Tag: beach (page 1 of 2)

Pretty Snowflakes

A long stroll this morning took me down to the seafront and along the shore where the pebbles were covered in snow. Then, up to my favourite set of beach huts; their vibrant colours standing out in illuminating contrast against the white frosting; icicles dripping from the edges of their roofs.

Stealing myself against the cold, my feet carried me further to a favourite stopping place. I stood on my tiptoes to gaze over the stone wall to see if the goats were up and out of their little hut. To my surprise, they were out playing in the snow. I paused and enjoyed the moment; lost in the calm serenity of the winter morning; as the goats romped about in their field.

All the while, pillow sized snowflakes were softly landing on my hat and shoulders. It was magic. In that moment I felt blessed. I walked back home with Patti Page singing in my ear and a heart full of happiness for all the beauty around me. It was a good start to the week!

Goodbye, July!

We were up before 5am this morning and slowly got ready. Mr. Michie made a pot of coffee and heated up two pain au chocolat to go, while I worked on packing our bag with towels. We were on the beach before 7am and found a quiet spot to make camp. We ate our breakfast and watched the waves roll in. We toasted the end of the month and the beginning of the weekend.

After breakfast we went for a swim. The water was delicious! It was a perfect morning.

Life is GOOD!

Quiet

I’m longing for quiet lately. I was shopping for a birthday card for a friend last week and found the perfect card for my Nana. It was dirty, which she would have loved. She had a wicked sense of humour. I wandered around the store and was about to purchase my items when I realised, I can’t send her a card. I just stood there like an idiot for a moment before going to put the card back. I still can’t believe that she no longer exists within my world. We shared a lot with each other, but I still had so much more to learn and to experience through her eyes.

On my daily run, I always make a beeline for the woodland paths. I slow down to a walk there and watch the muntjacs (if I’m lucky to see them), or check on the baby coots and ducklings in the pond. One little muntjac in particular and I are slowly becoming friends. He occasionally watches me do yoga or peers out from the trees across the path, when I’m doing push-ups using the back of a park bench. He seems to seek me out. I find peace in watching him. I find peace in listening to the birds and watching the sun shine through the fern leaves. One of the many side paths has ferns that are taller than me. When the sun shines through them it is like being in a chapel made entirely of emerald green stained glass.

The moment I leave the woods the traffic rushes by, people push past you and there is just so much noise coming from every direction. I don’t want noise for a little while. I want to sit in a chair with my toes in the sand. I want to do my morning run along the beach, barefoot as the sun rises. I want to collect seashells, rinsing them off in the ocean before leaving them to dry on the porch railing. I want to make s’mores over a fire and slowly lick off the marshmallow goo from my lips.

I want to eat when I feel like eating, only see people if I want to, only talk to people if I want to. I want to take naps on a screened-in porch listening to the waves as I drift off. I don’t want to answer questions, or do laundry, or clean a house. I don’t want to hear noise other than the ocean beating against the shore one rolling wave at a time. Just for a little while, I just crave the delicious sound of silence.

{Image found HERE // Pinned HERE}

A Sunshine Filled Monday

Monday mornings come around all to quickly for me. But this has been a peaceful Monday so far. We grabbed a cup of coffee this morning and chit-chatted before Mr. Michie got the bus and I did my run. I kept stopping to look at things. There are daffodils everywhere now. In clumps of golden egg yolk hues and buttercup yellow. The sun was shining and the air was cool and so fresh. The birds were singing in the woods. I watched two little coal tits gathering fluff and twigs to build a nest. The woodpecker was busy finding bugs in a dead tree by the pond and the ducks were waddling around in groups.

I finished my run and went to the grocery store to get ingredients for dinner. The dryer is whirring away as I get caught up on laundry after the weekend. There is a fresh breeze blowing in through the curtains and I’ve been listening to beach music this morning. Barbara Lewis is shoo-bopping while I type. With all this sunshine and my beach music playing, all I want to do today is a get a hot dog from Jack’s Cosmic Dogs and go dip my toes in the sand. A girl can dream can’t she? Here’s to the sunshine, because it fills my heart with light!

At Day at the Beach

Jennifer Michie Brighton 1

We celebrated the 4th of July by heading to the beach. Mr. Michie has never been to Brighton and it has been many, many moons, since I was last there myself. It’s only about an hour outside of London, so it’s a nice outing on the train. We went to the Royal Pavilion, which is such a fascinating building and lavishly decorated in Oriental decor. We did a spot of shopping in the Lanes and stopped to snack on a sausage and mustard roll.

Jennifer Michie Brighton 2 Jennifer Michie Brighton 3

We walked along the water, strolled to the end of the pier, ate scampi and chips, ice cream, played crazy golf, and visited the aquarium. Which is the world’s oldest operating aquarium and still retains it’s gorgeous victorian gothic structure inside.

Jennifer Michie Brighton 4 Jennifer Michie Brighton 5 Jennifer Michie Brighton 6 Jennifer Michie Brighton 7

We came home feeling like we had just been on a mini vacation. What a treat!

Jennifer Michie Brighton 8

Summertime’s Calling Me

It is getting hotter and hotter here! Yesterday it was almost 90F. That is a little too hot for me, when I work in a cupboard with no windows and my fan was just circulating a mix of sickeningly hot air around.

