Wellness, Mediation, the mind-body link

Hi everyone,Now that I've given you an introduction and now that we’re all trying not to step on landmines, I wanted to talk to you about an important aspect of wellness and that is the mind-body link which is achieved in meditation.This is such a crucial habit to get into. I’ll tell you what works for me and then give you some suggestions and resources you can check out.Most of you know that I practice meditation, and, while it’s easy to advise you to go forth and practice meditation, it’s not always that simple, or it may not be something which will work for you, but maybe we can find something which will work for you in order to bring you calm, clarity and healing.My mind-body link practice started in my childhood. As a serious figure skater, I not only skated every day, went to stretch and strengthen and dance classes, but also visualised my routine and my jumps in meditation. That is, I was instructed to run thru them in my mind off the ice, landing them perfectly, gracefully, and I was told that if I did that, I had a much better chance of performing them flawlessly on the ice. As children, we just believe what our coaches/parents/teachers tell us and in that belief, a true mind-body link is developed and we become better for it. If you didn’t grow up figure skating and going to stretch classes, never mind, you can learn to meditate easily.My meditation:I basically have four mediation methods which work for me and I’ll describe them to you starting with the quickest and easiest.1 The pink balloon...Don’t laugh...lol.If I have an overwhelming problem, I visualise myself rounding up that problem in a pink balloon and letting it go out into the universe trusting that the universe will handle it for me. This is a great little meditation to do on the fly. You can do that wherever you are in about two seconds. You don’t need to be lying down, you don’t need quiet, you don’t need an altar...you just need to visualise a pink balloon with that problem in it and then you need to release it and watch it ascend into the sky. And maybe your balloon is blue, or green, or purple. You choose. (I’ve no idea why mine is always pink) Maybe your problem is so huge that you need seventeen balloons to scatter it. It’s up to you. So the next time anxiety grips you...say you have no idea how you will be able to do something...anything... put that into a pink balloon and let the universe take care of it.2 The grounding meditationI’ve sat for hours in doctor’s offices waiting on unpleasant results. I’ve been scared and immobilised, unable to breathe properly, trapped in the face mask made to immobilize me for radiation therapy. I’ve been laying in Shavasana at the end of my yoga practice with a mind full of stupid things, like that guy who unfairly honked at me in traffic, or that unsatisfactory convo I had with the builder next door. The script runs on repeat and I end up playing it over and over again, taking up the precious few minutes I have for this restorative pose. Some evening I have trouble calming down enough to rest. Some nights I wake up at some ungodly hour and am unable to get back to sleep easily. At this time, my mind tends to run scenarios of all the stupid decisions I’ve ever made and then, when I will myself to stop, my mind says, “not so fast, we haven’t discussed all the stupid decisions you’re likely to make in the future!” This is the time for a grounding meditation.My grounding meditation looks like this:I visualise myself standing, sitting or lying on the earth. Usually on grass. Slowly white silvery light showers down from the universe. It showers softly, like fairy dust, it touches me and enters my body. It circulates all thru my body and then begins to enter the earth. Then a deep golden light rises up from the earth and enters my body. It mingles with the silvery universe light circulating everywhere. I feel it in my fingers and toes, it's in my lungs, my heart, my nervous system, then the deep golden light exits and rises up into the sky and into the universe. The silvery light showers down as the golden light rises and I am the conduit for this light of the world.This is a great meditation for restoring calm.3 Healing meditationsThese are rather made to order.My healing meditation #1:I get a lot of headaches and used to get loads of migraines. As I’ve aged, the migraines have settled down, but as a child, when I couldn’t take pain meds and still skate or think, I was taught a healing meditation to ease the pain. Now I use it for joint pain, stress pains, lower back pain...wherever it hurts. It’s a bio feedback sort of thing and feels a little kooky but works really well for me, and