Long weekends away from the city

by Nora

Long weekends are the joy of the working mum, the celebration of school girls, the smile of the long forgotten country house and its abandoned garden. All these and much more was the ‘weekend plus Ash Monday’ when the Frog Family found the chance to escape to its paradise. With backpacks filled with school books (the little Misses of the pond), plastic bags with grocery and canvas bags filled with vinyl disks (Mr.BeardMan) and yarn (the Cherry Frog itself!), we all were more than ready to make the most out of our three free days.

Weather update (I can never skip this part of the narration): Warm enough. Smile. But not dry enough. Sigh. But all in all, ok. We were blessed to have seven whole hours of sunshine on Saturday morning, making this the ideal slot for gardening duties. The garden was suffering from the icy winter months, which have left many plants almost frozen dead, flowers looking miserable, the soil sooo muddy wet that it was impossible to handle. But seven hours are seven hours and four frog family members are eight hands and eight hands are enough to revive a garden. So, without even opening the bags, we all plunged into weeding, pruning, pouring fresh soil, planting newly bought geraniums and pansies and hyacinths. The well deserved late lunch afterwards was just last evening’s leftovers and it was followed by a mexican-style siesta, a rare luxury I must admit. Yarn bag remained closed.

I was looking around me and I could not but admire the early spring colours of nature. The orange trees, still bearing some fruit, were glazing under the pale sun, the grass was the greenest ever, such a luscious deep green with pops of transparent glittery morning dew on it, the flowers, yellow and purple and orange and fuchsia… Heaven on earth, my heaven at least.

Three days couldn’t be spent without a walk to the sea. Obviously. The little Misses of the pond enjoy it so much, regardless of the season or the weather. It was a bit foggy and damp, like a fairy tale. I was taking deep breaths to let the iodine salty air reach my toes :-), while the girls were searching for sea shells.

Fashion break: My winter leather All Stars matched perfectly the sand and pebble beach:-)

On our way back, I stopped to take a picture of this bright red bush climbing on a house’s fence~ such a striking contrast to the grey sky

And then the sky was not grey anymore; As the sun began to set, I turned my head upwards to face a beautiful blue sky with fluffy clouds painted yellow, just above the grapevine covering our porch. A marvel, rarely to be seen in our urban everyday life.

Full of smells, colours, new flowers and sea breeze, late in the afternoons I was retiring in our living room, with a lit fireplace and my “design-as-you-go” shawl. My good friend Catherine has asked me for a light summer stole and this time I decided not to follow a pattern, but rather make up my own. Not easy, but utterly enjoyable. I’m halfway there by now and I like it very much. Lace yarn at its best. I have brought with me at my paradise three different shades of Debbie Bliss Merino lace and one skein of Fyberspates scruptious lace, a heaven of yarn, silk and merino, which my friend (almost sister) Simone held for hours in her hands for me to wind into yarn cakes (let’s drink on good friends who are always eager to share our loves!)

I’m curious to see how this will look like when it’s all ready and blocked. I think I’ve already found a name for it 😉