Last week & Community

We had a holiday, not really a proper holiday as most of it was spent driving.
And we didn't go anywhere exotic, we went back to Suffolk to see the family, we also popped into London on the way past to see our big girl and her husband in Bethnal Green.

We had a lovely evening with them at "1st Thursday", on 1st Thursday all the local art galleries open for the evening, Felice and Phil live in street full of art galleries, so we spent the night wandering in and out being part of the London arty crowd.
On Friday morning Felice took us to see Bow Arts Studio's, up until a few weeks ago she had a studio, she has now moved out as she has space to work at home, but she still spends time at the studio's as she is part of the community and she will be showing in one of their exhibitions later in the year.

As we took Tinks with us we thought we needed proof that our country dog had been to the big smoke, so here she is in front of the Olympic park, just around the corner from the studio's.

London looks wet and gloomy in this photo, but as we had suffered 37 degree heat the day before it was heaven.

Then we drove to Suffolk and spent 2 nights at Phil's sister in Kessingland, we went to Southwold on Friday night for fish and chips and a pint of Adnams. 

It was a very strange experience, we felt like tourists in a place we had spent all our lives....

Last time we went back to Suffolk I felt very anxious and didn't enjoy it much.

Even though I am a born and bred Suffolk girl the last few years before we left had been a living nightmare.

I think a part of me still didn't believe that I had found peace and happiness on Exmoor and I was worried that I wouldn't or couldn't get back to my new life.

This trip was different I was relaxed and happy and could enjoy the sun and pretty Suffolk countryside, as I felt safe in the knowledge Exmoor is my home, I'm part of the community and I belong there/here.

Anyway back to our holiday, on Saturday we had a very enjoyable Perkins family barbeque and Tinks met Peggy the pug, she didn't quite know what to make of her and was slightly scared. However when it came to begging for burnt bits of burger on my plate she decided that Peggy was safe enough to sit next to.

On Sunday we went back to Woodbridge to spend the afternoon with my Dad and Aunt, we had a lovely relaxed lunch and filled the van with the last of our belongings. Fred met us there and helped with the van packing :-)

Then the 3 of us and Tinks went to Shingle Street for a walk. I hadn't ever wanted to go back to Moors Farm and our old house, but when we drove past they seemed like a distant memory and it was nice to see them.

I've just realised that Tinks looks like a lap dog in all the photo's, but she isn't. 

Firstly she's now a bit big for a lap dog and secondly in the above photo I had to hold on to her as she had been running around the marshes like a mental case and needed to be held just to have her photo taken.

Sunday night was spent at Fred's eating Chinese takeaway from our favourite Chinese takeaway.

And on Monday we drove back to Exmoor, arriving home about 4 pm.

Tuesday was spent sorting out all the e-mails and sales we had had while we were away and yesterday Daisy and I took NDS to the North Devon show.

It was fun and lovely to chat to new customers and meet lots of local's, but it also reinforced that Exmoor is our home. 

Several Lyntonites came to the show and came to chat with us, it really made me feel happy that these were people I know from my everyday life and Dais and I were able to show them what we did.

Oh and while we have been jaunting around I did this......

Firefly is beginning to come together and the pattern is beginning to show, I have 2 weeks to finish it in time to be photographed for the book. I'll keep you posted on the progress.