There can be only one

I used to pick the peel out of marmalade until on a train from Penrith to London I met a dapper elderly gent in a chalk-striped suit who told me he was heading to Harrods or Fortnum's to buy some No Peel Marmalade. It could have been created for me. Even better once I discovered that you could buy it in any self-respecting supermarket. When John and Carole came to visit the other day we discovered that Carole and I share the same discerning taste. We have tried others but they all fail to impress. There can be only one.

Life Outside

Today I had my first al fresco yoga session of the year. The occurence of these is usually limited as much by privacy as weather, but both were in my favour today, after our over-the-hedge neighbours had been for a look at the Airstream. We seem to be having an early summer and it is perfect for starting to spill out of the trailer and do stuff outdoors that is limited to indoors for rest of the year. I think it is about seven months since we put away our outdoor furniture and stored the firepit and barbecue, so it's not a day too soon. When you can leave the door open and seamlessy swap between inside and outside, that is what it's all about, whether you are Airstreaming or campervanning, fulltime or holidaying. I'm outside right now!

To get myself to make time for yoga I took my own advice that I used to give when I taught yoga classes, and that is to aim small. If you think that you need an hour put aside then, unless you're dedicated, you'll just find that you have more pressing things to do, like answer some emails or clean the kitchen bin. So, if you tell yourself that you will simply do ten minutes, or one pose, you are more likely to step onto the mat. The thing is, once you get started you will probably end up adding a few more poses, and afterwards you'll feel more alive and maybe a little bit pleased with yourself.

I have recently bought a cheap foam bed roll to put under my yoga mat to counter lumps and bumps under foot and to help to keep my mat clean. The sun warmed my face, birdsong was ringing  all around me. A couple of brave Goldfinches even dared to use the feeder which was only about eight feet from me. I savoured sustained breaths of fresh spring country air, I reached up to the sky, I thought about having a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits. I was at one with nature, and then I wasn't. I didn't dwell on the beverage fantasy, but it was a persistent yearning which I have since indulged, and my life is complete and well balanced I feel.

Reality Bites

Here are a couple of pics from a little visit to Broadway in the Cotswolds, ridiculously pretty and a perfectly preserved version of 'Englishness' which only exists in affluent pockets and attracts tourists from all over the world. It is a lovely place to wander about, have some tea and cake, buy something traditional from a traditional shop, look at some yellow houses with their regulation sagey-putty-coloured front doors before returning to the real world.

A few days after I brought the Land Rover home from its cheap-as-chips MOT it started to lose its umph. It wouldn't accelerate at an acceptable rate. I had to return to the hinterlands of Cheltenham to get it fixed, and once more had to 'kill' time, a whole day in fact.

I had a few gratifyingly gratis and discounted experiences in Cheltenham, starting with a free coffee, courtesy of a loyalty card lurking in my purse. I made up for this by signing up for the coffee chain's not-free WiFi. It took as long to sign up as to actually be online.

Next, some reward points helped me to purchase a book (Room, by Emma Donoghue) for £2.44. Then an early summer sale in a department store got me 20% off some new bed linen. So far so good.

All was negated by the bill at Land Rover at the end of the day. This seemingly simple life of ours can be bloody expensive at times. We've chosen this big shiny trailer to live in, which needs a big monster car to tow it. It works by some kind of voodoo/electrics, which has been cleverly designed so that the voodoo/electrics wear out a lot and have to be fixed by the voodoo/electrics pixies, not by mere mortals. You look under the hood and you can't even see the engine. What goes on in there? It looks big and tough but it seems to be made of marshmallows and tissue paper, and it disappoints me quite frequently. Can you tell?

Hey Ho, here's some more Spring stuff. Oh and the book was superb. I devoured it in two days.

Airstream Blush

Doesn't she look gorgeous, with the sunset making her blush and the little star lights showing from inside? When the sky or the weather does something interesting you have to be quick and leap out of the trailer, camera in hand. And by now I have taken so many photographs of reflections in the Airstream windows that I am experiencing deja-vu of a non-spooky variety.

The site where we have been staying for a little while has provided challenges to photography. The view from some of our windows is wonderfully bucolic, but we are also surrounded by tin barns, piles of gravel and an array of ageing farm machinery. Oh, and a couple of conventional caravans, and some strategically placed traffic cones. That's what cropping is for, right?

Here At Last

We went to see Submarine. It was charming, and funny, and uncomfortable, and beautifully shot, like a french film set in coastal Wales.

We saw cherry blossoms in Cheltenham.

I saw a girl in flip flops yesterday. Where do you go from there?

I have spotted a jay a few feet from the Airstream. All of the birds have on their best plumage.

Feral cats are skulking around.

All of the windows and skylights are open.

Refreshing Modernism

The car had to go in for its MOT. The dealership/garage is nowhere near to anywhere I want to be so I took a bus in to Cheltenham. In the midst of all its Regency, wedding-cakey poshness someone had plonked a concrete block, presumably in the nineteen seventies. Actually its presence is refreshingly discordant, especially since The Swallow Bakery has turned the ground floor into an urban-feeling cafe. I remembered it being a bit pricey on a previous visit so I was content with just a coffee and to sit and people-watch in an airy, contemporary space. I'm sure it will feel even lighter when the scaffold is removed from outside.

The car passed its test, hoorah! That was the cheapest visit to a Land Rover establishment ever. Big sighs of relief all round. 

Enticement

We drove to Malvern for a walk up a big hill. It rained, so we had some tea and cake and a heart-racing look around the delicious Knitting Parlour. There was a warm glow within as we ooh-ed and aah-ed at the window. Inside it smelt of new wool and wood. They had quality yarns in irresistible colours. There were some crazy textured yarns too, like the giant one that you knit with your forearms instead of needles.

Pete bought this soft as angels' breath alpaca-cotton blend. I exercised restraint. Well... I have to use up a lot more of my stash before I can get carried away again. It's not easy though, when your senses are being gently teased like that. But they have a website here if it turns out I neeeeeed more yarn.