for the last few years, we have been enjoying a christmas winter break. now i love the sun, i really do, but a winter break in the english countryside is very nearly high up there on my favourite holidays. school is out. childcare is scarce, so holiday time it is. we’ve been to cornwall, we’ve been to yorkshire and then fell in love with the north norfolk coast and went for couple of years back to back. this year we thought we would start back at the beginning. cornwall. so here we are on the home turf of the country kids, coombe mill!
big city lights
with just 3 sleeps to go, the excitement levels in the HPMcQ household were starting to reach a high. we had been having a really lazy sunday. it was gloomy and cold outside, and gloomy and cold and i don’t get on much. so we stayed cosied up in our jim jams watching movies until gone mid-day! absolute heaven.
mrs child
when me, my mum and my dad moved to brentwood, my parents needed to find themselves a child minder. the first one, was actually the lady we had bought our house from. it didn’t work out. the second one, i vaguely remember but i wasn’t there long. it didn’t work out. but the third one, well that was mrs child. mrs child the childminder. an appropriate name if ever you could have one. even now writing this, i couldn’t bring myself to write about her by her first name, 30 years on she is still mrs child, and i’m sure she is too all, that she ever looked after.
365 21.12.13
i was on my way through east dulwich today, when i spotted this little beauty on a wall. isn’t he glorious. there was a calling card at the bottom any surface it said. i looked it up when i got home, and it turns out that it is a london based creative agency, which hosts a multi skilled team of artists, designers, painters and illustrators. they create bespoke artwork both commercially and privately. i don’t know who the artist is, but i’m going to find out as i love it. i think it must be the same person of what i spotted the other week too. we have a very large white wall at the front of our house, could we be brave enough? what would the neighbours say?
market day in the city
living in a big city, doesn’t give you the biggest opportunity to get out into country as much as perhaps you would like to. however saying that, a lot of the country seems to be sneaking its way into town more and more. which is a good thing, a very good thing. traditions like the weekend farmers market seem to be popping up in all the boroughs of ye olde london town. the del trotter type of market of only fools and horses fame, seem to be slowing fading away and making room for markets which have a far stronger focus of good quality locally grown fruit, veg and other foodie delights. all of this sitting along side small creative design businesses, vintage furniture, and bric-a-brac for thrifty and restorative types.