My April in Pictures

April has gone in a blink of an eye.  All the days seem to have merged into one cloudy, colourful soup so it was lovely to go back through the camera to see how different each day was this month.  This was part of the 'Show Us Your April' link up by the great Amy at Ms Toody Goo Shoes.  So, let's start looking through my camera card for April.

1. A colleague was retiring and I was tasked with trying to capture a photo which included the Palace arch along with Peterborough Cathedral as one of his leaving gifts.  Task successful!

2. On our ivy, which was beginning to show signs of life, we noticed a little bit of movement right at the top by Mr Teen's bedroom.  A nest! but I wondered if anything would survive up there.

3. Other colours were beginning to paint the garden.

4. Poor Coco!  She needed a rest after her latest groom.  However she wasn't cut so short like the previous groomer so still has her Cavalier gorgeousness in her curly ears.  We will be using this lovely lady again.

5. Over the last month we have seen the scaffolding poles and planks gradually rise at the side of the Cathedral for some restoration work.  The orders from the workmen on each level as steadily they lift the meccano set were noisy and direct, but they are thankfully at the top now and the work can safely begin.

6. The gorgeous garden mirror that I bought and teased you with after seeing it at Sandringham's craft fair has now been hung in its place under the pergola by the fig tree.  I love the metal work, it reminds me of a peacock's plumage.

7. Oh yes, the 7th was a HAPPY day in my lovely London town, visiting Selfridges.  What an entrance!

8. I needed a rest from walking around the City, so a spot of growing on in the greenhouse was my therapy.

9. What a day!  A car crash, a funeral, a visit to our old Sweetbriar cottage, and then a quick spot of lunch here in Thaxted.  A post will follow with our little stop off on the way home.

10. A lovely package from a sweet friend, Karen at Beatrice Euphemie.  Tonic indeed while nursing bad necks from the accident.

11. A day in the garden and protecting these little lovelies from the lawnmower!

12. Noticing the increasing colours that were growing around me.  A lazy day at home.

13. Time for more work around the garden, after all, I had to keep Mr Teen busy and what perfect way than to power wash the patio from all the winter blackness.

14. Taking advantage of the sunshine, the washing was being hung out and I noticed these little beauties bowing their heads in honour of the warm sunshine.  

15. A mixed bag of a weather day, but another surprise was awaiting me with this rose which I bought a few years ago.  This was in memory of an ancestor who died in WWI, and it blooms at the time he was killed in action in 1914.  His name was Ernest, just like the rose.

16. Maundy Thursday.  An incredibly busy day at work, so it was a blessing that I could have a quiet walk after everything was done.

17 and 18.  Time to rest my weary feet and put together my weekly flowers for the various vases around the house.

19. Apple blossom!!  I love it when this makes an appearance.

20. Easter!  I wanted to hide these around the garden to embarrass my two teens but it was pouring down!!

21. A spot of crafting.  My first real attempt at patchwork.

22. The sky was a beautiful dark blue today.  I loved watching the white clouds contrast with the sky.

23. So, so, so many photos of this tulip were taken.  With some re-decoration going on in the utility room, I wanted a piece of my photography to go on the wall.  I think this one was my favourite and I will send this off to be framed.

24. A colourful car in the precincts.  This did make me smile!

25. Time for a drink in work... chai latte with my name on it!!

26. Bluebells surrounding the Cathedral.  They are everywhere at the moment.

27. Remember the nest at the beginning of the month?... look! new life nestling next to its mother!!

28. A postcard from overseas!  The lovely Bronwyn at Queen B sent me this all the way from her 'neck of the woods'.

29. The weather is getting a little cooler.  Still not ready to plant out the nursery plants.

30. Mother is off getting food.  There are two little ones in the nest, or should I say perched on top.  I hope May isn't windy!

It's been eventful, a little painful, but a very colourful month.  So, as the May bank holiday begins, I think back to the beginning of the year when I said this was the year of change (this was a little gift from my lovely friend Vicky at Life on Willie Mae Lane) at the beginning of the year - so sorry Vicky to have taken so long to say a public thank you!).

There have been little changes here and there, but just subtle at the moment due to Mr Teen getting ready for his GCSE's and I don't want to disrupt things too much.  However, I feel like freshening up the blog a little in May, so you may start nothing little bits here and there.  Nothing like a spring clean!

Have a wonderful weekend, especially those with a Bank Holiday weekend!!

p.s. Another 2lbs lost!!

Take care.

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Sweetbriar Cottage Revisited

It was someone's birthday, someone who was incredibly influential in my life for seventeen years.  The card was posted with the usual newsy bits and a phone call was planned in my mind on the usual 'when I get a moment' time of the week.  A couple of days later the phone rang, I missed the call and the caller did not leave a message.  1471 was dialled and it was a delightfully familiar number.  The number clicked through and the husband answered.  'Thank you for the card Chel, however she was not here to open it'.  The words cut my heart like a knife.  His tears and heartbroken words made me pull myself together to let him speak, let him tell the story of what had happened and I hung on to every word.  You see, this couple were my neighbours when we lived at Sweetbriar Cottage in its idyllic hamlet setting.  For seven years they taught us the way things should be done in the country, gave us advice and supported us through some difficult times.

