes, lost in a book, sound of children playing, tide coming in, making sand castles, lighthouse sweeping at night, evening liquorice and mint tea, snug sleeping bags,
early mornings, French market, sea food stalls, quilt stalls, fruit, vegetables and bread, cycling across the island, salt marshes, egret herons, sailboats snug in harbours, narrow village streets, cobblestone,
colourful doors, whitewashed walls, smiling faces, bonjour, long sandy beaches, refreshing swims, tousled hair, sandals, soft sunset light, smooth rocks,
smell of seaweed, cry of seagulls, salty skin, colourful beach parasols, tanned arms, fresh air, simple life.
Hello! I'm back, but I won't tell you all about it tonight, tomorrow it will have to be. I can show you why it was exactly what I needed though:
Simple, restful, fresh air living
...with happy people doing the same thing, in the sun. See you tomorrow!
So, I will be leaving you for a while. We will be spending six days in a tent 50 metres from the beach on a small island off the west coast of France, reading books, lathering on sunlotion and listening to the waves. Well, that's what I'll be doing, not sure what D feels like. He would have liked to do some surfing, but the waves are not looking promising so that might not happen. I'd like to go cycling on the paths all around the island at some stage, when I remember that I can only stand so much idle beach dwelling. Explore the villages, walk along the coast or just get lost. I like getting lost, you find ever so much more when you do. Well, enjoy your week and I wish you adventures big or small and quiet moments. Take care!
Ile de Re and La Rochelle.
I never blogged about the project I was sewing on a while back. It was a quilted baby blanket and my friend Sophie received it a couple of weeks ago. The baby was a girl, called Tindra which in Swedish pretty much means twinkle, like the stars, sweet! I thought the baby could lie on the blanket on the floor, but Sophie says she'll save it for the winter and use it as a duvet, bless! It went surprisingly well sewing that, only one what the!? oh nooo... moment after getting half-way through sewing the wadding onto the outside instead of inbetween the outer layers. I didn't bind the edges, next time. Oh, and of course not all the patchwork squares lined up but it being the first time I tried it I wasn't surprised. The fabric is a mix of things, the sweetly patterned ones from Superbuzzy, the green linen from John Lewis, the blues from Laura Ashley, the peachy from a ripped kaftan that was in the cleaning rag-bin :), and the white is an old cotton bed-sheet.
Embroidery is a treat, I love it! I'm bringing a project to France next week, to do on the beach. The pattern for the rabbit is from this Japanese craft book - it's a lovely series. This ebay seller is excellent too if you haven't already found her, free shipping (takes a couple of weeks to the UK) and very good prices for the books.
As for any other inspiring sewing, it hasn't happened. I've been doing lots of this:
and this:
This was half-way through the second lot of curtains, I didn't bother folding and unfolding them between pressing and sewing.
I did a quick job of it all really, no pins and only one proper seam for the top. For the bottom seam I just pressed one fold and zigzagged across the cut edge, creating a neat edge for the front and the back looks a bit ragged, but it being for the boys' rooms the curtains won't be visible near the floor for very long anyway. Because the fabric is so thin it falls more gracefully this way too, not having too bulky and heavy a seam at the bottom (I tell myself :>). I didn't have to do anything with the sides as the fabric was just the right width for the job.
Finally I just want to show you this because it looks just like a picture I remember from a children's book which if I remember correctly features a very small girl, ponies, huge blackberry bushes and some adventure, don't ask me what. What was important to me as a kid was the berries because they looked so luscious, there being both blackberries and raspberries on the same bush. Blackberries aren't common in Sweden so I didn't know, but now of course I can see why they drew them that way.
When I go to Sweden next I'd like to bring my favourite children's books back with me. My parents were great with books, they bought lots and read something every evening for us in bed. Also, Amy reminded me of my Calvin & Hobbes collection which is also left in Sweden, that will have to come too.
Hello! I am not so quiet anymore, just busy again. Trying to finish all my homework before we go on holiday to France on the 22nd. Every previous summer I've spent my holiday on my family's island in the Swedish archipelago so this will be the first summer I miss that. No sunbathing on the warm smooth rocks, skinny dipping in the sea (Swedish style), hanging out by the barbeque with my brothers, preparing lunch salads with my mum, watching the evening glow over the water, feeling the peace of early mornings, seeing the sun sparkles on the waves. It breaks my heart and I miss being together with my family, but I felt this year I had to choose. D and I have never had the time or money to go on a real holiday together, we always either visit his side of the family or mine. Which is lovely, but we need a life of our own too.
