~views from the roundhouse~

*French bicycle~French van*

~i know its fun, but...~

i took this quiz as a bit of fun last night

Your element is Rain: Sad, lonely, distant and unique. You are quite distant from emotion and people, but you have been made this way by one thing or another. You are truly unique yet fail to see it and are quite creative be it in art, music, writing...

~i love these!~

oh my~i do not usually really want something if i have some already, in this case sandals~but i oh so want a pair of these!
they are purple!
i had a pair very similar, many years ago and i keep wondering if they are still tucked away somewhere at my mum's house. i dont expect they are so i shall keep on wishing...

~where the wild roses grow~

this is the website of the wonderful soul Roses, who swampy was conspiring with for my special necklace~'my lady moon'

where the wild roses grow

~blue sky joy~

this is how i felt this morning~i opened my eyes, looked out of the window and all i could see was a thin slice of our neighbours roof, colored with moss and lichen and the trees and hedges that make our back garden so secluded.
any traffic noise from the centre of the village and the main road linking us to the other villages in the forest does not reach this far so all i could hear was bird song for the multitudes that visit our garden.

today Evangeline will be back on the road and i am trying to decide whether or not to go and buy my basket~i imagine i will for i have never not had a bike basket.

i was taught to ride at the age of 5, not by my dad, but by our neighbour at the time, a police force colleague of my dad~i always remember my stabilisers being taken off of my little bike and it being passed over the fence, with me following in the same way. in less than a day i was zooming up and down our garden and from then until i passed my driving test a good twenty years later, i went everywhere i possibly could by bike.

we have a college here on the edge of the village and this is where i went at 16, cycling in with my books in my basket, later on with a new group of friends we would go between our classes to a friends house that was placed perfectly for college, the village shops and 'the jugged hare' where we used to go to drink and listen to the jazz of the 'real ale and thunder band'. we even took our bikes when we spent six weeks one summer living in a beach hut at mudeford spit

the beach huts can only be reached by a small ferry from mudeford quay or a trip round to hengisbury head...we opted to getting a train to the nearest train station, cycling to hengisbury head, loading our bags into the little 'noddy train' that travels down to the spit and then cycling down to our hut ourselves.

later i would cycle the seven miles daily to my place of work~slogging up hills and freewheeling down the other side.

...i continued to cycle until we moved to bournemouth~i had a bike which i took with me and as our flat was too small to keep it inside my bike lived on our second floor balcony, thinking of course it would be safe. but no...it was stolen one night or one day and no-one saw a thing.

so now i am back to where i started, in the same village where i learnt to ride all those years ago, with a different bike but the same excitement!

~beautiful~

it is our ten year anniversary next week and swampy has been long conspiring with a very talented friend of ours...

today i had a parcel arrived for me...

in a bag within a bag...

the tiny face of the full moon, peeking out from a cluster of stars~with both of our birth stones and a tiny rose at the clasp

~perfect~

~justice~

while looking at the verderers website i noticed this...

Announcement: Thursday 7th May 2009
Successful Prosecution of Hit and Run Driver.
A foal was found dead on the B3078 at 5.30 a.m. on the 5th June 2008. The foal appeared to have been dragged along the road by a vehicle.
Following a plea for information in the press, a gentleman came forward and provided information that led to the successful prosecution of Mr T****** B***** from Lover, near Salisbury who had collided with the foal.
Mr B**** was prosecuted in the New Forest Magistrates Court in Lyndhurst and found guilty of driving without due care and attention. He was fined £900.00, ordered to pay £60.00 costs and £15.00 victim surcharge and had his licence endorsed with 6 points.
The Verderers will always encourage the police to pursue prosecutions where there is clear evidence that motorists responsible for accidents with Forest livestock were driving in an inappropriate manner, or, when drivers fail to report accidents to the police.

Announcements~Verderers of the New Forest

i blanked some words obviously, but if anyone does with to read it in full then just click the link~it is there in the public domain for those interested.

this is the downside to living here, but its good to see people are prosecuted well and truly.

given this man is relatively local to the forest, with salisbury being just outside the boundaries, he and others who do the same thing, year in year out, would have known there are animals on the road at any point and so should have driven accordingly and prevented obvious suffering and distress.

but oh no, so many just treat the roads like a motorway, day and night with no care~it makes me spit bricks and those who get caught deserve every point on their licence.

~cowboy pony~

on our way out this morning i was glad i had my camera with me when we saw this small herd crossing the road and continuing their journey our way~i always call these brown and white ponies 'cowboy ponies'~isnt he cute?!
i think the agister was there just to check up on him; he/her was very young and possibly been born close by over night

there is also a new baby up over black bridge...