since we’re all in the spirit of sharing, here it is. It might work for you too.The steps, (do them in this order and don’t miss one)1 Find the pain. Close your eyes and specifically pinpoint where the pain is. Be as exact as possible. Feel where the edges are, feel the centre.2 Give it a shape. My headaches tend to be spiky balls with sharp thorns. Backaches tend to be hard solid rolls, like a small, metal washboard piece wedged right in there among the muscles.3 Give it a colour. Really. You’ll be surprised. These shapes will have a colour. My headaches tend to be purple.4 Decide how much water it would take to fill the pain space up. Imagine a measuring cup. Fill it with the right amount of water needed to fill the space.5 Now fill that space. Mentally tip the cup of water till it begins pouring out, and fill that space right up.After you do this, you may be surprised to find the pain much diminished; even gone altogether.Healing meditation two:This is really a good one for healing cuts, operation sites, infections, and even pain if the above doesn’t work well for you.Visualise that golden light I talked about before, but this time visualise it knitting the cut skin back together. Visualise it passing over the operation site, or infection, and as it passes, it leaves nothing but clean, clear skin. Sometimes it’s helpful to think of the golden light acting like a zipper zipping up, leaving a tiny, thin line, and later the golden light taking that line away as it passes. Do this several times per day. It only takes a few minutes. Especially do this last thing at night just before we let our body restore in sleep.I can tell you that my doctors were amazed at my fast healing after any operation. I really believe that this meditation aided my body in healing much more efficiently than any creams or medications could.4 Mindfulness- awareness meditation, a Shambhala Buddhist practiceThis one’s simple, but at the same time rather difficult guys. I learned it a few years ago in the local Buddhist meditation group. It’s designed to train your mind to remain calm no matter what. You practice it for blocks of time, like 20 or 30 minutes.This is how to practice it:Take your shoes off and sit comfortably. I usually sit on a big bolster pillow, but on a chair is perfectly fine. Pick a point just in front of you to focus on. So far so good, right?And now the difficult bit, empty your mind.Maybe listen to your breathing, concentrate on your breath, but don’t let your mind wander.Inevitably, your mind will wander. Your mind will do this: Five minutes into meditation, your mind will suddenly say “must remember to buy cat litter” and start writing a grocery list, followed by, “Ooo, is that a fire truck or ambulance?....maybe it’s a police car” and then, ”that spot on the floor...it looks like Big Ben” and so on. Every time you catch yourself thinking of something, say “that’s interesting” or “mind chatter” to yourself, and let it go and focus on your breath again. Don’t get mad at yourself, don’t criticise, don’t think that you suck and you’re the worst Buddhist in the world. Just forgive yourself, say “mind chatter” and pull your mind back again.After your block of time, get up, cup your hand at waist height in front of you as though you are carrying an apple, and walk around slowly, again with an empty mind, but this time concentrating on each foot fall. Do 10 or so minutes of mindfull walking, come back to your seat, and go for 20-30 more minutes.There you go guys. A quick introduction to meditation as a mind-body link.There is so much more out there that I don’t practice. Some people like to evoke their religion and instead of the universe, offer themselves up to God. Some people like to build a small sacred altar, get fresh flowers, burn a candle. Some people like to visualise themselves on a beach, mountain, cloud...it’s all good. Some people like chanting and some like singing.Whatever you decide on, I hope it helps you as much as it helps me.Do give it a try. And please share your thoughts.Links:One of my first meditation teachers has been Shakti Gawain. She has loads of books available and her web site is here. I’m not a fan of her guided meditation because I find her voice not calm enough for my liking. You might feel differently, but either way, she has loads of good info.One of my favourite mantra singers is Deva Premal. Her clear voice is amazing. Find her here. My favourite mantra the Gayatri Mantra here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63COahIpVMNot sure why I chose Alfons Mucha's paintings to illustrate this post except that I connect so much with him and with my childhood in Prague. It's all about comfort. :D

