Walk and Talk and Lunch....and Approaching the Foothills

Saturday morning Great Spotted Woodpecker...

the purple mauve splodges in the foreground are a pot of cyclamen flowers on the kitchen window sill...which don't detract from her beauty at all.

My weekend -   walking along a very

blustery pebble  beach at Budleigh Salterton...

and listening to the tap tap tapping of the woodpeckers

while I potter in the garden.

 Dawn on Sunday morning...

and the sun going down on Sunday evening, setting the garden on fire. 

I walk... and talk... and lunch... with a group of lovely friends

 deep in rural Somerset,

following the river long the  beautiful Axe valley. It looks warm and springlike but there was also a biting cold wind with occasional freezing rain spots ...enough to make me duck out of the last part of the walk and return to the house to help warm up all the delicious contributions for lunch.

This afternoon, 

after going nuts trying to get my dyslexic head around the latest set of architect plans  and feng shui  recommendations, I walk my familiar route along wet tarmac and muddy paths, in sunshine and cold air,

to take a break from doubt verging on despair.

So it's not till much later this evening,

many emails and phone calls later,

 when a  little 3D sketch -  an elevation of front door, porch, planting around it and the extension and verandah -  arrives in my inbox, that it all falls into place and I like it.

I'm still not totally convinced about the internal floorpan - but sure enough to say yes to architect  -  go ahead and apply for planning.

Phew, I knew it wouldn't be easy and this is only approaching the foothills, nowhere near base camp yet. 

Today I  had to keep telling myself this is doing my best when 90 percent of me was shouting,

"But you could be doing better". 

 A different but no less arduous mountain to climb....being kind to myself.