*the new forest, really is a special place to live*

~for the love of Evangeline~

as mentioned it is not my aim to restore Evangeline, but to preserve her as she is today, with all of her Paris bumps and scrapes~i want to retain her special character.
however she does need an 'mot' quite badly, which started on monday, with her being stripped right back to her component parts, cleaned at the kitchen sink and some bits being re-built on the kitchen table!
as i write, her frame, forks, wheels, mud guards, seat handle-bars and back rack are on the floor behind me.
today she will start to be returned to her former glory, with a new addition.....

we went to our local bike shop yesterday to buy a new peddle axle, they did not have one but phoned their branch in christchurch, and we said we would stop by to collect it.
so off we went today only to find the chap having no knowledge of the call~i think someone forgot to pass on the message~and no he did not have what we needed, not even in his box of spares. but he did tell swampy how to set the turn on the axle so it is just right.
he also had in stock the exact bell i wanted, a big chrome 'ding dong' one~and the nice man let me have it for nothing for what he said was a wasted journey~what a lovely surprise!

*next week she will have a nice willow basket*

~the brief history of Evangeline~

we had a twenty mile journey this afternoon to pick up Evangeline~the name came to me as we loaded her into the back of pippin~it feels like the perfect name.
its has been raining on and off all day but it held off long enough for me to have a little ride outside our house and she feels perfect...i just love the little rack on the back and the original little saddle bag, complete with the motobecane logo

all we need to do is replace one break cable and swampy is going to give her an 'mot' for me. i am not going to do any kind of restoration, i want to keep her character~including the bumps, dents and missing paint and slightly cracked saddle. i am just going to get myself a basket and bell.



helen, the lady who owned her before, bought her when she moved to Paris and used her daily for some years, before she returned to England, bringing the bike with her~i am so glad she did.
everything on her is original...

except this...

...looking closely i realised that it was not original to the bike, so naturally i had to do some investigation and discovered that it is some kind of hand stamped token/icon (i cant find the right word here!) from an Augustinian nunnery in Avesnes in France. being the kind of person who loves to check maps i had a look for Avesnes
only to discover it is close to where my great grandfather Johney Gaul died and is buried.
i have to say that freaked me out, not in a bad way though
given the distance he is buried from family, what are the odd's i have just bought a bike or at least an 'add-on' from so close to where he lived his last days

~shall i give up now?~

i admit, i do watch tv, i am not one of those people who make a big point of not watching/not having a t.v~i watch things i really like and interest me,especially if it relates to my degree; documentaries, films, the news when i feel my blood pressure isn't exciting enough~but this means i can only escape the adverts if i have recorded something and can happily fast forward~if not i always have a book at hand to read my way through the ad's. as for magazines, well the only one i read is 'country living' but even then i cant escape the dreaded adverts.

given my grand old age of 42~yes adverts make me feel positively geriatric~i should rush out and make sure i have stockpiled the essential things needed to ensure i remain youthful, attractive and feminine...

creams to hide fine lines and deep set wrinkles~creams to fill in the monstrous caverns that develop around my lips, creams that abrade the old skin away, dye to cover the dreaded gray in my hair (forget it~natural red heads go gracefully white and i cant wait), assorted creams and razors to remove any hair that dare appear...not forgetting the creams to make my skin glow and appear more youthful, hair products to tame my unruly locks,things to make me smell so good men chase after me in the street (good grief)

and that's just the tv...when i go to the doctors/dentist/hospital if there is not a national geographic or gardening magazine available i will pick up one of those multitude of women's magazine~perk up my blood pressure prior to a blood pressure check~keeps the doctors on their toes!

the magazines are infinitely worse~not only do they have the dreaded adverts, but they also have pages and pages of ridiculous fashions placed on impossibly thin women/teenagers...wear this, get beautiful,get thin, get a man...and it just goes on...and on...and every year there is some new wonder product on the market...

i imagine they would argue that it is promoting self-esteem in women who may not be very confident, i think these magazines only purpose is to make insecure women feel even more insecure, so they rush out to buy all these products which makes them even more insecure...round and round, catch 22...

i was thinking this the other day when going through the latest country living, they had a few pages on natural beauty products (most of which is way too expensive when you can make your own anyway) and bits on healthy drinks, food etc but littered liberally through the pages are large glossy ad's for the major cosmetics industry. oh i know they need it for revenue but it seems such a contradictory thing!

i dont know if its the way i was brought up but i have never bought into this whole 'lifetsyle' (i cant think of a better word right now) thing~when i was younger i did read 'jackie' and 'oh boy' magazine in the 70's-who remembers those??
by the time i reached about 13 i was reading american sci fi magazines, i was and still am a huge star wars freak, and adapted my school uniform to incorporate desert boots (i had my first pair age 4 and still have a pair today)colored socks and a 'rock against racism' badge...the socks were totally unacceptable at my school and i got pulled up by a teacher we called 'gower power' for wearing fluffy lilac socks!
then i moved onto 2000AD and Solidarity/ANC badges and by my twenties i was reading deadline, where tank girl made her appearance...




