Looe, Cornwall: Vicious seagulls?

Wandering around Looe, taking in the sights, staring at things I cannot buy and then THIS sign pops up...

WHY.

Why are they vicious? What have you done to them? I do not want seagull claws brushing my hair or a beak in my eyeball. No thanks.

*zips self up in coat and runs*

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Life Lesson #1

It sounds so obvious (I mean, we'd be dead if we forgot to do this for ages) but it's amazing what a long walk and some time to focus on the super basic things in life can do for the brain...

My sister always says that running makes her feel like she can deal with anything. My walk led me to a quiet place where I could do some chalking... 

This final photo has nothing to do with walking or breathing... 

I bought the plant from the Bluecoat garden yesterday when I was feeling a bit grumpy, and I wanted to share it with you because I think it's cute. 

(I can't face growing anything in the bulldozed yard yet... *see dinosaur post*)

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My chalkboards are getting smaller and they have orders on them....

Got a Henry Hoover. The man in the shop called out his name like he was a child waiting to be picked up from school. Is this what being 27 is? Running giddily towards a hoover? I quite like it...

 

I've also been busy this week buying bathmats, tiny easels and framing postcards of oddly shaped toys with strange eating habits.

 

I think I have become a domestic goddess. This is what it is to be clean and organised, right?

 

Sort of.

 

If only I could get the hang of keeping plants alive...

 

 

I feel like they are mocking me every time I come home to see another one withering away in the corner.

 

WHAT IS GOING ON. I FED YOU WATER. I LOVED YOU. YOU LOOKED GOOD. WHAT HAPPENED.

 

WHAT CHRISTMAS TREE LOOKS THIS DEAD ALL THE WAY THROUGH CHRISTMAS AND INTO SPRING?! WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY ONE. WHY CAN'T YOU SEE HOW SAD I AM.

 

Maybe if someone else waters them (Joe, I mean you) they will give in and live another day?

 

 

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Liverpool, UK: Wake up early, do something good.

Wake up early, do something good.

Simple.

I guess.

*hopes to be here the same time tomorrow*

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New Year, new chalkers...

I was super excited to see that my niece had been gifted a chalkboard for Christmas this year...

FINALLY! An accomplice...

Or do I mean 'apprentice'?

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What does it mean to 'be present'? Is it 'to listen'?

It's a Wednesday. It's my day off. It's sort of how I feel like most people's Sundays are...that day when nobody seems to have the energy to do anything...

But when it comes to my day off, I always feel like I should be doing something. Being productive.

I write lists. I send myself to town. I search for something I/someone needs. I drink coffee while staring out of a different window. I work, I analyse, I wash, I chalk...

This afternoon though, I read an article by Guardian writer Sali Hughes, about how you need to make yourself take time off of the world sometimes, to really appreciate life as it is... "Over the course of my bed-in, my brain gradually slowed to a pace at which my feelings could overwhelm my thoughts [...] my emotions felt vivid, visceral and heightened within the safety of my own home", she writes. It's okay to be at home, she says, with nothing planned for hours, or even days. In fact, it's good...It's "necessary". Sometimes.

I decided in that moment (in the bath, surrounded by candles and a book that I always take in with me but never read), that this would be my 'time off'. No lying there, planning what I can do when the water cools and it's time for me to move again... Just lying and listening, in the quiet. And not feeling bad for it.

While I was lying there, I heard a bird making a strange noise outside the window, I caught the reflection of one of the candle flames in the shiny metal of the plug holder, and I looked at my feet. My toenails need painting. My feet look wide and pale. I have a bruise on my thigh. How did that get there?

When you're so quiet that your mind slows down too, you start to hear everything else. The car driving down your street, a door shutting in the house next door, and the front door opening as your housemate gets home from work.

Sit for even longer and you hear your housemate filling up the kettle, too! I'm ever so glad I was quiet enough to catch that one :)

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Our garden is a little overgrown...

For ages, my housemate and I have been ignoring the fact that our garden is becoming a bit of a monster...

We were being all 'Noah Ritter' about it."Everyone say HELLO to the duck on my HEAD!", the small boy shouts, when trying to avoid Sofia Vergara's questions about him possibly having a girlfriend.

When my mum came to stay lately, I had to run to the window in the spare bedroom before she could get there, so that I could show her the duck on MY head. "Don't look down, mum. It's going to make you mad. We don't have the power tools and the garden looks really bad."

It's so bad that chalking an Abelisaurus out there didn't look out of place in the slightest...

RAWR I'M GOING TO EAT ALL OF THE TREES AND EVERYTHING

(this Abelisaurus is a plant-eating one)

"ARGHUAAAAAAA", screamed the overgrown mess.

 

Thankfully, the trees won't have to fear the dinosaur for too much longer, because the garden is getting chainsawed to death by our landlord this afternoon. Excellent. Bad news for the Abelisaurus though, who will soon have nothing to chase, and my mum, who really loves carrying out demolition jobs. "I'll come up from Wales and we'll cut it all down and drive it to the tip in the car, yeah?", she said, rubbing her hands together.

 

I'll post you their reactions next week...

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