I closed my eyes at one point and dreamed of being some place else. Mr. Michie and I play a game, where we ask each other, “if you could be anywhere, where would you be?”

If he had asked me that yesterday I would have told him, listening to good beach music, driving to Jack’s Cosmic Dogs for lunch, where I would have my usual, The Cosmic Dog and then head to the beach to cool off in the water. Then, home for cold beer and boiled shrimp on the back porch, where we watch the sunset over the water and pray for the first cool breeze of the evening to waft over us.

Now, that would have been a good day to me! A girl can dream….

I Love Beach Music

When Spring seems to be in the air and sunlight dapples the path of my walks in the woods, it always makes me a little homesick. For Spring at home means dogwoods in full blossom, the tingle of the sun on your skin, the smell of pluff mud and the sparkling view of the ocean as you hit the bridge for the first beach trip of the season.

I am from the South and the promise of warm weather holds so much weight. Warm weather not only brings beach trips, a great hot dog from Jack’s, sweet tea watered down from the heat of the day, but a certain vibe all of its own. It brings with it, its own music; beach music.

Heading down to the beach during Spring/Summer in the South, meant hitting a certain part of the journey where you would lose a good radio signal. But about 20-30 minutes after that, you would pick up the sounds of the beach. Nothing but good old Shagging kinda music. We would roll the windows down to catch that first smell of the pines, the sun beating down on our skin as the car was filled with the sounds of the coast. The music filled our beach house too or echoed from someone else’s as we sat on the screen porch, watching my parent’s dance around.

I can’t get in my car and head to the beach in England, but I can bring the memories of the beach to me. All, I have to do is hit “play” on my Ipod and the upbeat, soulful, happy tunes from the “Beach Music Anthology” fill my house and if I close my eyes real tight, I can almost taste that hot dog and smell those pines, feel my toes digging into the sand, the breeze dancing across my skin, the waves hitting the shore and the sound of beach music floating across the air from someone’s radio. I love beach music!

Here are just a few of my favorite beach music melodies:

Beach Music Melodies by Jennifer Michie on Grooveshark

(Image: film still from “Shag:The Movie”)

Lawnlite

Ha Ha Ha, I want furniture that “laughs in the face of weather”. My Grandparents had some lawn chairs like this and every year they were taken out of the garage, with the smell of salt & sea on them from the previous year and packed up in the back of the car as we headed to the beach.

We usually headed down in two cars to the beach house, a trip that seemed to take forever before you could smell the pluff mud in your nostrils, and start to see the water through the pine trees.

Our fishing gear was always tucked away in my Grandpa’s car underneath the chairs that he would use to sit on and direct us with some fishing advice from the back porch.

There was a creek that was fed from the ocean behind the house and if we weren’t swimming in it, we were fishing in it. My Grandpa would hold fishing competitions between us and inevitably, someone would catch a puffer-fish and he would come down and help up us take it off our line and toss it back.

Summers at the beach with my grandparents, held a magic to them, a place where time stopped, where even after a year in between visits to the house, we fell into the same routines of swimming, playing good old-fashioned board games, reading musty smelling books left on an old bookshelf, listening to beach music and just enjoying each other’s company.

To be little again and enjoy the company of the ones you love away from all the hustle and bustle of the real world, to just get lost in the magic of the beach…

(Image: Found in Mom’s Basement)

Happier Than A Bird

It is beautifully sunny today and might get up into the 70’s. There is a delicious breeze blowing, I have beach music playing on the radio and as the voices of The Platters drift over me, I can only think of being little; the window rolled down, the wind whipping at my hair, my fingers catching the updraft as the smell of pluff mud fills my nostrils, the beach is on the horizon and the diamond dazzling reflection of the sun off of the water makes me squint and very soon I know my toes will be in the sand…

So today as the sunshine sinks into my pores and nourishes my soul, I am more than content! I hope there is something making you happy on this beautiful sunny Friday!

Trick-or-Treat!

Happy Halloween! I hope your day is filled with cute little pumpkins, witches and hobgoblins. We are packing up the car this morning and getting ready to leave this enchanting place! I will miss Cornwall and our walks along the coastal path and smelling the fresh sea air.

Yesterday, we went to another Smuggler’s Cottage, this time in Tolverne on the river Fal. 

Unfortunately, the pub was closed so I didn’t get to see all the memorabilia that exists inside, but it was one of the sites used by American troops to launch the ships for D-Day. It was moving to think I saw what so many soldiers had seen as they boarded the boats; the same cottage, the same views, drove down the same lane…

There were signs along the road to the pub stating what different areas were used for and what they housed. It was really interesting to see.

We carried on down the road after that for a nice pint and some lunch at a nearby pub, before heading back to Looe for one more walk down the coastal path (and one more chance to wear my green polka dot wellies!). We stood on the beach once more; it is amazing to thing we are standing on the edge of England, the edge of our world! We stopped at Larsson’s Coffee House , named after the Swedish artist Carl Larsson; for wonderful crepes and the most scrumptiously rich hot chocolate oozing with whipped cream, mmm! Perfect for a cold day!

Next, we headed to the bakery to pick up fresh scones on our way home with Cornish cream and strawberry jam, that is our breakfast today, I can’t think of anything better!

We are saddened to leave here, but we hope to come back again to visit this bewitching little slice of heaven.

(Trick-or-Treat image copyright Country Living)