A moment to recharge

 

A MOMENT TO RECHARGE

So what do teddy bear makers do in their free time? Well, Leeds Castle is not far from where I live, the perfect place to grab a camera and take a stroll in the beautiful grounds, breathe in the peace and enjoy the scenery.

This week I visited with my mum, armed with our cameras for a leisurely stroll round the lake, snapping away as we wandered through the gardens. Then we bought hot drinks, found a bench to sit on and had a natter as we watched the many birds who wander around, stopping to say an occasional hello to visitors as they busy their way around the lake. It was such a lovely way to recharge our batteries and take a moment out from the worries of the wider world.

New Year's Day Molehills

2020 squelched off to a boggy start when my family and I met in Mote Park for our first welly walk of the year, on a rather gloomy New Year's Day.

I love this park in all seasons and no matter the weather, always enjoy a walk here. It was doubly special to walk with my kids and grandchildren as we entered another new year together. I used to love walks here with my kids, thirty something years ago, when they were 'nowt but a pair of cheeky mini munchkins, sploshing on the edge of the lake in red wellies and I am touched that they still recall our games of poohsticks under the old stone bridge and adventures as we searched for Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Rabbit in the woods.  The best childhood memories should always be magical enough to last a lifetime.

And now of course, my grandchildren also don wellies to explore this beautiful park with us. This year Toby decided he was hunting for bears, which involved some very muddy adventuring, not to mention a jolly good splosh in the lake with Betty. Little sis Izzy, was happy to collect sticks as she toddled through mud and across molehills, somewhat determindedly picking herself back up every time she tripped over.

This is a walk we have done countless times before as a family, but each time there is new fun to be had for everyone... and as I watch my children, grandchildren and dogs playing together in what has always been my favourite local park, the years fall away easily and fond memories of my time here as a young mum happily 'outdoorsing' with my son, daughter and our dog Harvey, can still make me smile, so very many years later.

Some walks are about more than scenery and fresh air... some walks have the power to evoke memories of your happiest times and to remind you that despite the muddy molehills of life, what truly counts is walking through it together.

:-)

They sit no more at familiar tables of home..

Our town honoured the fallen with a parade on Remembrance Sunday, so we stood watching, as uniformed soldiers, service personnel, First Aiders, Air Cadets and of course, the British Legion veterans, marched proudly across the old stone bridge to pay respect to their comrades, at the War Memorial.

It was a beautiful, cold, crisp November day.

Polly and Betty, wearing poppy bandanas as a mark of respect, were on their very best behaviour, as we followed the march up the road, to join in the Service of Remembrance.

After the service, we headed to a little snack bar for hot drinks and freshly cooked sausages to thaw us, before walking back to the memorial to see the poppy wreaths and to pay our own respects.

It was lovely to witness the town coming together to honour those who gave their lives to protect us, to hear the congregation singing the National Anthem together and to listen to the bugle play the 'The Last Post', but the most moving moment was as we read the hand written message on a tiny wooden cross laid at the end of a row of similar such crosses in the garden, placed discreetly behind the main War Memorial...

It read simply.

'For my Dad'.

The Fallen
Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

Pumpkin Huntin'

On Sunday afternoon, we set off in the car, welly booted and with cameras primed, in preparation for our autumnal deer spotting outing at Knole Park in Sevenoaks. However, our plans for a fun family tromp were thwarted, as for some reason unbeknownst to us, Knole Park had closed its rather grand gates to the public. Determined not to give up on our planned family walk, we drove past the park opening and rang my son and his wife to see if they had any bright ideas ... which, thankfully, they did!

Five minutes later, we met up with everyone at a mystery destination, the lovely Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, which despite having lived in Kent for forty plus years, I had never heard of before ...

So rather than deer hunting, we spent a fun afternoon exploring beautiful gardens and hunting for pumpkins instead!

Riverhill is a family owned property and the Estate is managed today, by the Great-great-great-grandson (and his wife) of John Rogers, who bought this fabulous property back in 1840. We thoroughly enjoyed the dog-friendly (on leads please) gardens and were made very welcome.  The gardens were a magical blend of the formal and the more mysterious ... absolutely perfect for exploring with my grandchildren.

In fact we had such a fun afternoon at Riverhill, we very quickly forgot all about our original plan to visit Knole!

:-) 

Autumnal Inspirations

I fell in love with this Harris Tweed the second I saw it and just knew it would make a stunning Tweedy Ted ...