Hello from Monday night and a lovely Canadian Thanksgiving

Hello everyone from the Monday night of our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.It's so lovely to have this long weekend come right after my trip to the interior.I took the long way home and stopped at some of my most favourite little towns and took advantage of all the end of summer bounty. I took loads of flowers, fruit and veg home for this weekend...and for future use.We had our big turkey meal on Sunday rather than tonight because it was a time everyone could agree on.Sunday morning, I did a quick tidy round the house, polished, dusted and vacuumed.Processed the last of my tomatoes and cleaned off the dining room table.I had the usual kind of help from my housemates.I made the stuffing, stuffed the turkey and put it into the oven, and that was that. I was free to enjoy the rest of the day. I went to my yoga class, and had some time to relax while the turkey baked away and the stock simmered on the stove.Later in the afternoon I went back into the garden for some more herbs and leeks, cut up a bunch of vegetables to roast along with the turkey, peeled some potatoes and waited for my family to come.Jonathan and Chantal got here first and brought our little Megababy.I'm always so amazed how much he's grown every time I see him.But not as amazed as Chloe. We Skyped her in Japan and had a good talk with her. She hasn't seen Ash since he was a newborn. Mom came soon after and also got a chance to chat with Chloe.We all sat down and got about 10 minutes peace until Ash decided he wanted some turkey too...and the plate!!!We played pass the Megababy around, and finally put him into the highchair and put a dollop of mashed potatoes and yams in front of him.That bought us another 10 minutes...lol.But it was so lovely to see my guys and spend the evening with them.Well, here we go. Our Canadian Thanksgiving is much earlier than my American friends', but still it's the best prelude to the autumn and to the holiday season.Happy Thanksgiving everyone and happy autumn. Hope you get the best out of the season.

Wellness, stepping on landmines

It’s time to start taking exquisite care of ourselves and of our one and precious life.With that in mind, right away I thought that we have to address the elephant in the room guys, and right away thismight alienate some people.But it has to be said.You cannot be well while stepping on landmines.Now there are landmines and there are landmines. Some kinds of landmines WILL blow up under your feet and rip you apart.These land mines are: cigarettes, drugs and alcohol.If you are smoking, fooling with recreational drugs or drinking habitually, you must stop it at once. I don’t have any experience or advice to give you, but I know there are agencies who are dedicated to helping. Reach out. Get help. Do whatever you must, whatever you can to stop.But there are also the landmines which will blow up after a time delay, ticking away slowly underneath your feet while you keep standing on them.These land mines are: processed foods, sugars and a sedentary lifestyle.The good news is that there are ways you can lift your feet off those landmines and walk away.It isn’t easy and it will take more of your willpower and precious time and energy than you might think is worth it, but believe me, it will take a whole lot less energy than the energy you will need to fight back from a cancer, diabetes, or other unwell and aging related diseases.How do we begin to turn things around?I do know a few ways but the truth is I don’t know everything.I suspect the best way is to not subtract. I really don’t think that the answer is to deprive, starve, or withdraw all at once. For me the answer is to add something healthy every day. To add something healthy so that there is less room for the unhealthy. To slowly begin replacing.Say you want a sandwich. Buy a fermented bread, like sourdough rather than a refined flour white bread or a commercial multigrain. If you like cheddar cheese, then buy a white cheddar which doesn’t contain orange colourants. If you like meat slices, go for roast chicken rather than cancer causing nitrate rich hams and salamis. And then, stick some veggies in that sandwich. (Even if it’s only a tomato slice and a leaf of lettuce...not iceberg) You get the idea.Tell me what you like and I’ll find you a healthier alternative.Consider that processed meats, artificial colours in foods, anything sugar, glucose, fructose...actually anything ending in _ose, artificial flavours, corn syrups, palm kernel oils, hydrolyzed anything, refined anything, enriched anything, white anything, is all unhealthy and potentially cancer causing.Go for a walk, join a walking club...start a walking club. Take up yoga, join a gym, do some gardening.Buy some spelt flour spaghetti noodles, a real hunk of Parmesan and make your own tomato sauce without sugars, corn syrups and artificial colours. You can do it!And now you might be saying, “but, but, I like white flour noodles and I like Kraft type shaky in the container Parmesan cheese, and I like the convenience of opening a jar.” All that may be true, but at what price do you want those things? Do you want white flour noodles which turn directly to sugar in your body making your insulin spike and bringing on weight gain and diabetes? Do you want Parmesan cheese which is actually 40% cellulose filler? Do you want tomato sauce which has been artificially coloured red and has corn syrup (which has the same effect as the white noodles) and preservatives to make it last on the supermarket shelves?Try making this tomato sauce; which you can freeze very easily for next time:Pick up some local (organic if you can) tomatoes at your market. These days so many communities have local markets which pop up on weekends.Right now tomatoes which are not perfect, are perhaps a little over-ripe, have some blemishes, are at their peak and are being sold off rather inexpensively. They're often called "canning tomatoes". Go get some! Get lots! Invest one day worth of work in your wellbeing.Get some garlic, shallots if you like, and a wide range of fresh herbs. I love rosemary, sage, thyme and parsley as well as basil.Pour a drizzle olive oil into a roasting tin (the body can only absorb lycopene from the tomatoes in the presence of some fat, so olive oil is ideal), slice up the tomatoes and put them in the pan. Tear up a bunch of herbs and put around the tomatoes, crush a few cloves of garlic and put those around too. Now sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and roast for about 40 minutes.Do you have time to can the tomatoes? If yes, then process for 40 minutes, if no then go ahead and divide the roasted tomatoes into containers for freezing.There you go. One day invested for many Thursday night healthy spaghetti meals. (I do Thursday night spaghetti.)So let's do this.Begin taking your feet on those landmines little by little, gently, softly, until you are well and truly standing as far away as possible. And don’t turn back.Next week, let’s talk about emotions, meditation and the mind-body linLearn more about diabetes prevention at https://www.culturalhealthsolutions.com/prevent-diabetes/.