They worked the land every single day and their enormous garden had perfect lines of fruit and vegetables along with her summer flowers again in lines of such precision.  Spring was the busiest time and when we were ready to build a greenhouse, there was no place better than right next to theirs.  You see, there were no real fences there.  There were trees and shrubs, but the only 'fence' as such was a three foot wall running the length of the land that was built by her father to keep the earth contained as we were on a steep slope.  In this magical place, there was no need to cut off your neighbour.  So, at springtime we would be extremely busy in our greenhouses but able to chat and absorb the years of knowledge of how to grow all sorts of plants and where to plant them.  The golden rule from her to me was  'NEVER plant your flowers in the garden until May 1st'.  Something that my gardening fingers and mind have abided by ever since.

Both myself and Hubby still worked in London at that time and drove every day.  This would mean hanging out my washing to dry first thing in the morning and cross my fingers that they would be dry when I got back.  A couple of times she would bring in my washing if it was raining, dry it, iron it and then leave it as a neat brown paper package by the front door tied up with string, along with a paper bag of vegetables and fruit for our tea.  In turn we would ask if there was anything she needed picking up on the way home and of course sharing jams and chutneys with them.  Simple acts of kindness, not expected, just done as a matter of love and respect.

They unfortunately never had children, and the hamlet itself was childless, so when I became pregnant with Mr Teen, the ripples of excitement grew as they experienced every moment of the impending due date.  This came and went and the evening entertainment was for them to watch me walking up and down our third of an acre garden in the dark, trying with all my might for some movement! Eventually Mr Teen made an appearance to everyone's excitement and their love and nurturing of the little boy was that of proud grandparents.

As he grew and his sense of adventure increased, there were a few times where they would come running down the garden to tell me that he had 'climbed up a tree again', when I thought he was playing behind me.  How do children do that??  They loved to pick him up and take him for a tour of the garden or to see the horses or farm animals down the road.  Then Miss Teen came along and again, a new baby filled the the hamlet with excitement.  Unfortunately Sweetbriar was not going to hold us all, so the time came to move on.  Something that we have regularly regretted.  Good neighbours are incredibly hard to find, especially those that lead a simple life and are not bothered by gossip or trying to outdo each other.  The couple were who they were and nothing was going to change them.  Unique, happy, content, friendly and able to pass on their knowledge without you feeling that you were doing something wrong.  Married for 64 years and still incredibly close.

The call ended to reassure him that we would be at the funeral, and we were, but just a little late due to a car accident, however we were fine with a bit of whiplash and the car was still drive-able!  Nothing was going to stop us saying our goodbyes to such a true angel.  Our devasted neighbour was sat at the front listening to each kind word, which were true and focussed on her love for the wildlife, garden and neighbours and friends.  Our hard part was going to him to offer our condolences.  No words were said at first, he saw Hubby and took his hand, looked to me and hugged me with all his might whispering 'how am I going to carry on?'.  My words were, 'look around - look at how many people will support you'.  Then he saw Mr and Miss Teen and hugged Miss Teen incredibly tightly, the last time he saw her she was two.  The love that he still held for these two Sweetbriar babies was still there and they loved him right back.

As the photos show, we revisited our hamlet of four cottages and a couple of farms for us to go through our own thoughts of her.  The occupants have all changed apart from this wonderful couple and the appearance of satellite dishes now adorns the cottages, however mostly everything else is the same, it has to be for these cottages to survive.

The old bake house, as it was known, is fenced off but this is on everyone's deeds that live there and was used to store non perishable foods and supplies for when the hamlet was cut off in bad weather.

The old log store for 'Percy's Farm' as it was, still stacked.  The work that we all had when logs were delivered for the wood burning stoves!  Two days at least for all of us.

'Percy's Farm' has slightly changed (Percy was the man that used to live there so we gave it that nickname).  He passed away last year, but his farm was for his own refuge of cattle, sheep, geese, pigs and chickens.  They were all his pets, however when foot and mouth came to the area most of his animals had to be destroyed, and I feel this destroyed him too.  Now the new owners have these little characters bouncing around.  Again, lovely people have moved there and were chatting away to Hubby as he reminisced about Percy.  They knew him well.

The surrounding countryside with it's rolling hills hit my memory banks once more and my heart tugged to see my neighbour once more on her bicycle tootling down the long lane to the local shop over a mile away.

Going past Sweetbriar cottage was hard, it was different but oh so familiar.  The pergola that Hubby built was still there, the gazebo in the middle of the garden where Mr Teen used to bounce from his baby bouncer was rusted but still in situ, the greenhouse had been replaced by the summer house that used to sit at the bottom of our garden next to our woodland, the gravel on the drive was still there.  So many happy memories of such a special place.  (I didn't take a shot of the garden from the road as I remember how upset I was when people used to do that when I lived there - nothing like sitting on a swing after a hard day's work on the garden with an audience!).

The neighbours across the road are still there, enjoying the sunshine.

Sweetbriar Cottage was a magical place and somewhere where our lives changed from repairing and re-designing to being parents.  Our neighbours were magical in being the most perfect people that anyone could wish to live next to.  Letters and cards of condolence will be sent however, the hamlet has lost an angel that touched so many lives and I hope that they cherish their remaining living angel through this incredibly hard time.

Sweetbriar will always be in my dreams and heart, along with the wonderful people that live and lived there.  Now do you see why this place is embedded deep within my heart?

But, it was time to head back to our lives and along the narrow little lane that is full of memories for us all as a family.

The cards and phone calls will continue and this time to reminisce not just on when we used to live together, but now also to reminisce of a wonderful lady.

Forever in our hearts.

Take care.

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