The missing hour

I am typing whilst every now and then pausing to yawn. The clocks have gone forward and I am definitely feeling that missing hour. I am pleased that the nights will be longer and I am looking forward to the good weather.

Yesterday morning I went to Ogden Water. The sun was shining brightly and the air felt crisp and fresh - it was a lovely morning.
I love the size of the lake and the amount of wildlife and trees surrounding it. The paths are really pretty esp. the paths running alongside the water.
Buffy developed a renewed liking for puddles and mud and by the end of the walk her lovely cream fur was matted and a dirty brown so much so that I had to wrap her up in a towel so as not to get myself and the car all muddy.

I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks – I have a couple of riding lessons booked for this coming weekend and next weekend is a long one. I have booked the Thursday afternoon off as holiday and then due to Easter bank holidays I don’t have to be in work until the following Tuesday – very nice, and if that was not already fantastic, to put the cherry on top I get to see my friends as I am going to stay with them at their place in Wales. We will be getting up to some fun filled Eastery (think I may have just made that word up) days – and I think we will even be painting eggs… very themed and appropriate.

Some things I love this week:
Flicka
Maria Bello
Peanut M&M’s
Sunshine

Some things I don’t like so much:
Supermarkets
Rudeness
Rhubarb
Bugs

I am very much in the mood for watching a Sofia Coppola movie tonight. Her dreamy cinematography and hazy tones are exactly what I am craving. So maybe I will go do that.

See ya!

Spring: A new hope

I got a really cool book on Jackson Pollack’s art this lunchtime. It is a Taschen book and because it is their 25th anniversary they are selling their books at special prices. The Pollack book was only £7.99 which is a great price. Plus I love how they put their books together esp. as the image quality is so excellent. A brilliant deal and a book I will get lots of enjoyment from. I love Pollack’s paintings. I saw his Number 23 - 1948Enamel on gesso on paper at the Tate Modern in Liverpool at the start of February and absolutely inwardly (as I didn’t want to disturb everyone else in the gallery) went wild about it. It is so beautiful. It is layered and when you stand at different points of the room I felt I had a different reaction to it. Lovely :)

It was really nice walking through the park this morning. The daffodils were out and I could see new buds on the trees. I love the beginning of spring. I feel like there is an air of hope drifting around and for some reason I have a feeling that this year will be a good one. I have loads of interesting stuff happening like some new artwork that I am working on, my course, horse riding, looking forward to my holiday and of course watching Buffy growing past puppy to mischievous dog – I can’t believe she is going to be 1 yrs old in just a few weeks!!!

I watched a really interesting segment on Countryfile a couple of weeks ago about quarrying. Apparently quarrying rights were granted in the last 60 years but were not used and now can be used at anytime putting under threat coastal strips and National Parks. Anyone who owns mineral rights granted within the last 60 years can literally move their diggers in and start tearing up the land on sites which are now dormant quarries. These permissions are outdated and with a lot having changed ecologically in the last 60 years they seem ridiculous. I felt quite stirred up when I watched it. Please see the following link for an area soon to be obliterated (if the diggers get their way). http://www.saveportlandcoastalstrip.org.uk/index.html

Well I am off to drink a nice cup of tea and eat some apple crumble.

See ya! x

Yay! It's Friday

I am so happy it is Friday today. Plus I have the added bonus that I actually have today as a holiday day. Much needed I feel and I am already enjoying the beginning of my long weekend.

So far today I have taken Buffy out for a run around the park, done some yoga, surfed the net, worked on the beginnings of a new painting, and I have just had some lunch.

It is a beautiful day outside and I am currently sitting at my desk with the back door open listening to Buffy play in the garden. There is a nice breeze which is not too cold and the sun is out.

This week turned out okay and I am feeling pretty good. I stayed at a friends on Tuesday in her very cool house out in the country near York, I even got to meet her very handsome horse Jed. After looking in on him, we spent the evening eating Chili and watching movies. Was fun to have a nice girlie night. On Wednesday I went to my exercise class - which focuses on a mainly cardio workout and is so hard you feel like (well I feel like) I am going to keel over halfway through it. I am not sure how I manage it but I seem to get to the end of it each time. So tough, but fun. Thursday after work I mainly chilled out and watched TV. I have also been super busy at work.

Some nice things that have happened this week:

• Being given a cream egg a by one of the nice people I work for. It was a nice gesture that cheered up my day (in fact it happened twice this week and on both days my work was sucking so it helped me find my smile)


• Meeting Jed for the first time & having a lovely evening with my friend


• Being complimented on my picture on facebook.


• Hearing from an old friend who I have not heard from in forever

I get to ride twice this weekend and I am so looking forward to it. I am riding Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, and I really hope the weather stays like this.

I am playing the new All American Rejects album on my iTunes and I have been pretty much listening to it all week on my ipod. I love it. My favourite songs off the album so far are Damn Girl, Breakin', and Another Heart Calls.

Well I am going to go back up to my studio and do some more work on my new painting.

Later xox

Dark day

I am having a dark day today. Mentally I def got out of bed on the wrong side. Today I feel fairly sure that pretty much everything sucks. But that is just my mood I guess. I slept really bad last night, so I prob just need to chill and get some good sleep so that hopefully I will wake up tomorrow feeling bright and smiley again.

On the glass half full side of things though. I went to see Watchmen yesterday and it was awesome. Really fab. I want to see it again already.

Also my riding lesson on the horse I was worried about riding (Jess) was fantastic and I will be riding her again next Sunday.

Well I am off to seek some sleep and happy thoughts.

Ick snow again

Well I got rained on when I left work in Leeds... and then when I got off of the train in Bradford I got snowed on.

Where is spring damn it! This winter seems to be taking forever to be over with.

We have a responsibility to awe

I have been re-reading Rebecca Elson's volume of poetry and essays "A Responsibility to Awe" and it is so gorgeous. Her background as an astrologer and her life seems so interesting, plus her poetry is really moving. I would highly recommend it to anyone. My favourite poem of hers is: 'Some thoughts about the ocean and the universe' it is really beautiful and inspiring.

The sky outside is a dreary grey, with rain clouds hanging heavy like water balloons on the verge of bursting. I really hope I don't get caught in a down pour on my way home tonight. I am hoping the rest of the week will pass by quickly so that I can get to the weekend. I am planning on taking Buffy out (weather permitting) for a really long walk on the Moors, plus I have riding on Sunday which is always good to look forward to, even though I feel a little apprehensive about riding Jess. But I am sure I am just being silly and it will be nice to have a bit of a change from Jimmy. Even though last weeks lesson with Jimmy was the best yet. I feel that we really clicked and he really responded well to me. It was great.

I watched something quite interesting on Countryfile last Sunday. They were talking about Geocaching (outdoor treasure-hunting where participants use GPS to find containers full of "treasure", but the pleasure is in the chase) I have become quite intrigued by it. Apparently once you find the "treasure" you take it but then put some more "treasure" back in. sounds like fun and definitely something I would be willing to give a go - maybe even over my birthday week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/programmes/b00j06n0/ext/_auto/-/http://www.terracaching.com/

I am currently listening to the Fountain soundtrack (Clint Mansell) on my purple skull candy headphones (Which are awesome btw - great sound quality) and thinking about being somewhere else. Off on another big adventure with no thoughts of work or bills...
Places I would most like to go to right now:

Arizona
Sweden
Iceland
Prague
Denmark
Japan

Well I better go...

Namastey!