Day 258 - Living in the tees. xx

Sunday 15^th September

 

We are up in the trees in the mot interesting of houses.  Firstly, it is huge as a result of being a converted stable block and secondly the rooms are all arranged in an odd way.  Three bedrooms are off a mezzanine level overlooking the vast sitting room complete with original wooden flooring.  I have found a writing room off the kitchen in the conservatory where I am sitting among the trees.  Below the house is an old stable yard with trees planted on its boundary.  The house towers above this year so as I write I have the tree tops for company.  Sometimes life is about perspective and this has instantly provided a provocative perspective.  I somehow feel more important! 

 

The promised Wifi isn’t working so that will make daily posting problematic.  I will do what I can to get everything posted online but, regardless, I will write daily as always.  I rather think this rather random approach to online positing will sum up my week.  Is it possible to live in an odd house and not view the world differently?  This will be an excellent experiment in text and context.  If the context is the house and the text is the way we live for the week the question is what is the relationship?  The house is full of fabulous old paintings and furniture while modern life has also been provided.  I already like the juxtaposition but you will find me leaning against the aga in the kitchen most of the time thinking about being up with the trees.  You just know I am wondering whether it would be possible to build a space in the trees back on Hazelbank!  I dare not even whisper that in Pete’s company!

 

The views towards Wales are stunning and I think we have found a lovely corner of the world.  I will do a full review of this little corner for my page ‘Corners of the World’ on my new site One soul many hearts.  It might not be that far off the beaten track but it does have something very special about it.  With the motorway connection from the M5 closed we had to come through Malvern and Ledbury and with the turn of the season the trees and the views were spellbinding.  I am already thinking that autumn is one of the very best time to visit. 

 

I think I should, at this stage, make a little confession about an obsession.   I am completely and utterly obsessed with conkers and at this time of year I get far too over excited for a woman of my age.  We have a series of inter-family conker competitions which mean that long hours must disappear in the quest to find the perfect conker for the right competition.  Year after year we somehow all get drawn into this rather odd family endeavour and it seems to get more competitive as each year passes.  There are strict rules that govern the competitions with the most important being that we are only allowed to search and retrieve conkers from the ground.  There is no throwing sticks at branches allowed in our family.  My personal frustration is that every day George finds the smallest perfect conker and I am not sure how he does that.  We collect very secretly squirreling away our finds into deep pockets before others can see what we have gathered.  We only declare at strategic points and the competition is fierce.  I can tell you that we saw too many conker trees for me to possibly keep calm yesterday and today the wind is blowing at conker releasing speed! 

 

We are off to spend some time with friends for lunch in Hereford but I sense the odd little detour to investigate the ground below one or two conker trees.  It is very important to learn to play in the forest.  Tomorrow we shall have a day playing in the forest and you can not imagine the games we have built into our family traditions. 

So, my holiday in the trees has begun and I will post updates at every opportunity I can but apologies in advance if the posting is a little random. 

 

Until tomorrow.  xx