...i do belive i was a little in love with tank girl...

i always say to swampy how glad i am not to be growing up now~looking back i see the seventies and eighties and even the early nineties, as an exciting time to grow up, there seemed to be 'variety' in everything~now everything seems so narrow (maybe i just need to get out more?!)and grey.
luckily i see pockets of individuality thriving...i am poniting at you, yes you; and in some cases passing to the next generation~i think boho mom and hatchling are great examples of this.
i like to think there are plenty of young folk being brought up to embrace difference and individuality with a healthy dose of respect who are going to make a big difference in the world

~a new arrival~

no, not that kind of arrival...

meet...

isn't she lovely?
yes she is a she, i just get that vibe about her.

i have been without a bike for a long time.

when we moved to bournemouth there no room in my flat...when we moved to dorset i had no hope of cycling anywhere because the hills and my m.e would not be in agreement.

now we are back in the new forest with both the village and my mums house an easy cycle away (one hill on the way back from mums) i have been harping on about a bike~a proper bike mind you, none of this new fangled mountain bike lark.

being the Luddite i am i wanted something old fashioned and this fits the bill a treat and rather than going to buy a new one that looks old, the 'recycling' route is much better.

anyway she is a French Motobécane, to go with our French van of course! and will soon be adorned with a nice 'ding dong' bell and basket~watch this space

~now i am starting to feel really poorly agian...so goodbye for now~

~home remedy saves the day~

my word have i been ill this past two days
yesterday was spent in my pyjamas incapable of anything but hugging a hot water bottle and feeling miserable~i had no ginger to go with my ginger and lemon drinks i make up when i am feeling sick.
swampy had a dash to the village vegetable shop hoping they had some. thank goodness they did otherwise i would have been even more miserable.
*i generally just add a couple of slices of lemon and chopped or grated ginger root to hot water~dried ginger really does not work at all as it sinks to the bottom of the mug and has lost the kick of the root*

the night before swampy tucked me up in bed and set up our little tv so i could lay and watch cry freedom and not worry about faling asleep

today i am almost back to normal~up and dressed and so glad i had worked enough to get almost two weeks ahead with my studies...

~a wonderful time was had by all~

Shiny happy people holding hands

shiny happy people laughing

~REM~

well we are home from our camp and as usual it was a great, relaxing weekend.

it started with a massive hail and rain storm early on friday but the clouds soon cleared and we had great weather.

people started to roll up friday afternoon and by late evening we had over 20 h vans parked up in their multitudes of colors and variations as well as added extras, such as a few velo solex. our friend Al had a test ride and now wants one...so do i!

cody was not a happy boy~he started to limp a little on thursday morning which we put down to him twisting his leg while doing his usual springer spaniel thing over black bridge~when he is let off his lead he just rushes around, crashing through anything that's in his way and leaping ditches. we kept him quite over night and kept him on his lead but it wasn't working. so we were preparing ourselves for a visit to a local vet when swampy remembered that one of our campers was a vet and he very kindly came and had a look, only to remove a huge thorn from codys paw. we then discovered that his practice is in bournemouth, which is not far away and he was so good with cody we decided he is now going to be cody's vet, especially as we had a little bit of free 'surgery' (from the noise cody was making you would have thought he was having surgery!)

anyway, here are some photos of the weekend

trust me it looked much better than the photo!

arriving home the two village regulars were at the bottom of the hill from our home

~h-vans ahoy!~

the van is all packed ready for our four day, annual h van rally~meeting up again with friends from far and wide

the weather here in the new forest is grey and chilly so fingers crossed it brightens up

*hope you all have a good weekend wherever you are*

~for me?~

a big thank you hug goes to boho mom for this award

these are the rules~copy & paste this award to your blog & list 7 of your favorite things and pass it along to at least 7 others.

~well, now my seven favorite things~

*having a secluded little garden that am slowly, with swampys help, turning into the sacred garden i have always wanted*

*laying on the sofa to watch ballykissangel and monarch of the glen with cody snuggled up on my lap!*

*going off with swampy in our little house on wheels for camping trips~we are packing up the van today for a short trip*

*swimming~but not in nasty, chemical infused pools~drop me in the sea on a sunny day and i can stay there for hours!*

*music~mainly folk music, fiddles, banjos, penny whistles and bodhrans of course! i always have music playing; on my lap top, ipod or radio. when i go to bed i always have on radio 4 which is not something i ever thought i would listen to ten years ago!*

*genealogy~i started my tree a few years ago and its addictive. i am not just interested in my family line but the social history of my ancestors and the times they lived in*

*history~of course! totally obsessed with all history*

so there you are, now i know some people i visit will have this already and passed it on, so as not to deluge people, i leave this open for anyone who wishes to join in~please tell us some of your favorite things...

~beltaine walk~

i went over what i have always known as 'black bridge' to the wild fields beyond, that hundreds of years ago was clay pits, mainly to see the foal that had been born just a few hours earlier~luckily it is only a few minutes walk, the worse bit over the bridge itself...old, mossy wooden planks,some with gaps between showing the drop below, some horribly wobbly~i hate hights


over the bridge it was like entering another world and it made me think of rowans post today~a day when the veil between us and the fey is thin

there was a strong feeling of being watched and out of the corner of my eye i caught a flash of white, crossing the path...




mum was being protective of her new baby