back from the dead
well, at least from the north....
Y'all, I've been negligent in my posting. I thought that maybe the blog honeymoon period was over, and that my literary drive had dried up. But NO! it hadn't, I've just been either really busy at work (ha) or lazy or just plain dull and therefore nowt to write about. honest.
I was away this weekend in the cold north visiting Maia, normally I stay on the boat ( a lovely traditional narrow boat) with maia, louise and scott, which is nice but as you can imagine, slightly odd. I have been working on alternative venues for my stay for a while and this weekend I cracked it in style!
One of the teachers at maia's school (Bambi, believe it or not) lives at Middlewood trust, they have a study centre and a yurt and all sorts of wonderful eco/woodland management stuff to make you smile. (ok, it makes me smile, if you are a city type that has no truck with the great outdoors it would probably make you grumble and promise never to complain about the London underground ever again)
To stay in the yurt is about £2.50 a night, and it's really nice. Middlewood is in the middle of nowhere and very pretty, they've got about 40 hectares of ancient coppice with varios meadow and paddock areas. there be wild roe deer and wabbits and such. lurvely.
Maia and myself arrived on saturday afternoon and settled in to the yurt, they were holding a woodland weekend and some people had come to see the coppice and learn some green wood turning so we duly mucked in with them.. I made friends and Maia dissapeared for hours to see Bambi's girls. On her return she announced she'd been horse riding up the valley. brelliant!
We woke in the morning to a winter wonderland. lots of snow everywhere and still blzzarding. BLOODY FREEZING. I tell you, waking up in a yurt covered in snow, the crisp unearthly silence spreading out around you, is a rather dissarming experience. There is no sound. The light is dulled as it is fighting through a foot of snow to penetrate the gloom of the shelter. The temperature is at or around freezing, the fire has burned out, not even embers remain. You are warm and cosy wrapped in sleeping bags and blankets. only the exposed parts of your face bely the true temperature outside your cocoon. But that is enough to put you off changing anything. You want to lie there just being for ever. Very peaceful.
then your bladder wakes up, or your daughter, to much the same effect.
So the day began, with hearty breakfasts and tea and snowball fights. it was ace.
That day we had a big stomp all round the valley looking at stuff and getting cold, then we made spoons from logs. proper ones. such simple pleasures....
The night closed in, no snow had melted, a few of the intrepid locals ventured homewards on foot and the rest of us settled in for an evening of mutual backslapping and glee, for we were not to be leaving this fair and pleasant land in the morning, work would have to wait, we were snowed in! Hurrah!
I love snow days. I never for a minute thought that I'd be legitimately able to call in and say 'sorry boss, I won't be in work today, I'm snowed in' there was a certain amount of disbelief, along the lines of 'yeah right, you lying bastard' so I took pictures to proove it ;-)
what a top weekend. I saw Jen twice for a few nights which was truly lovely, saw my wonderful little girl, which is always lush, had snow, nice food, beer, watched movies. top dawg. And today I got tickets for the glade, got booked for a festival in the summer to play blissful chilled out stuff (actually getting paid!) and get to stay in one of our £300 a night suites tonight.
where's the catch?
I'm gonna be looking over my shoulder for weeks........
Things I like today
GLADE TICKETS!!!!!
mighty mouse
thunderrodents courtesy of hughevansinvestigates. L.O.L
cheese cake
newcastle brown
erykah badu
fanny sparkles
nuts and such
Pic of the day
hmmm, canae find one yet, watch this space.
Y'all, I've been negligent in my posting. I thought that maybe the blog honeymoon period was over, and that my literary drive had dried up. But NO! it hadn't, I've just been either really busy at work (ha) or lazy or just plain dull and therefore nowt to write about. honest.
I was away this weekend in the cold north visiting Maia, normally I stay on the boat ( a lovely traditional narrow boat) with maia, louise and scott, which is nice but as you can imagine, slightly odd. I have been working on alternative venues for my stay for a while and this weekend I cracked it in style!
One of the teachers at maia's school (Bambi, believe it or not) lives at Middlewood trust, they have a study centre and a yurt and all sorts of wonderful eco/woodland management stuff to make you smile. (ok, it makes me smile, if you are a city type that has no truck with the great outdoors it would probably make you grumble and promise never to complain about the London underground ever again)
To stay in the yurt is about £2.50 a night, and it's really nice. Middlewood is in the middle of nowhere and very pretty, they've got about 40 hectares of ancient coppice with varios meadow and paddock areas. there be wild roe deer and wabbits and such. lurvely.
Maia and myself arrived on saturday afternoon and settled in to the yurt, they were holding a woodland weekend and some people had come to see the coppice and learn some green wood turning so we duly mucked in with them.. I made friends and Maia dissapeared for hours to see Bambi's girls. On her return she announced she'd been horse riding up the valley. brelliant!
We woke in the morning to a winter wonderland. lots of snow everywhere and still blzzarding. BLOODY FREEZING. I tell you, waking up in a yurt covered in snow, the crisp unearthly silence spreading out around you, is a rather dissarming experience. There is no sound. The light is dulled as it is fighting through a foot of snow to penetrate the gloom of the shelter. The temperature is at or around freezing, the fire has burned out, not even embers remain. You are warm and cosy wrapped in sleeping bags and blankets. only the exposed parts of your face bely the true temperature outside your cocoon. But that is enough to put you off changing anything. You want to lie there just being for ever. Very peaceful.
then your bladder wakes up, or your daughter, to much the same effect.
So the day began, with hearty breakfasts and tea and snowball fights. it was ace.
That day we had a big stomp all round the valley looking at stuff and getting cold, then we made spoons from logs. proper ones. such simple pleasures....
The night closed in, no snow had melted, a few of the intrepid locals ventured homewards on foot and the rest of us settled in for an evening of mutual backslapping and glee, for we were not to be leaving this fair and pleasant land in the morning, work would have to wait, we were snowed in! Hurrah!
I love snow days. I never for a minute thought that I'd be legitimately able to call in and say 'sorry boss, I won't be in work today, I'm snowed in' there was a certain amount of disbelief, along the lines of 'yeah right, you lying bastard' so I took pictures to proove it ;-)
what a top weekend. I saw Jen twice for a few nights which was truly lovely, saw my wonderful little girl, which is always lush, had snow, nice food, beer, watched movies. top dawg. And today I got tickets for the glade, got booked for a festival in the summer to play blissful chilled out stuff (actually getting paid!) and get to stay in one of our £300 a night suites tonight.
where's the catch?
I'm gonna be looking over my shoulder for weeks........
Things I like today
GLADE TICKETS!!!!!
mighty mouse
thunderrodents courtesy of hughevansinvestigates. L.O.L
cheese cake
newcastle brown
erykah badu
fanny sparkles
nuts and such
Pic of the day
hmmm, canae find one yet, watch this space.
posted by Joe at 9:31 pm
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