But I need to...

Apparently, this is what I insisted when, fully clothed, I climbed into the paddling pool in my Auntie Sue's back garden.  I must have been about 3 at the time. 

I will always be able to hear her voice, retelling the story and laughing.  It's memories of my early childhood, spent with Sue and my cousins Katie and Lucy, that I will always think of when I read this:

She is gone

You can shed tears that she is gone

Or you can smile because she has lived

You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back

Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left

Your heart can be empty because you can't see her

Or you can be full of the love that you shared

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday

Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday

You can remember her and only that she is gone

Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on

You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back

Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

David Harkins

 

A sad day in our family today: the Big C strikes yet again.

It's been a month now

So probably about time to download the holiday photos and resume normal service around here!

I can't believe it's a month, we haven't stopped since getting home - new school for Girl, new classes to teach for me, a ton of washing and tent-drying, a car-full of sand and shells and pebbles (some of which are still in the underfloor lockers). 

Ah, Brittany.  How we miss you.

You're so beautiful.

And we all love our home away from home:

Same campsite, different pitch, but a good one.  Maybe after 8 years we get to have the same one next year?  Maybe...some people have been going there for over 40 years...they usually get first dibs.

It's a stone's throw from a magnificent sandy beach with bands of pretty shells:

I'm particularly fascinated with the endless ripples and reflections...

(I spent three weeks trying to work out whether I was a "big picture" or "small picture" person, creatively.  Whaddya reckon??!  I think I've worked it out now...)

The sky is always interesting, and there's such a lot of it:

Just as well we walk and cycle and swim so much when we're there, as we all love the food - the bread, the patisserie, the picnics, the yoghurt pots to lick out, the moules (shared with about 4000 locals in the town square) - note the bottom pic of the Boy, who worked out where the biscuits were kept and just helped himself!

And we are all happy catching up with a year's worth of sleep, reading, swimming, being blown about by the wind, riding tiny ponies, paddling, drawing in the sand...

but not so happy being stung by jellyfish (Girl's knee, top left). 

(Afterwards, she wasn't sleeping in a little tent: it was more of a tentacle, ha ha)

She wasn't impressed.  Even less impressed with having to "frotter" her leg with "sable" to get the sting out!

Ah well, onwards...a busy year ahead, with lots of different projects to share, but all in the knowledge that we'll be going back next year - hooray!

I am here...

but not here:

Sigh...

Slowly cranking life back up to "working" pace, trying not to drown in a sea of to-dos and stitch samples!

I'll be much more here in a more interesting way very shortly, when I've beaten off the to-dos....

Meanwhile, hello to new follower!  Great to see you!