Wellness, it’s in our hands and we’ve got this. Our journey starts here.

I know there was a reason, in the BIG LIFE picture, (you know, the one out there with the moon and stars and aura vibrations and aroma therapy candles lol), why I procrastinated about taking you on this wellness journey.That reason might be because this week had to happen.Specifically two things happened. Thing one was I had to have a check in with the oncologist on the horrible and gloomy conveyor belt that is the Vancouver Cancer Agency.And thing two: I was invited to an expressive art therapy group session at my wellness centre.Let me tell you about the latter and a revelation I had.OK, I can safely say that I’ve done, or tried, all sorts of expressive art forms, but transferring gestures (where you mimic the one you received from the person on your right and send a new one to your left) round a circle of 10 people was a new one on me...lol. As it turns out, I’m not much of a performance artist. Good to know!Anyway, I survived three go-rounds, and on the third I must admit that transferring a gesture came more comfortably. Then my second task was to pick three colours of oil pastels and write an entire page of words describing my body.I was surprised...wait...that’s not the right word. Not surprised because the words came easily, naturally. Maybe the word is happy. I was happy to have this perspective because almost every word was positive, and every word was honest. Mixed in with the predictable words like: healthy, sexy, original, talented, flexible, strong, poised, and hopeful, were unexpected words like: wobbly, cold, worldly, golden, merciful, fractured, and wise.The next task, and the most exciting one, was to take a slab of clay and build a sculptural representation of my body.I took the slab into my hands and started warming it up. My hands became silvery grey and cold as the heat of my hands began to transfer into the clay, which started to become pliable, and I started forming something...I had no idea what that should be. A complete vacuum in my brain, pieces of clay being torn, rolled, folded, torn again and suddenly the shape of my hands was emerging from the clay in my hands.It was the most bizarre thing guys. I was sculpting my own hands from that clay.But this began to make complete sense to me. My wellbeing, my health is in my own hands.Our wellbeing is in our own hands. How amazing is that? It’s all up to us, and we can do it. All we have to do is draw from our collective pool of knowledge.Who am I to be any kind of authority on this you may ask? Well, I’m not really, but I am intelligent, well read, and have invested a great deal of time and effort in my own health.I’m the daughter of two prominent medical doctors and my first line of defence growing up was medical intervention. There was never even a thought of non-medical means.I’m the partner of a Zen philosophy practising son of a naturopath doctor, whose first line of defence growing up was bed rest, homeopathy and a strict fruit diet.I’m the mother of three grown children, whose first line of defense was natural health, that is no sugar, no processed foods, and plenty of outdoor activity, and the second line was medical intervention.I'm the survivor of a very rare and possibly unstoppable type of wonky cellnossity which no one seems to know much about...read about it here if you like, but don’t go looking it up, you’ll only depress yourselves.So here I am in my mid 50s, and my dedication to wellbeing has been strong for the past 15 or so years and I’ve come this far with a humongous wealth of information, which I’d like to share with you.In the next while, and possibly over years, there will be more of a focus on wellness on my blog. We will discuss and discover information to physical and emotional well being.Hope you come along with me and share your ideas and tips.Together we can do this. We can make this one and precious life that we have a happy and healthy one.

