Whitsun half term break

 

The weather is wild out there as I sit in the comfort of my living room writing this. The rain is lashing against the window panes and the wind is howling round our house, chasing stray items around the garden and leaves have been torn from the trees.

It has been wild all night so we have had broken sleep and lots of anxiety from my eldest, who is suffering from a whole host of fears at the moment. The weather is really reflecting how she is feeling this morning – rather stormy and restless. poor love 😦

Here she is in a sunnier moment, dear sweet girl 🙂

The children are returning to school today all dressed in white for their Whitsun assembly. The Whitsun message is so welcome right now, with much in the World feeling so unsettled and divided. If only we could understand each other fully, really speak each others language and perceive how each other experiences the World, we would find so much more empathy and peace; both at home and in the World. So much heartbreak and discontent comes from feeling separate and misunderstood. If we cling to our persona, our class, our political allegiance, our national pride, our religion, our generation, our culture, our upbringing or our opinions, whatever they may be, it segregates and distances us from others human beings. This distance can create fear; of the unknown (culture, religion…) and fear ultimately keeps us separate.

We are all precious children of God, the Universe, the World, no matter what our belief systems are and we all wish to be happy and free from suffering. If only we were to understand each other better, we would no doubt realise we are all the same underneath.

Hmnn…not what I was planning to say (!) but I guess the Whitsun message has been on my mind lately. I wrote about it a bit here last year

Back to half term!! We had a lovely ten day break from school and were blessed with some warm, sunny days. We celebrated my youngest daughter’s Birthday at the beginning of the week and spent some lovely fun afternoons with friends.

The children enjoyed having lots of time for free play : in the school holidays, I try to protect our mornings for home time. In the afternoons we are free to see friends or go out on errands. I must admit we spent several days in our pyjamas until midday!!

The girls really appreciated some less structured time at home. They have given all their toys a new lease of life this week 🙂

They have been dressing up,

playing out on the street

being creative

and throwing water over each other to cool down!

and generally having a marvellous time together. I am so pleased they are such good friends – may it always be thus.

On Friday, we went for a walk with good friends to forage for elderflowers. They seem to be prolific this year. We easily managed to fill a big bag and there were plenty for both our families.

I made elderflower cordial with most of the flowers and am drying a few umbels for elderflower tea.

It was so lovely to be out in nature with friends.

The children are so much freer with all that space around them and spent a lot of time running through the fields.

On the weekend we went to Alfriston Clergy House with my mother.

This medieval thatched cottage was the first property acquired by the newly formed National Trust in 1896.

It was dilapidated at the time, but has been since been restored to how it once would have been.

It has a beautiful cottage style garden, complete with a productive vegetable garden

and a wonderful orchard to play in.

We found an apple press secreted under one of the apple trees.

It was an enjoyable visit and good to spend time with Oma (German for grandmother) who came to visit us this weekend.

As for me, it is my first day alone after ten days with the children, so I am playing catch up. As far as making goes, I have started work on my eldest daughter’s sweater in sunshine yellow.

It is knitting up well so far, except for a small mistake on the ribbing that my daughter doesn’t seem to mind. Phew!

She has also chosen material so I can make her a Geranium dress like her sisters. I hope to be cutting that out shortly. My daughter is going on a class trip in a couple of weeks time and I would like these to be finished by then (even if they are impractical to take with her!!) It’s always good to have a deadline I find. I will probably also finish her Infinity Cowl to keep her warm on cooler evenings camping. I just want to wrap her up in homemade goodness, so she can feel how loved and protected she is.

I have been reducing my photos in size so they don’t take up so much memory space, but I don’t feel the clarity is quite the same. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions about this? How do you load your photos onto your blog? (if you have one!) I would be grateful of any advice. 

Joining the crafty folks at Frontier Dreams Crafting On