Happy Valentine's Day

I am sitting watching the birds on the feeders in the garden this morning, thinking about Valentine's day, considering what this day really means.

In my circle of friends and family, today, Valentine's Day, has been forgotten by many a subdued partner and there is a lot of anger, hurt and sadness surrounding today.

Let me start by admitting I love romantic gestures and demonstrations of love. I loved the story I listened to on the Knitting Pipeline Podcast yesterday, where a husband went to a yarn store and asked for help as he needed a small gift to give his wife to help make amends for his earlier actions.

It brought home to me once again, how unimportant the actual gift was and how important the action was. He really thought about what would make a difference to create an opening to start communicating again. I just love that.

I am blessed to live in a relationship where we celebrate our love every day. I need the little actions that show love and commitment every day in my life. When the world lets me down harshly, I have a wonderfully soft place to fall where my faults and mistakes are gentled, not criticised. I pray that I offer him the same.

Believe me, we both have bad days with bad attitudes too. If a day or a celebration is forgotten, I would rather have an apology communicated sincerely. I don't want grand gestures of guilt. I have been guilty of forgetting many important things myself!

I want to learn to practice unconditional love, forgiveness and compassion so that when my monsters emerge, they will be dealt with kindly too. Our lives are a work in progress, a fabric woven together, both the wonderful and the bad, to create the life we love daily.

To celebrate love, remember the all actions that have shown the love and commitment, that your lovers, partners and friends have shared with you each and every day in your live and CELEBRATE this. If you choose to celebrate it as a single day, that is perfect for you.

However, if it is unfortunately forgotten, enjoy what you already share daily as it is a true daily gift in your life. There is much beauty in this.

Love is very precious.

As an aside, I had the usual sweet-nothing by phone text this morn. We bought the flowers in the supermarket together on Sunday. I love the colour.

Happy Valentine's Day.

In search of the White Stuff.

This morn we set off towards Brighton on an adventure. 

One of the things that I really love about the journey is that the landscape is spotted with windmills along the way. Somehow they appeal to the romantic in me.

Welcome to Brighton as viewed from the hill where the yarn shop is. Yes, it was the first stop because I am just spoilt that way.

This is the window of Purl. It is a cute shop.

It is set up with some items for that commercialised romantic day later in the month.

There is a shelf like this full of books and some kits too.

Then it was off into the centre of town to visit the Royal Pavillion. We passed this sweet house along the way.

The Saint pulled me into The Little Coffee Company in an attempt to hide the fact that he was walking off in the wrong direction and then he thought this would be funny.

Later, walking down the road, in the appropriate direction, we stumbled upon this spectacular window filled with hand operated sewing machines. What a wonderful, quirky thing to do!

All the windows of the shop were dressed like this. This one is the side window. How many machines do you think they had to acquire to do this?  

In the distance the beautiful buildings of the Royal Pavilion await.

As time was slipping away (and we were not allowed to photograph the interior, one of the rules of many of the houses and buildings in this country) we decided to not go inside and made our way out of town and into the country to a big camera store. 

Here is a little of the Nikon display. The Saint left the required amount of drool all over the store....

Up until this time, we had determinedly ignored the pretty white stuff which was sprinkled liberally around on the hills and fields. Now it was time to enjoy it. These are here for you to enjoy it too.

As the sun dropped lower,  mist started to roll in over the land. Don't miss the dot on the sled on the snow.

We turned the car and headed for home as the sun was sinking below the horizon and I am still in love with my Iphone camera which captured this pretty sunset, the second in two days. Tomorrow the clouds roll back in.

Winter's kiss

As I attempted to snuggle back under the covers this morning, winter's beauty lured me outdoors as sun rays danced through the mists.

A good breakfast is a cure for all kinds of ills and I visited one of our favourite new places to eat, called 'dish deli-kitchen' where the food is delicious. If you are in Romsey give it a try.

I sat inside at the corner table reading my book until my food arrived, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of a quiet morning. It was cold outside.

Romsey is my UK hometown, in that it is where we first settled when we moved to the UK. It is still very dear to my heart. I took a walk thought the town. There is a pretty little market in the town centre

and a statue of Lord Palmerston graces the roundabout at the top of the high street.

Romsey has a wonderful sense of history and beautiful old buildings. This one is the Working Men's Conservative Club and it is rumoured that Oliver Cromwell hung his opponents from where the sign is hanging these days. I was never able to verify this.

I have never walked to the Abbey along this path.

Through the gates, I came upon the tree, my old friend. I have spent many hours sitting on this bench watching the world go by as I rested after a great cycle.