Last Sunday

Hi, hi there.So here I go again with zero blog posts for a week and half.All my best plans have been sidelined because a nasty migraine has been hanging around for several days. Ugh. I keep thinking that I'm a bit too old for migraines! Isn't one suppose to grow out of them eventually...you know, when hormones begin to calm down? Maybe I'm not eating enough bananas or something migraine regulatory.Oh, I shouldn't have started this post on such a negative note, because after all, I meant to be writing a series on wellness and what that means to me.And now I'm waffling.Tell you what. I'll show you my amazing Sunday last weekend and then get into wellness tomorrow. OK? Not that this last weekend wasn't part of well living and well being.Sorry, waffling again.So last weekend I took a few days and visit my daughter and her family, and on our Sunday we decided to have a picnic and a hike on their beautiful land.Kerstie and Adam bought 20 acres of forest and slope overlooking one of the loveliest lakes in British Columbia, Lake Okanagan. They are in the middle of wine and orchard lands, and, although the lake looks a distance, it's completely possible to walk to it from their property.At the moment there is no house on their land, unless you count this beautiful little play house, but progress is being made. They have had a road cut and an area flattened and will soon be able to have some temporary housing here while they build their forever home.We got here around lunch time, had our lunch,had a little time to play,and set off up hill.I was so proud of our girls. All three marched straight up the whole 20 acres with very little complaining... albeit the little zigglet had to be carried up and down some of the very steep bits, and there was plenty of water and a chocolate treat at the top.And then we took a little time at the top of the land to look around and have a rest.And then we marched back down.

Hello from Sunday night

Hello form my Sunday night everyone.I hope you've all had a lovely weekend.It's been raining quite a bit round here. So much so that the Friday night market was a bit of a wash out and I gave it a miss. I was sorry about that because the market comes to a close at the end of the month, and although it's been going all summer, I haven't been here to enjoy it. Still one more market next Friday.In other news, I've been so happy to get back to painting and creativity with Ariane's last drawing challenge. Unrelated, my friend Dalyce gave me a 1909 children's story book with the most amazing paper. Thick and soft like the finest watercolour paper...although I'm very sure it isn't acid free and will need conservation...but it's been a treat to paint on.There was a story in the book titled Good Fairies About, and that felt like mushrooms and autumnal magic.First I painted some toadstools, (amanitas), then some shaggy manes, (Coprinus comatus), and today I felt like painting some boletus.Here they are all three (story only had three pages). I took this photo in the evening light so not too terrific, but I hope you can get the idea.In other completely unrelated news, I joined the yoga challenge at my yoga studio. That means for the month of October I challenge myself to a class/day. And the challenge rules are if I miss a day I have to take two classes on the next day to catch up! (gulp) We shall see.But I thought that as long as I'm at it, October can be my month of super health and wellness. Shall I blog about it and all the steps I'm taking?Morgan has been with me in the studio these days. One minute she's meowing for attention, and the next minute she's on the roof and looking down at me thru my skylight.

Ariane's art challenge: Tide

Hello everyone,I know it's been too quiet here on my blog and it's been a bit of a hard adjustment back to Vancouver this month. Basically I found myself with nothing of any value to share.Therefore I'm so grateful to Ariane for calling the 198th art challenge: Tide.I'm a sea girl.I was born and raised in a land-locked country, (Czech Republic), but my warm holidays were spent on the sea shore in Germany. Then, when we immigrated to Canada, it was to the Pacific and I've mostly lived beside the ocean since.I love my life in Oxfordshire. I love the meadows and forests and fields and especially love the Thames beside us, but I must confess to a tiny bit of land-locked frustration. So when Robbie and I decided to have a mini break at the Jurassic Coast, it was like a coming home for me. Suddenly there was the ocean, there was the tide line with fresh treasures, there was that salty smell that I know so well. I looked around and the first thing that came to mind was, "why would anyone chose to live anywhere else?"No wonder I took all these rocks, pebbles and fossilized belemnites home to Vancouver.For this art challenge I chose a church voluntary with the title Impromptu; partly since our Jurassic Coast trip was also impromptu, but also because of the rhythmic repetition of the notes. Like waves.I painted three sandpipers hunting for treasures in the tide line...much as we were doing.I used the whole two page spread for this because one page just didn't seem big enough for what I wanted to express.Pop over to Ariane's when you have a chance for more artists and their interpretation of our art challenge.Thank you so much Rosy girl for giving me the push I needed to get out of this melancholy and write a post again.

