Summer Staycation: drifting to a close

A stone with a sparkly smile

A stone with a sparkly smile

These have been the last few days of our summer staycation, as tomorrow we will both be back at work. As always, we started the holiday questioning ourselves and our use of time a lot: ‘Are we doing the holiday right? Is this what we should be doing with our time? Is this enjoyable or not?’ And then, fairly quickly settling into our natural groove.

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Our best day out came at the end of the holiday on Saturday when we went to a proper seaside resort for a proper seaside visit: ice creams, beach, fish and chips, gift shop browsing, and ice creams again! We came home with some excellent stones (pictured above and below), a lost golf ball that we found on the beach, and a new notebook for Lucy to do our budgets and to-do lists for the next few months (from the gift shop!). Lucy did most of the driving and started to turn around her difficulty with it and even enjoy it (and not only because she has decided she can have a bowl of chocolate cereal as a reward for each drive.)

Stone with a crescent moon, and red stripe stone

Stone with a crescent moon, and red stripe stone

On another day we had to wait in for an electrician after our hot water and oven stopped working due to a faulty RCD unit. This was annoying, but we did get a lot of decluttering done. Lucy found a practical use for a pretty guinea-fowl feather that was sitting around gathering dust by using it as a bookmark – seen here in our latest library book, which happens to be about decluttering!

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And on the day we went to the village library, we wandered slowly back finding some plum trees on the way where we collected some tasty fruit. We played ping pong nearly every day, and in the evenings we played card games and on the last night together Brian got the guitar out for some freeform improvisation!

After Brian’s son had headed back to his mum’s after two weeks with us, we ended the staycation with a burst of productivity: chain-sawing, chopping and moving a big stack of firewood. We were hot and tired, but glad to have something practical to show for our week as well.

Taking a rest in the middle of the job

Taking a rest in the middle of the job