The Shed Story :: Part 1

Hello Lovelies,

If you have been reading my blog for a while I'm sure this view of our garden is familiar. Last year we spent quiet a lot of time and effort improving the garden, building a raised bed and painting the shed. It was all looking rather nice in the spring when this photo was taken.

well, maybe not this corner. This "rockery" was always a messy disappointment.

Anyway, that does not matter now, because it is no more.

Neither is the decking, which I did like.

Or the shed...though we have saved that to hopefully rebuild elsewhere.

The reason for all this destruction was a plan we had hatched to build a workshop. It's going to be somewhere eldest can hone his woodworking skills initially, though I hope it will be used by all the family as the years go by. 

By June we were digging out the footprint, it's quiet big ( 6 meters by 4).

It was a lot of work and created a LOT of mess. I did not enjoy seeing my garden looking like this. It was quiet depressing to see is disappear under the soil heap. 

"Thankfully" there was no view out of the window anyway, due to the storage of materials on the patio :0)

Hubby had managed to source lots of free wood and I naively though this would be super cheap project at this stage. Wrong. Things like these joists still had to be purchased, and wood is expensive.

But the whole idea was to give our boys a practical project to work on with hubby's guidance. Yes we could have bought a kit, but if this project is a success it should be a much more satisfying and longer lasting result.

A skip was needed to get rid of the soil heap.

Here they were adding insulation under the floor, because, well one day I may need a cosy studio ...eeek :0)

Eldest made me smile when he made this cardboard model. I tried holding it up at arms length to get an idea of how the shed may look. Not sure that worked :0)

Back to reality, here are some free windows my brother in law donated.

We have had quiet a few delays in the build, but finally by late September things were coming together.

I'll be so glad when this shed has a proper roof and we can dispense with the ugly tarpaulins.

So, it's now October and this is about  as far as we have got. The days are getting shorter, wetter and windier. 

  Our shed is still in the ugly duckling phase, but I have every faith that it will be much easier on the eye when it's complete. There's just so much still to do before winter sets in. I'm trying not to stress about it.

Back with more progress shots in a while.

p.s. Thank you so much for your concerned comments om my last post. Things are much better this week. I'll take shed worries any day.
Jacquie x

A Little Escape

Hello Lovelies,
How are you? I hope things are running smoothly in your lives. Mine, well, it's not so smooth at the moment. Real life here is a tad stressful. I seem to have a shed load of issues to cope with....one of which is an actual shed, currently half finished and leaking like a sieve. More on that another day.

There is also illness, accidents and incompetence conspiring to upset my equilibrium. I've been feeling especially frazzled this week.

Thankfully, today mum suggested a little outing, and it turned out to be just what I needed.
We travelled into the smallest county in England....Rutland. And stopped in the pretty market town of Uppingham.

The weather was lovely, and the flowers were still blooming.

Though you could see it was autumn not summer.

I have never visited this town before and I was pleasantly surprised.

Lots of stone buildings housing independent shops.

and pretty, sunlit corners.

Which opened onto the market square.

I loved this seasonal window display.

And the old buildings on the high street.

Within one is a charity shop that has  books AND a tea shop. Perfect.

Mum, who's a lifelong artist and art enthusiast, was looking for a gallery she had heard about. Thankfully the volunteer who brought our refreshments knew where it was and gave us excellent directions.

Refreshed we walked back up the high street, admiring the baskets.

 flowers.

And Yarny signs.

 Stitch Upp. Great name :0)

A view of the high street.

And the church across the square.

There's an ornamental light here, which the sun illuminated.

 Mum decided to sit in the car while I explored a bit further.

I liked this quiet corner of the churchyard with it's rooftop view.

And the church it's self.

Old cottages always make me smile.

 I wandered around and soon found a narrow passage that led back to the shops.

And our parking spot.

 

Mum had done a quick sketch of the scene.

 I look forward to seeing a painting of this mum :0)

The gallery we were looking for was in a nearby garden centre 

It was a great space with work by the owner and many other inspiring artists. There were even some views of my childhood home by talented artist Robin Mason. You can see them HERE and HERE
Ahhh, lovely Haworth. I must re-visit you soon :0)

You can see more of the work on display HERE.  So much to see. I really loved soaking it all in. And forgetting the issues I have been rather overwhelmed by at times recently.

Back home I unwrapped the gift mum had bought me in the charity shop, and went into the building site  garden to pick a few blooms to fill this lovely hand made jug.

That's better. Flowers do make me happy. I really must remember to pick a posy for the mantle more often.

I'm feeling much brighter tonight, due in part to some issues now being resolved, and to getting away from the others for a while. Sorry to be a bit cryptic here. I'm ok and I do hope you are too.

Jacquie x

Sunny Seaside Moments

Hello again Lovelies,

carrying on with my holiday posts, I thought I would share my favourite day of our week in Spain with you today.

Towards the end of our holiday we decided to take a little trip on one of the boats we had seen visiting the main beach in Tossa de Mar.

As we left it was lovely to see the impressive castle from the water.

and to pass by jagged rocks.

The whole coast is rugged and beautiful.



and dotted with caves.

Which we went inside.

and the crew threw bread for the fish :0)

Back into the light.

This trip was to a small bay and a beach called Cala Giverola.

It was beautiful, but when we arrived it was not as peaceful as the photo above suggests.

There was a water park behind the beach and loud music was blaring out.

Eldest and I  decided to go and investigate some of the paths we could see climbing the steep hills that ran down to the water.

Ahhhh, what a peaceful spot with a simply stunning view.

Thankfully the music did not last long and we could relax on the beach. In the late afternoon my walking buddy agreed to investigate another footpath.



I loved looking down on the turquoise waters.

What a perfectly summery scene.

Eldest was happy to climb higher to take in the landscape (seascape?)

But after a while we decided it would be best to rejoin the others.

Back at sea-level hubby and youngest were snorkelling.

I just love the light as the sun gets lower in the sky, the glittery reflections are something special, don't you agree?

The underwater world here contained exciting, colour changing octopi apparently. 

I do like snorkelling, but on this occasion I was more than happy to stand in the crystal clear water. 

and watch the waves lapping the shore.

Just look at the wonderful colour of those pebbles, so vibrant and glowing when wet and illuminated by the setting sun.

I always wish that special light would last just a little longer, that I could bottle the atmosphere, to save it for a dull winters day.

But all too soon the last boat of the day was here. Time to leave this idyllic spot.

It was a perfect outing to make some happy holiday memories for us all to look back on.

Jacquie x