Our little cabin on the island won't be empty and lonely though, my oldest younger brother and his girlfriend will live there for a while. I hope they remember to take the hammock out for the tree, it needs to be swung and read in at some point each year.
I've been up early enough to see the deer these last couple of days, going off to do some clinical observations. That's a fancy description for sitting in the corner of an acupuncturist's treatment room, quietly observing all the goings on, taking notes and writing up a description of it. To get a degree in acupuncture you have to do 30 hours of this per year, arranging it yourself. I really like the acupuncturists I go to, they always inspire me and they're so helpful. I can't quite believe I'll be doing this myself in a couple of years' time, that makes me so happy.
The summer sun and warmth has returned to us finally and everytime I go outdoors I feel my body absorbing as much of the nourishing rays as possible. I want to go on holiday soon, leaving this place for a while. I haven't been away much and I need to clear my eyes and my heart. Before the students arrive back and the place fills up again. I hope you have had beneficial times off and away or you are going!
On the train going down to Paris I nestled up in my seat with a sewing project, something I haven't done before. Excellent! I can look out the window watching the world go by, the way I love, and do something practical and creative with my hands every now and then. I've been wheedling with myself lately, trying to get my flow going because I know how much I need to be creative to keep me sane. I've been pretty stuck for a while now, having everything I need to start up several projects but not getting anywhere. Like a lot of people I suppose, I'm a perfectionist and sometimes, you know, what you create isn't quite what you thought it would become. And then I think, better to stick with my imagination and keep the dream. But life isn't very juicy that way, nothing going through you. Besides, perfect is rather boring and barren.
So, a few small things are beginning to take form and this train project is finished now. D asked for a case to keep his camera in and I really like the colour he chose, rusty orange. I'm fond of this way of fastening buttons but I don't know where it comes from. I've only seen it on parcels coming from Asia, but I'm sure this kind of closure is common elsewhere too. So simple. You just wind the yarn a couple of times around the button and there you are. It's secure too, though you might have to replace the yarn at some point.
Stitching all over the place, yep that's me. :) And I like it that way.
Paris started out just as rainy as Britain, oh bummer... We hid under umbrellas through the worst of it, just short of reaching the Eiffel tower (see it just beyond the trees). Wide rivulets were forming on the paths and we had some fun navigating across those, or exploring the Mekong delta which is how my dad experienced it. He can rarely take anything out of the ordinary seriously. Actually, not much of the ordinary either, now that I think of it. He's the one holding the umbrella in the picture by the way.
I love the French newspaper and magazine stands everywhere. Not just a great place for some gossip, but like an open-air bookshop too. That's my mum in the picture.
I'm fond of the fruit and veg displays outside the shops, I keep a lookout for them in Britain too. There's something so wonderfully old-fashioned or exotic about it. We managed to find a small market too which made my day. The berries were sold there. Along the little square where a line of shops - the greengrocer, the fishmonger, the butcher, the charcuterie, the boulangerie (bakery) and the winery, all in a row!
Mum and I found a pair of sandals each - her red with white dots, mine black.
Carl Fredrik (my brother) and I enjoyed ourselves in the evening with taking night-time shots out the window of the neon lights beyond the hotel. He is one budding photographer I think, he's got a great way with the camera and is so imaginative. We tried catching the headlights of the cars passing on the street below and had a lot of laughs in the process - quick, quick, now! Aaawww... Again - now, now!
We strolled along the Seine on my last day, after window shopping in Saint-Germain-de-Pres and I like that kind of holiday time the most. Just wandering along, seeing what you find and ending up wherever you do.
One of the things I like the most about travelling are the exotic smells. Doesn't really matter what, just whatever reminds me that I'm in a foreign country. I still suddenly find myself back in India whenever I smell anything resembling the smoke from smouldering burnt rubbish and it always makes me happy before I realise what I'm actually smelling. :) In France it was more from baking wafting out from the boulangeries, smell of lunch from the sidewalk restaurants, a wiff of incense from an open doorway, laundry somewhere or just summer sunshine warming the pavement.
In the end we ended up by Notre Dame and sat people-watching on the side for a while, resting our feet. Wish I could have spent some more days with them, strolling around breathing in the atmosphere, but there it is. It's back to work for me now. I'm so revitalised though, it did the trick those two days. I'm inspired too, French people have so much better taste in clothes than the British (sorry!) and I saw many people who had their own style going on. Perhaps that is a capital city phenomenon, but still. I love seeing different cultures.
That was a happy little holiday for me. Thank you mum and dad! Love you.
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