The Simple Pleasures

Yes, simple pleasures were running through my mind as I wrote this post looking out on my garden which had been basically left to look after itself over the half term break.  In particular the beautiful daisies that I have been nurturing between the inevitable lawn mowing.  Such dainty, simple flowers that instill so much joy to me.  I know most people regard them as a weed, and they are spreading slightly, but these cheery little flowers always makes me smile.

Now, back to my post properly, I can always tell if Mr and Miss Teenager have had a good half term break from school from the amount of fighting disagreements they have.  After all these years I think I have found the formula, don't tell them what they will be doing each day...just pile them in the car and do it.  They are then in the frame of mind of "where is she taking us", "well, actually, this looks interesting", "let's go and see".  Their half term break took them to Chelmsford in Essex to see their new cousin, Burghley House in Stamford for a fantastic country fair (post here), London (post here), and little pockets of local visits.  By the time Saturday came I had the last trip planned, to the seaside.  I was practically crawling by this stage as I had not had a break at all, in fact I was quite looking forward to going back to work to sit at my desk!  Being in my mid 40's my age is finally catching up with me!  The weather in 'Sunny Hunny' - Hunstanton, was not great, but pleasant enough for a walk on the beach, fish and chips and a play on the 2p machines.  But as I was hobbling walking along, my mind was only on reflecting on things around me, the simple pleasures.

The rocks on the beach.

The sea breaks.

The waves coming in to shore and that sound it makes as it hisses on the pebbles.

The ponies waiting to exercise their legs on the massaging sand.

The seagulls riding the breeze.

My two teenagers together...nicely!

After that, it was 'ME' time.  I HAD to rest...SERIOUSLY!  My simple pleasure was to just take stock of what was going on in the garden.  I had nearly failed to see the ringed dove building her nest in the cherry blossom.

I had nearly failed to see the new blackbird chick who had now seen our garden as a happy, safe haven.

I had almost failed to see the first rose.

There are many more to come.

I had nearly failed to see the new colours that were now appearing in my patch of a garden.  The aquilegia...

 ...French Lavender with it's beautiful purple butterfly wings dancing in the breeze...

...the grape vine unfolding it's flavoursome leaves, ready for me and Miss Teenager to eat later in the year as Dolmades...

 ...my herb bed is growing so quickly, ready for me to keep cutting and filling up jugs of herbs in my kitchen...

 ...the mustard flowers ready for a salad...

 ...the beautiful stems of pink penstemon...

 ...blue flowers amongst the ivy with a little eight legged visitor...

...strawberry flowers are popping up everywhere!

...sweet rocket...

...the colours are all beginning to come through the luscious green...how long we have waited!

 Spider's are having to renew their webs with the abundance of insects for their larders. 

My feet were sore, my legs ached from all the walking during the half term, my mind just wanted to drift off and think of...nothing.  But, in my garden the plants and wildlife were gradually developing into a simple pleasure that was patiently waiting for me to capture.  A simple pleasure that was quite happily bobbing along without too much interaction from me, just waiting for me to finally sit down and take it all in.

So thank you little daisies for bringing me back to enjoying the simple pleasures again.

I hope you have enjoyed my little trip this week, a bit closer to home this time.  I hope you are enjoying your own simple pleasures...and I have a simple pleasure for you...a lovely chocolate muffin...

Now before I disappear for this week and catch up on my blog reading, I have a little request from Miss Teenager.  She LOVES drawing characters and needs names for a couple of these...

She is looking for a name for the boy on the left and the girl on the right - these need to be very original (in her words "not Paul, Dave etc but something really individual" - remember she is 13 going on 18).   Now, I have a blog anniversary coming up on the 22 June!  Yes, I have been blogging for coming up to one year!  So, I'm going to do a couple of little giveaways to mark the occasion and the names of the boy and girl picked by Miss Teenager will be the winners!  You can either comment below, leave a tweet over at Twitter or use my new email form on the left of my blog.  We are really excited to hear the names that are put forward.

Have a wonderful week.

Take care.

This week I am sharing with:

Open House
Simple and Sweet Fridays
Cottage Style Party
Home Sweet Home
Weekend Flowers
Weekly Top Shot
Seasonal Sundays
Homeacre Hop
Sunny Simple Mondays

I Promised You London

You may have read this earlier in the weekend, but something went wrong with the post I put together on Saturday and it completely disappeared, so I am trying to put this back together from memory.  So annoying, but hey ho, these things are sent to try us!  Ok, rant over!  Here we go...again!