The Abbey is a beautiful gracious Norman building which has simple lines and decoration. It is a peaceful place inside and we attended choir concerts in its beautiful interior.

The walls outside show its age in a myriad of colours and time's inevitable erosion.

Across the road is King John's House. It dates from the 13th century and has been a thoroughfare for over 750 years. I am always astounded by the age of things here. I enjoy walking through the gardens. It currently houses a lovely little tea room and exhibitions are held in other rooms.

Look at this wall!

The snowdrops are flowering in the garden and all along the country hedgerows.

I climbed into my car and headed out into the country. I was whimsical today and followed my fancy. It lead me to cross the three bridges at Kimsbridge.

Each one has a different view

and the sun came out to light up the water on this section.

I was now driving along one of my favourite cycle routes through Lockerley and out into the country. I have noticed over the last decade how farm animals have disappeared from the landscape in this area and it gladdened my heart to see more of them today. These are sharing the field with a murder of crows.

Winter kissed the land today with mists that lingered over the ground and brought a beautiful gentleness to it.

I continued up into the hills, to catch the view over Broughton into the distant mists once again.

Here, ice lingered in the roadside puddles and icicles hung from the hedgerows.

At the Test River, near Horsebridge, I watched a heron fly lazily along the river and land on the bank, unconcerned by my presence.

There were more 'jumpers' decorating the land further on as I turned my attention to my journey home.

A London Iphone Yarncrawl Excursion

I left my camera at home so decided to test out the Iphone camera to record the day's events. It started with an empty coach of the 10.08 train which is unheard of! 

I was well prepared to amuse myself.

Two stops along the line, I got some company. The journey whizzed by and soon I was in Waterloo.

I walked out of the station and through this food market to reach get to my first destination.

I Knit London shop has changed a great deal since I was able to last visit it about 2 years ago. It is all good change. It is still full of yarny goodness and I particularly liked the I Knit or Dye range but sadly there was not enough for the project I was yarn crawling for so I left empty handed knowing that they were open until 9pm if I wanted to swing by on my way home.

I was feeling peckish as I walked along the South bank so decided to pop into the Royal Festival Hall for a bite to eat. Here I had this lovely view of the river while I ate my lunch.

While crossing the Hungerford Bridged to get to the tube station, I saw 3 busses crossing Waterloo bridge. I realised why London buses are painted red. They add wonderful contrast in a very grey world. I saw a small grey shawl in John Lewis later, in Regia sock yarn, using this contrast to great effect.

The next stop was Islington where I walked though the market before arriving at my next destination.

At Loop, once again my shopping plans were foiled as they did not have enough of either of the yarns I chose for the cardigan I want to knit. I guess I will be shopping online today. This is a lovely shop to browse around in and I got lost in yarny goodness and hence there are no photos.

For the first time in a long time, I did not leave empty handed and brought this yarn back to a good home where it is destined to become a set of gloves from a pattern in the Textured Stitches book. Not that we actually really need gloves this year, the winter has been quite mild down here.

Then it was back down onto the tube. Just look at these happy faces...

My hip was complaining a bit by the time I reached John Lewis in Oxford Street so I took myself up to the 5th floor to The Place To Eat and had another rest break, sitting knitting and reading and enjoying coffee and carrot cake.

While waiting for the Saint to join me, I might have strayed into the yarn department and fondled a few balls. I almost bought yarn for the cardigan but I have my heart set on the Malabrigo yarn that it is knitted in and I want to treat myself to it as I have been a REALLY GOOD girl (not really but I can try to fool you, can't I). 

This shot is a bit blurred but if you enjoy yarn I don't think you will really care that much. This is the Noro shelf.

After the arrival of the lovely man, we caught the tube to Embankment and walked back over the Hungerford Bridge on our way to the National Theatre. I did take a 360 photo with my new app but unfortunately did not save it so I will just have to go back and do it again!

We walked passed the Royal Festival Hall again, stopping in at the restaurants and cafes along the way in an attempt to find somewhere to sup. Who knew that at 5.45pm they would all be completely full. So we continued on to the theatre.

In the foyer was a quintet playing Greek music.  A couple got up to dance entertaining the crowd who where clapping and cheering. It was great fun. If not for the hip, I would have given it a go!

Now you may be thinking we are off to the theatre but you would be wrong. We were there for this. It was fabulous and wonderfully inspiring.

We grabbed sandwiches in the station and found some seats on the train to make our way home. This is still my favourite view in the world. Yes, I know.....