bank holiday | The Little Room of Rachell

Beautiful wisteria this month

Making: salads – chicken with a bit of blue cheese, inspired by my friend who’s obsessed with it for lunch right now!

Cooking: rhubarb and clementines

Drinking: fizzy water, sounds virtuous but have had quite a few ciders over the Bank Holiday weekend. Sunshine, sea and cider go together beautifully

Lovely bluebells. I’m going to do a separate bluebell post because it’s an annual tradition I don’t want to skip

Reading: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Wanting: new jogging bottoms for Pilates

Playing: Everything Under by Daisy Johnson – my new audio book

Buscot Park, National Trust

Deciding: to try not to fall asleep over my Kindle at bedtime!

Wishing: to live nearer the sea

Enjoying: the sunshine

Waiting: for the new Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special! Exciting!!!!!

Evening walks with that gorgeous golden light as the sun gets lower, has been a treat this May

Liking: how green everything is, May is one of my favourite months. Colour everywhere

Wondering: when to stop this to make my hair appointment on time

Loving: sleeping well (not the last two nights, but there’s always tonight)

A new walk, discovered the other Sunday

Pondering: what’s next for the country

Considering: eating some breakfast before I leave, better rush

Buying: groceries online

Swansea marina and Swansea market – those Welsh Cakes smelt mmmmm

Watching: the last ever Big Bang Theory last night. They handled the ending well, brought a tear to my eye

Hoping: to visit a friend later

Marvelling: how tight your jeans can feel after just 4.5 days away…

Cringing: at the above, it’s been fun though

Needing: to pause this for now

Tenby – still so light at nine in the evening

Questioning: what’s effective at removing soap scum and limescale from shower doors, without chemicals. So far I’ve tried a few things

Smelling: hair salon smells

Wearing: a black gown

Following: what others are having done to their hair (aka covert staring in the mirror!)

Saundersfoot. I recommend Sue’s Pantry if you like cake (with or without tonnes of icing…actually half of mine fell off and onto the pavement. There’s going to be a gull with diabetes soon)

Knowing: it’s probably going to rain on my styled hair on the walk home

Thinking: about fun times with lots of laugher

Admiring: Andy Parsons for filming this for Campaign to End Loneliness

Sorting: laundry

Love all the colours and patterns in the shells. I think the mussel shell looks almost tartan, don’t you think?

Getting: into cleaning mode. Holiday cottages are – usually – sparkling and your own slightly dusty home suffers in comparison when you come home. I get why people spring-clean before going away. I do sometimes, but not last week

Bookmarking: books to read

Coveting: that house by the sea

Disliking: dust and fluff

Amroth does huge jelly fish

Opening: mail

Giggling: remembering a Christmas Gavin & Stacey episode

Feeling: very chilled

Snacking: on raw carrots, as usual

Tredegar House, National Trust

Helping: the grocery driver find the house this morning. Could hear a van driving up and down the road

Hearing: that Sheeran & Bieber song on the salon radio

Mixing: they’re mixing colour for customers

Worrying: about nothing specific

Colby Woodland Garden, National Trust

Slicing: an apple

Celebrating: long Bank Holiday weekends, especially this last one in Pembrokeshire

Forgetting: nothing?

Winning: nothing!

Pretending: nothing!

Sneaking: nothing!

Embracing: friends and family, it’s good to appreciate and be appreciated in return

I don’t think there’s anything better than a stroll along a seafront, a paddle in the sea, fish and chips on the beach and a creamy ice cream in the sun on a bank holiday weekend.
The pebbles pic could be used on that clever website (I don’t know what it’s called, and am feeling too Bank Holiday Monday lazy to press a few buttons to find out) which gives a colour chart, based on the range of colours in a photograph, for a blanket, or fabric patchwork.

Yes please, I said. It’s my birthday soonish and so, yes please I’ll have that beach hut. Thank you very much.

Anemones? Sticky up like electrical wire which is partly stripped back, just standing up in clumps in the sea?

A spot of retail therapy today (damn you Cadbury Outlet Shop; you are bad, BAD, very Bad!!!) and a wander around the historic dockyard of Portsmouth. Even though today was rainy the queue for the Mary Rose museum was long. Must book ahead and go early one day.

A dicey drive home on very wet roads, home to my Stanley who’s very interested to see on Instagram that someone is having all sorts of adventures with Kate and family (Stanley at Legoland) I did eight more rows of knitting after we’d unpacked, made some cups of tea and tried a terribly bad (good) Cadbury Crunchie biscuit. I’m limiting myself to short bursts at the mo. I started this Friday evening, after a friend said she’s knitting two to sell for charity. Guess what it’s going to be? Bet you won’t be able to get it. (Just remember I will never ever knit a toilet roll holder. I promise this much.)