 18" Mackenzie Tweedy

 Up until now, my previous Tweedy Teds have had classic three piece heads (not including their ears!) so I thought it would be fun to design a four piece centre-seam head for this particular fellow. I have designed centre seam mohair bears over the years as they provide scope for shaping - for example, if you design a gentle curve into the head gusset, it offers more depth and creates a wonderful dome shaped head. I thought it would be fun to translate that lovely dome into my Tweedy Ted and happily, this design worked really well.  If you would like to know more about Mackenzie Tweedy, please pop over to my website.

www.allbearbypaula.com

Update: Mackenzie Tweedy has now been adopted!

It is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and I am loving the daily walks I take with Polly and Betty, my Golden Retrievers. The countryside is rich with berries and the leaves are beginning to turn beautiful shades of orange and gold. It is a time of year I have always found especially inspiring ... the dogs are loving it too as there are now lovely muddy puddles to splash through on their walks! They really are such a pair of muck magnets.

These are a few photos I snapped on our walk through Oaken Wood last weekend...

Needless to say I spent the rest of the afternoon armed with shampoo, towels and a hose!

Whatever the season where you live, I hope you too are enjoying all it has to offer!

:-)

Castle Canines

We always enjoy a visit to beautiful Hever Castle in Edenbridge and one of my favourite times to visit is when 'Castle Canines' dog show is being hosted in the grounds. There is something completely joyous about seeing the Southern Golden Retriever Display Team strut their formation stuff to music; they always seem such happy dogs!

Naturally, we take Polly and Betty with us as they love to be involved in trips out and always enjoy a visit.

They are such good girls whenever we take them out and they love all the attention they receive from other visitors, especially the children. Hever Castle is a very 'dog friendly' place to visit and although dogs aren't allowed inside the castle itself, well behaved dogs are welcome to enjoy the beautiful gardens with their owners, so long as they are kept on leads.

And those gardens are breathtaking!

I especially love the Italian Gardens and the formal Rose Garden...

In fact, near to closing time, while the garden was quiet, I couldn't resist taking a few photographs of my girls posing rather regally among those gorgeous roses!

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Hever Castle this year and after eating way too much ice-cream, mooching around fabulous gardens, seeing the many other dogs visiting and watching the Southern Golden Retrievers display team, we headed towards the lake to spend one last hour strolling right round the water along meadow flower paved pathways. It was such a pretty, peaceful walk!

Polly and Betty enjoyed their visit to Hever Castle too and even though they were on leads, so didn't have a run that afternoon, they didn't seem to mind in the least. In fact, they were both very sleepy when we arrived home on Sunday evening. Trips out are both exciting and exhausting it seems!

Hever Castle is a very lovely, dog friendly, place to visit. 

We will definitely visit with our girls again!

:-)

Soggy doggy days

It has been a weekend for pottering about and doing nothing much in particular, with a brief exception when I popped out to visit my daughter for a cuppa and a catch up.  Unfortunately the weather is continuing the rainy theme I mentioned on Friday and Saturday's walk with my dogs must rate as the soggiest for quite some time ... in fact I was soaked right through to my undies after tromping along in torrential rain with them for an hour an a half. Madness!

Thankfully Sunday's walk in Jeskyns Community Woodland was a little drier and a whole lot more fun ...

Polly and Betty had a lovely time racing around through pretty meadows and along woody pathways, then finished their walk with a splash in the duck pond ... although neither was quite brave enough to venture in for a proper swim as that meant stepping from a ledge and dropping into deeper water. Big they may be, but brave they are most definitely not!

And as if I haven't been quite wet enough already, this week has begun with storm warnings and yet more torrential rain. As I write, rain is crashing onto the glass roof of my conservatory and my poor roses are struggling to stay upright in the garden. Not a good day for walking dogs that's for sure, but we'll don raincoats and I'll hunt out my wellies anyway ... urgh.

On a happier note, it is the perfect day for staying cosy in my workroom sewing and yes, that means a new teddy bear is on the (hopefully sunnier!) horizon!

:-)

Blue skies and a Roly Poly

Exactly year ago this week, we were being battered by the 'Beast from the East', a ferocious snow storm but for the past three days this year, the sun has been warm, the skies blue and daffodils and blossom are starting appear everywhere. It seems there can be no predicting our British weather!

We're enjoying early Spring sunshine this week!

Having fun in the sun at a local Woodland Trust with my Grandson.
We climbed a tree together, so this photo was to celebrate us not falling off our perch!