I love visiting my home town of London and plan these trips with the teenagers well in advance.  This is mainly because I had a wonderful Grandad who knew every inch of the City due to his day job during World War II which helped him by night as he was a fire fighter during these hours.  I try to remember everything he taught me and pass this information on to my two, but his knowledge was so great that we usually ended up with a following believing he was a guide!  We had decided to visit the Science Museum (this ended up as being briefly), the Victoria and Albert Museum (one floor) and the Natural History Museum was given up right from the start due to the enormous queues going down the road.  So, we got back on the Piccadilly Line to Green Park as we use this as a base due to it being near Buckingham Palace which is a good start if you are touring the Square Mile.  So, in true marathon post style, please grab yourself a glass of Pimms and a punnet of strawberries and join us on our journey in the City I call HOME!  We will start at the Victoria Memorial looking down towards The Mall which was adorned with Union Jacks and getting ready for the Trooping The Colour.

We had decided that we would take a leisurely walk down to Trafalgar Square but just from this ten minute walk you can see so many wonderful London sights.  The stately Big Ben...

and The London Eye.

Horseguards Parade was being prepared for the Trooping the Colour.

But on when we walked looking at the Union Jacks along the way.

And then, there he was, Nelson, looking towards the Houses of Parliament.

So much cleaner these days compared to the days gone by where there were pigeons everywhere!  

This pigeon was one of the few and he was having a bit of a wash!

Oh the fountains of Trafalgar Square!  Happy New Year's memories.

And this man would have been right at home on those evenings!

We had our lunch while he played to the passing crowds (being careful not to drop any crumbs for fear of being swarmed by the notorious pigeons!).

and also while watching people trying to clamber onto the lions.  These lions are huge and the plinth they lie on is very high, so a suitably tall parent is required to launch the child onto these magnificent creatures.

But after a late lunch we were only half way through our day and the coaches of people were pouring into the square, I have never seen it so busy to the point that even I was uncomfortable, so we decided to take a slow walk back down to Buckingham Palace.  So goodbye Nelson, see you at a quieter time, maybe Autumn.

And back towards The Mall, where taxis were beginning to queue up.  I can remember when they were just black cabs but now they come in all colours and advertising numerous companies.

We passed the memorial to King George VI and the lovely Queen Mother.  I just love the art deco lamps that accompany this memorial.

We had noticed that there were rather a lot of large hats everywhere along with flowery dresses, suits and uniforms.

They were all heading towards Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Garden Party!  These three were cutting a bit of a dash!

But the queue to enter the party was already building up.

And the hats were still arriving!

The soldiers stood on duty as the event started to get underway.

And the armed police stood by as the approved guests were allowed through (I personally would have been straight at the window to straighten the voile out!).

Our time was slipping away and we still needed to walk through Green Park to the station, so it was goodbye Victoria.

...and the crowds still looking for the perfect position to capture the memory of the day.

Goodbye to Buckingham Palace.

And then our walk back through Green Park.  Now this photo is of some clergy walking over to the Garden Party.  It wasn't until I got home and looked through the photos that I realised one of them is a work acquaintance!  Small world!

Amongst all the 'going's on', there was calm!  I could have watched this man for hours as he went through his routine (I think it was Tai Chi?).  Such calm in a busy area.

Now back at Kings Cross I had one more surprise for the Teenagers.  Miss Teenager is a huge Harry Potter fanatic!  Many years ago, when Harry Potter was only really just taking off, I took them to Platform 9 and there in a wall was half a shopping trolley (I need to dig the photo out of the two of them pretending to push this through the wall).  Now that Harry Potter is huge and with the re-fit of Kings Cross, they have made a bigger attraction and have opened up the Harry Potter shop.

This is full of WANDS!

Boxes of them!

Outside there is a more embellished shopping trolley where you can have your picture taken.

They put a scarf around you and someone holds on to the end, you are then asked to jump and there you are, on your way to Hogwart's Express!

We were getting a more modern version as we had run out of 'steam'!.  So now it was time to go home, legs and feet hurting, but very very happy memories once more.  Goodbye Kings Cross, see you again soon.

Phew!  Another marathon post (even harder for me as I have had to re-write it again!).  The next visit to London will be to mine and my late Grandad's favourite place, Greenwich, but that will have to wait until the summer holidays now.

I am going to save this once more and hopefully the 'gremlin' in the system will let this post stay on.

I hope you have had a fantastic weekend and I am looking forward to catching up with you on your posts.  Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, and welcome, welcome to my new followers, I am looking forward to catching up with your posts.

Take care.

Chel xx

This week I am sharing with:

Time Travel Thursday

Weekly Top Shot

Saturday Show Off

From the Farm Blog Hop
Sunny Simple Monday
Our World Tuesday
You're Gonna Love It Tuesday
Oh the Places I've been