Autograph book turned seasonal journal page by page, plus video

Here it is at long last. :DI know quite a few of you asked about the little 1954 autograph book which I turned into a seasonal journal and today I took a few hours to photograph it, video it and get it out here for you.(Confession: blogging is a lot of work!)If you'd like the short version, then here is the video link...where I go on an on anyway about some of the other journals...plus Sbux...plus my tote bag...https://youtu.be/tic52VLrW_MAnd if you'd like to see this little journal page by page, then here are all 24 pages:This is the first page where a girl named Clare Hosier wrote her name and addy in 1954.The most prominent wildflower growing in the meadow the day I started this journal was the ragwort, so that became the first page painting.The second page has ground growing bramble leaves. The summer has been dry in Oxfordshire and some of the leaves were turning the most glorious colours.This is deadly nightshade.Then some of the beautiful meadow grasses.This wildflower I love! It's Himalayan balsam. I love the seeds because when they are ripe, the slightest touch pops the seed head and catapults the seeds like a little rocket.Here are some colourful wild cherry leaves.And evening primrose.The ubiquitous morning glory: convolvulus arvensis. (a delicate ground creeping pink variety)A little wren around meadow vetchling and sweet violet.This is rose bay willow herb. In Canada we call it fireweed.HazelnutsRose hips.One of the last few poppies of the summer.This is damson plum. The hedgerows are full of them and they make the nicest hedgerow jam.Fat little peacock butterfly caterpillars.Here is a Queen Ann's lace flower and seed head.Wild hops.Blackberries.Oaks.Guilder rose. (Viburnum opulus)Horse chestnuts.Aspen leaves.Campions and a peacock butterfly.And the last page is vetch seeds plus a little autograph dedication from me.I love that, as the summer went on, this summer journal became a autumnal journal.So here you go.Hope you like it as much as I do. :D

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, a lesson in being maudlin.

I'm afraid this may be a bit of a maudlin post, but the photos and the thoughts have been sitting in my computer and head for a few days now and I suppose have to be said and seen somehow, so here they are.It seems like yesterday that I was at home in England.Last night, in my dreams I heard the feral cat Mondo yowling for food outside the cottage. I woke up with a start, and before I knew it, I was in the kitchen automatically filling a cat bowl to bring out to him.Then, full sleepy eyes and jet lagged brain in the middle of the night, I realised that I was in my Vancouver kitchen, and that it was Morgan yowling wanting to come inside.I had to laugh, but not to be all maudlin, I felt really sad and lonely and weepy too. That's what you get at 2am, huh?Sometimes, and especially just after a long, wonderful and full summer, it's hard switching countries.I miss Robbie, miss Theo, and miss all that is home in E, but at the same time miss and feel a responsibility to Morgan and Milo, my mom, Kerstie, Jon and my beautiful grands, but at the same time miss and feel a responsibility to Robbie and Theo.... you get the picture. (At least I'm a little off the hook with our Clover because she's still in Japan.)So here I am in Van.And it's beautiful.And I'm maudlin missing E and not being able to live in the moment.And that's the reality of today.But then, it's Wednesday evening, I managed to get thru the first three days and nights, (including a bout of food poisoning from the airplane meal), and tomorrow is a new day.I've picked up three canvases for an anonymous art show, I've contacted a few possible art venues, I've sorted appointments for the necessities of health: dental cleaning, surgery follow up, yoga class resumption, I've done the grocery shopping, a few hours of gardening, curbside recycling...it's all starting to fall into place.I've brushed (at least tried to brush) Morgan and played with Milo, I've caught up with Kerstie and my granddaughters, and hopefully will be able to catch up with Jonathan, Chantal and my grandson soon.And, after this rather hectic week, I'm really looking forward to Sunday morning and a bit of a lie-in and a long chat with Robbie and a good read of the British newspapers and magazines I brought home from Heathrow.I keep reminding myself that we all go thru times like these.Maybe you don't live in two different countries, but plenty of us have grown families, aging parents, loved ones all over the world away from us for months, maybe even years, at a time.We all go thru soul searching and heartaches and melancholy and trying to live in some sort of version of the future where everything works perfectly and everyone is close by and there is no sadness.Kind of like the Disney version of life.So for now I'll just acknowledge my feelings, and eventually, not too long from now, the melancholy will pass, life will normalise, and the sun will shine again.Whew, I feel better already.

