Just a Day

The mornings are so much darker now, we should get a bit of a reprieve when the clocks go back at the weekend, but it won't last for long.  It's not a bad thing for me I don't have to travel for work, so I find the dark mornings quite soothing.

I get up while it's pitch black, let the dogs out for a toilet break ... not all take me up on the offer, Suky has the bladder of a hippopotamus.  Then the kettle goes on, and while I wash my hair it comes to the boil ready for that first reviving cuppa of the day.  I feel no guilt sitting over a leisurely coffee (or two) on these dark mornings.  No jobs can be done outside, and with the dogs back in their beds and snoozing it would be so wrong to do any inside and disturb them wouldn't it ;-)

At the first glimmer of light I go over and open up the henhouse, sometimes they complain as they consider me late, other mornings all I get is the odd one coming down the ramp with much stretching of legs and wings, glad to be off the perch and back in action. 

To see a chicken having a good stretch and eager to get out and about to catch the early morning worms and bugs is good for the soul, how much different are their lives to those of caged birds and even commercial free range birds who's doors are not opened until much later when eggs have been laid on the conveyor belts to make it easier for the farmer.

After a doggy (and pussycat) breakfast we roam the paddock checking all is still well with our little slice of the world.  The dogs dashing here, there and everywhere.  Rosy caught another rabbit yesterday, her third in three days, she despatched it quickly but left the body where it had fallen, so soon after breakfast no doubt there was no room for a rabbity feast (phew).  As we left the house this morning I spied the buzzard taking flight with a section of bunny, and by the time we walked over all that was left were picked clean bones and a flurry of fur.  The wild birds ate well yesterday thanks to our over zealous Jack Russell.

It's blogging about these little aspects of our days that fixes them into our memories ... vital for Lovely Hubby who has the memory span of a gnat with amnesia ... but also lovely for me when so much is whizzing through my head on a daily basis, to have things in black and white, and the minutiae of our days recorded for posterity, with pictures.

We went into Betws y Coed the other weekend, Lovely Hubby treated himself to a ridiculously expensive bar of chocolate ..... so I got a pair of jugs from the little vintage stall.  They didn't cost much more than the chocolate ... but as you can see they lasted longer!!

Sue xx

Meanwhile over at .....

We were out last night, out with the other grown up people, and didn't get home until waaaay after midnight.  It's not something we do very often, but when there's a new marriage in the family to celebrate you celebrate :-)

Anyway the late bedtime ... it was 2am once we had had coffee and settled after the long journey home, well it seemed long driving for an hour and forty minutes in the dark and then the strange later start to our day, luckily the dogs were happy to lie in after being disturbed so late in the evening ... has I think left me in a thoughtful frame of mind.

My usual brisk food, film, or book related post over on my other Challenge blog turned into musings from the mind, so I thought I would link to them on here and share also on here ...

... my new mantra, motto, whatever you want to call it.

Over on my other blog today ..... is this.

Now I'm off to clean out the hen house and chop some wood .... my musings frame of mind won't live through that  ;-)

Sue xx

Work Less and Live More

I love this little snippet of a famous poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.  

See here for the full poem and to listen to it being read. 

I take it slightly out of the context it was written in, and it reminds me that we are walking a road less travelled in that we have moved away from over-consumerism.  That we are moving towards being as self sufficient as we possibly can be in many ways, and that what we are doing is considered outside of the 'norm' for many people.

Yes, lots of you lovely readers also have chosen this path too, but by and large the vast majority of the folk in this country and many others are on a path that seems to me to be like a treadmill.

Going out to work, working longer and longer hours to pay for things that they 'should' have.  Striving always for more ... more things, more space, more possessions, more experiences, just more, more, more.

When does it stop, when will it stop?  Will we ever have enough in this consumerist age, when will more people stop and realise that all that you acquire cannot be taken with you.  Most of what we have our children will not want once we are gone. So it will all have been in vain, yes maybe we get momentary pleasure from purchases but then they are added to the stack of stuff we already have and the pleasure is forgotten about and more acquiring of things is needed to get the feeling back.

I guess what I'm trying to say in a nutshell is how much better it would be to work less and live more.  

To earn enough to keep a decent roof over your head, the bills paid and food on the table and then decide to stop acquiring things and instead to go out and live.  To spend time with loved ones, talking, reminiscing, planning.  To take the time to walk the paths, the beaches, the woodlands or just around the streets of your neighbourhood.  To take the time to get to know the places and the folk around you.  It costs nothing yet gives you so much.

I'm obviously just in a musing mood .... I go off on a tangent occasionally and this time I thought I would share it with you.

Here's a cute photo ... just so you know it's still me  ;-)

Sue xx