Life at 139a is 6 years old...

Well, I’m not quite sure how that happened and I’d like to say it was well and truly celebrated - well it was with pink champers and a couple of nights away, but that might have been more to do with Valentine’s Day in reality.

But when I realised I’d reached another milestone with my blog I didn’t want to let the event go completely unnoticed here, and so I’ve raided Unsplash for a suitably stylish six photo, which I’m sharing along with six facts blog-gy facts.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

1. I still enjoy writing my blog, six years on. I’m not sure I ever thought about it long-term, but over the years it’s evolved and grown with me and I’ve grown with it. More than ever I relaxed about the various ranking and stats, and more about what I’m writing about and who’s reading and interacting with my blog. I’m much more likely to use my stats to see what’s working and what’s being read, rather than to compare myself to other blogs.

2. I’m happy with my ‘brand’ too. There’s been a few tweaks to the layout, but since I moved to Squarespace, the look and feel have been pretty much constant. I’ve no desire to change it (and quite frankly, probably not the time to either), so that’s just as well. I’m more certain than ever that Life at 139a will live on whenever the time comes to move house because…

3. Blogging is now ingrained in what I do. So unintentionally leaving home without my phone for a day out on Saturday was quite strange, mildly liberating and quite frustrating all at the same time, especially as there were pictures I wanted to take (cue commandeering MOH’s phone).

4. I’ve more plans for this space than I’m sure I’ll be able to put into practice, but the same could be said of my home-life, work-life, holiday-planning-self, craft to do list and almost everything I’m involved with. I guess that means I like things to be busy and am open to change, but don’t always have the time, and perhaps confidence, to make them all happen. But at least some of them make it through.

5. I’m a night owl who often runs out of ‘night owl hours’ so it seems I can be sensible at times too, as I know I have to get up for work in the morning. So while I could (and do) spend time on my blog each evening and into the small hours, there’s never enough time, as there has to be sleep.

6. I value each and every comment and interaction with my blog, it might take me a while to reply (see number 4 above) but I will. I’m working out how I can catch up, stay on top and even stay ahead of myself at times too so I don’t always feel like I’m chasing my tail, though I think that’s a symptom of modern day living.

So happy sixth blog birthday to me, here’s to many, many more.

'Life Circles' at Norfolk Makers Festival

You might have seen some of these mandalas on my Facebook yesterday, there were a chance discovery at the end of a day wandering around Norwich, where we randomly stopped in The Forum, an interesting looking building close to our hotel. And then discovered the Norfolk Makers Festival, which was taking place in the large open space inside the building, and there was all sorts.

MOH quite quickly spotted the whittling class, but couldn’t be tempted to whittle away. I spotted the Homage to the Granny Square - more on that another day - and if he’d have whittled I would have sat down and crocheted a granny square contribution. There were knitted figurines, knitted villages, calligraphy, still life painting and much more, including this exhibition of Life Circles, or mandalas.

I didn’t think I was much into mandalas. I see them regularly in crochet Facebook groups but hadn’t really seen the point of them, or found anywhere that I’d put them. But seeing these, I’m beginning to change my mind, and that’s mostly because of the shadows, which I think are even more magical than the mandalas themselves…

It’s been said that mandalas have been used to aid meditation by many cultures, I’m not sure if it’s the patterns, being able to express oneself, of the process of crafting which as we know is good for our mental wellbeing. In fact I’m hosting a craft session with a colleague at work on the upcoming University Mental Health day, which of course I still have to prep for!

These mandalas originated by Kally Davidson, a freeform crochet artist, who has been encouraging people in her community to make their own mandalas, which started using a crochet pattern passed down from her great grandma.

Kally says that “this collection of mandalas is like a cross section of my community, influencing and inspiring action in each other like the radiating circular ripples caused by water droplets” and she’s thankful for this as it feels as if the community are “always part of the rings that make me.”

And for me, what makes them work isn’t necessarily the colour or even the shapes, but the impact that the group has when they’re together like this, and how that’s magnified by the shadows. Which when you compare that to Kally’s quote, does kind of feel quite deep…

I think I’m converted, what do you think of them?

Reflecting on my week #71

Last week was one of those doubly manic weeks. You know the sort, you’re busy anyway and are looking forward to a much needed break, but that much needed break brings with it the compulsion to get things done that you’d normally do if you weren’t having that much needed break. So it short, it’s a week where things have come to a head (simmering, not explosive) and one that almost broke me (but didn’t).

And because i refuse to let it break me - I can be stubborn like that - I needed to find another way to deal with it, and that’s been compromise, prioritising and useful. And what needed to be done, got done and so we escaped to Norfolk, for that much needed break.

Phew.

I’m sure that you have your Valentines traditions and recently ours has also included cheese, and most often from the cheese shop in Greenwich. However this year my cheese exploits were thwarted as I discovered the shop shuts at 1pm on Thursdays. Knowing that we were heading to Norfolk, I wasn’t too worried as the deli in Hunstanton also has a good cheese selection.

However as I was standing outside it I discovered that too shut at 1pm on the day I visited. I was beginning to think there was a cheese shop conspiracy, but one I knew we’d overcome, even if it was a little later than usual. And so after a visit to the farm shop and Norfolk Lavender and later at Creake Abbey, we had our cheese.

Not any old cheese either, both are local. The Binham Blue is made just up the road in Wighton from where we bought it, and the Baron Bigod has had a slightly longer journey over the border in Suffolk. In fact we’ve had a truffled version of this before at our most recent trip to the Gravetye Manor, and it’s been on our radar ever since, so it was nice to spot it relatively close to its home.

And it was great to try them both along with some Gurney Gold and some goats cheese we’d brought from our local farmers’ market too, even if it was a few days afterwards. Actually this year I think we probably had the least romantic Valentine’s Day ever. If it’s a weeknight we’ll usually open a bottle of red, but not this year. This year we ate out, at McDonalds! We tried KFC first, at the Ely retail park on the way to Norfolk, but they were only doing takeaways, and I didn’t want the car smelling for the last hour or so of our journey. Romantic hey?!

So I’ve had a chilled few days in Norfolk, with some time for pottering, some for craft and still not enough to catch up with everything I want to. We’ve found cheese (yay!) and eaten local venison, which we roasted with locally grown potatoes and vegetables. We’ve been out for cake, wandered around villages and towns and shops and the week has ended in a much less frantic state than it started.

i even forgot my phone, and was without it for the whole day. It was quite liberating, but then often there’s not much signal up here anyway, but also a little restrictive as there were many photos I wanted to take. MOH had managed to bring his phone along and so that was commandeered at times for a photo or two, and completely relinquished by the time we got to the shops at Creake Abbey!

I’d been following the progress of the new arts centre at Wells Maltings and I was keen to see it for myself - it’s billing itself as “North Norfolk’s Cultural Landmark” and certainly had much on its programme. It’s here that we wandered around the local art exhibition, re-learning that we have different tastes in art. It looks a great place, there’s a cafe, activities and classes as well as a heritage centre (which we didn’t go into, as it was only a flying visit and £3.50 while not extortionate, seemed a little steep for the time we had available), exhibitions, cinema screenings and shows and it’s something I’m going to continue keeping an eye out for.

The photo below is of the cafe with its Wells Community Tapestry, which tells the story of the town’s heritage in textile reflecting the “vibrancy of the community groups that are active within it” and has seventy-five panels created by thirty seven community groups which highlight everything from the granary building on the quay to knitted shells and starfish.

Isn’t it great?