We took a mini break at the Jurassic Coast. Three beaches, a 13C chapel, and a video.

We decided to head down to the sea shore for a mini vacation.Now since the isles are surrounded by all sorts of beaches, I did a little research to where I'd like to go, and I chose the Jurassic coast in the south.A little research turned up this gem of a B&B, The Abbey House in the quaint little village of Abotsburry.We will definitely stay here again next summer.Here is our luxurious and ever so comfortable bedroom, complete with an ensuite with soaker tub and separate shower fluffy towels and beautiful boutique toiletries.I also chose this B&B because it is right beside the biggest and possibly the best preserved 14C tithe barn in England. (It was useful to Henry 8th so wasn't destroyed during the reformation.) And close to a monument called St Catherine's chapel. (Which also wasn't destroyed because it was useful as a beacon for mariners.)So we dropped off out overnight bags in our room, grabbed out beach gear and headed off to the nearest beach along the Jurassic coast.Now I must admit that the child in me felt like we were going to find fossils at every turn, and the adventurer in me felt like I'm not going to stop searching till I do!The first beach we came to was called Chesil beach and I fell in love with the beautiful polished rocks there.Glorious, glorious little polished pebbles.We had a swim and I gathered up handfuls of pebbles to take home for possible rings, and decided to drive to an other beach.It was afternoon by the time we left Chesil beach, and as we drove along the Dorset coast, a fog started to roll in in the most romantic way over the bucolic countryside.The we arrived in a little "Doc Martin" seaside village called West Bay and stopped at the beach there.Wow! This beach!We were advised that fossils could be found in the sandstone and shale cliffs and so decided to take a look for ourselves.We saw tons of people with their little geological hammers digging into the sandstone, and then remembered that last year a part of the cliff fell down and killed a woman.As a matter of fact, as we were talking to someone, a rock tumbled off the cliffs and landed with a thump a little way from us. The woman said, "Oh yeah, the cliff slides bring the rocks down."Umm, we called this the Darwin Awards Beach! And stepped away from the cliffs.We didn't find any fossils here, but we had fun looking.Soon it was time to head back to our B&B and think about supper.We pointed the car towards St Catherine's chapel and the little hamlet of Abbotsbury, and walked into town to the pub for fish and chips.After supper Robbie felt like having a rest and I wanted to go explore the hamlet.I started off with the church right next door to the B&B.This little church is built on the ruins of the Abbey of St Peter.It wasn't spared during the reformation and most of the windows are Victorian stained glass, except for this one of Mary the virgin, which was found and pieced back together. It is most probably a small part of a medieval window.I walked to the tithe barn and walked around the pond.Then I walked out of the garden gate and up the hill to St Catherine's chapel.On the way up the hill I met a woman walking her dog. I stopped to say hello and she told me she got married in the chapel because it's such a special place.Looking down on our little hamlet and the B&B, I would agree with her.The inside of this chapel is bare ground and dove roosts. So simple and so magical.I stayed for the sunset......and walked back through our sleepy little hamlet to the B&B.The next morning we had breakfast, said goodbye to our hosts, and went off in search of a new beach and some fossils.We were told that Charmouth beach was the most famous of the fossil beaches on this Jurassic coast, and so we headed straight down there.Instead of soft, yellow sandstone, we found hard clay and shale.And tons of people beachcombing for fossils.This beach did not disappoint.There were several huge boulders along the beach with fossils in them. Like these ammonites.And this: apparently a prehistoric turtle shell.We spoke to some fossil hunters and they showed us some ancient fossils called belemnites: calcified remains of a prehistoric squid type creature.So while we collected a bunch from among the rocks, other people had other ideas!We've had the most amazing time this little holiday get-away. We visited a new part of England I've never been to and discovered some new and wonderful things.Here is a little video I made for you. Hope you like it. Sorry about the smudge on the camera lens. I didn;t notice it till editing.https://youtu.be/6reKITMPA-kWe're already planning to come back here next summer. :D