There is a chill in the air.....

It has been a while. Well, a few days. Isn't it easy to get out of the habit of writing? The longer I stay away from the blog, the easier it becomes to let it go. And there are times when I am so tempted to do just that. Or start another one. Or something.

Anything.

My head hurts. According to the BBC this morning, taking too many painkillers can induce headaches. Somehow I don't think that applies to me, but just to be certain, I started lowering the number I have to take each day slowly.

Result? My head hurts. And other extremities.

So we will skip merrily over that one.

On to more cheerful things. I have made the bunting "In PINK, Moreglanny!" for the smallest one in the family. That was fun. It was just a couple of 3m lengths and a 2m length, so it went very quickly. It quite took me by surprise after the many hundreds of miles I have been doing in recent months. 8 metres? Pah. A doddle. So that can be ticked off the list.

AND the good thing is that all the fabric came from the stash. Not that you would notice any holes in the piles, of course. I jammed it all into those shelves so tightly that I would have to sew about 10 miles of bunting to notice any gaps. But it is a start. Next on the list is crocheted stars. "In PINK, Moreglanny!"  Right. PINK. I have the message loud and clear, Missy!

Thank heavens there is a while before Christmas yet. Has anyone amassed their Christmas gift collection yet? Has anyone started making things yet? September is always the time I start to think about what I am making and this year is no different. There are so many great ideas out there. My Pinterest boards are bulging, and my bookmarked blogs are overflowing from the bookmark list, and my head is full of bits of each of them and now I can't think straight.

I need chocolate.

David is settled in at uni and seems quite at home, if the Skype conversations are any indicators. His course starts next week, and that is when he will meet all the others doing the same Master's course with him. He is so close to the sea - I think he is going to love being able to walk down to the waterfront as often as he likes and just breathe in all that sea air.

Until we moved here in 1990, I had always lived near the sea. Cape Town, in South Africa, and Plymouth in Devon. I still love being near the ocean. I love the feel of real sand between my toes. Sitting on a rock and watching the waves roll in. My grandparents used to go on drives in the afternoon, in Cape Town, and always ended up parked in Sea Point, or Bantry Bay, watching the sea. I don't remember them getting out of the car much, but they used to sit and watch the rollers coming in, and the ships anchored in Table Bay, waiting for pilots or a spot in the harbour.

Having said that I have not lived near the sea since 1990, at times I forget that I spent some time on the ships with Geoff and the children when we could, over school holidays. The sea is not the same when you are floating about on it, however. It is seen from a different perspective.  I think there is a certain magic in being on the shore, and watching the tides move. In New Zealand, I used to get up really early, and go and sit on a rock and watch the sea there too - and the sun rising over the ocean is truly beautiful. Or setting. .

Maybe you can't take the sea out of me. Or the mountains.

In England, I miss the mountains even more than the sea. The solidity of them. Towering peaks. Shadows of  immovable rock. The sense of direction you learn from knowing the mountains. But at least I get to be in the mountains in Switzerland. And Switzerland has the lakes too, of course. Water. Mountains. It is good. The mix.

I am quite sure that there is a great deal I meant to tell you all, but I have forgotten the lot. I got side-tracked by talk of the sea and mountains........

Getting back into the swing of things may take a while, I suspect.