Needless to say, I have been making the most of this unexpected sunshine by going out and about with my dogs and my Grandson. After all, how often are we ever able to enjoy warm sun in the UK in February?!!! We have enjoyed some lovely local walks together and have all been feeling relaxed and happy in the Spring sunshine.

12" Roly Poly

Happily, I also finished a cheerful new bear for my website between walks. I hope you will agree, he is a cracking little chap!

'Roly Poly' is now available for adoption from my website, so if you would like to know a little more about him, please click the link below ... thank you!

 www.allbearbypaula.com

:-)

Update: Roly Poly has now been adopted.

Our Garden of England

That feeling when the sun comes out after a long, hard Winter!

We took the girls for a long ramble through our local woods, around the perimeter of the pear orchard and across a huge 'scrubby field' yesterday. The sun shone, it was warm and we noticed a gentle hue of fresh green cast over the landscape and tiny buds on trees ... we were left in no doubt that Spring is close by.

And of course, there is nothing quite like owning Golden Retrievers to help you fully appreciate the joy of Spring as goldies positively bounce with excitement whenever the sun comes out!

Sadly, like so many areas in the South of England, our local green spaces are now under threat of development. What was once a beautiful field full of wildlife, birds, berries, crops and happy memories of beautiful evening sunsets, is now bricks and tarmac. We watch helplessly each week as yet more trees are torn from our lovely pear orchard to make way for a community centre and with our hearts sinking, await the inevitable moment when diggers plough ruthlessly through our ancient bluebell woodland to lay an approved road. Dear old 'Scrubby field' will also eventually be built upon, as we fear, will our favourite 'Pea field'. These are sad, sad times for this county, historically celebrated as 'The Garden of England'.

Naturally as a walker and a dog owner, I enjoy our natural environment at all times of year, but in Spring, nature's moment for rebirth, somehow this loss seems ever more poignant ...

:-/

I also write a blog called 'Polly's Progress' and almost six years ago, wrote the post below ... 

I hope you enjoy sharing these happy memories of 'our field'.

A field for all seasons

:-)

It's just another New Year's Eve..

I'm not really the biggest fan of New Year's Eve, it always makes me feel a bit sad to be waving away another year and my dogs are frightened of the midnight fireworks. This year I spent the wee small hours of 2019 on my living room rug, with an anxious Polly and Betty pressed tightly into my sides as they fretted about the 'war zone' happening outside.

Whilst New Year's Eve doesn't float my boat these days, I do always enjoy a good walk on the first of January and this year, invited my family to Teston Bridge Country Park which meanders along the River Medway. The weather was was crisp and dry for our first walk of 2019 and we were treated to the most fabulous winter sunset on our return.

Starting a brand new year 'outdoorsing' with my family, gave 2019 the best possible start for me and hopefully for each of them too. We all love a good welly walk together!

This year my Granddaughter joined us for her very first New Year's Day walk. She snuggled safely in her sling, smiling and chatting along the way, while her big brother, now a lively four year old, sploshed through muddy puddles and collected sticks to tease his auntie with.

It was a lovely walk, relaxed and fun, with beautiful scenery, shared with the people who are my world.  In fact, I'd even go as far as to say, the perfect start to a New Year!

So, time to say goodbye to 2018 and hello 2019. 

I am looking forward to a year full of family, fun and time to create. I am not making New Year resolutions, just a promise to myself to make the best of every day.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

May 2019 be all you hope for.

Paula.

xxx

A green and pleasant land

We walked into town to watch the Remembrance Day Parade yesterday morning, standing silent with the rest of the town at 11am, to pay our respects to those fallen in war.

It was a moving experience to watch regiments marching smartly across the old bridge, especially the veterans. Polly and Betty wore poppy neckerchiefs to show support and made us proud by sitting to attention at the kerbside as the soldiers marched past. They posed for photographs and gave a polite paw to anyone when asked ...  they raised many smiles and many compliments. I was proud of them, so to say thank you, we bought a large freshly cooked sausage from a nearby kiosk to reward them after the ceremony. It had been well earned!

As we paid our respects and gave thanks, I thought about how far we are now from the days when fear permeated our entire country and the world beyond. After all, we are only a century forward from those obscene trenches of war where sons, husbands and fathers, fought on foot for our freedom, so many never to return to their loved ones. 

Peace is so fragile and for our freedom, I think we owe more than we can ever fully know...

Dulce et Decorum Est

by Wilfred OwenLaunch Audio in a New Window

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.