Holiday Home play-time! - Monday, 2nd September, 2013.

Keeping busy on holiday, doing things to keep your  mind and body stimulated and exercised is great and keeping yourself supple and invigorated is a bonus, hey?

Our holiday home is a large, old, Welsh farmhouse, which our own home flat would fit into twice-over, if necessary; so it's good to feel space opening up around you, with room to breathe.

Of course, the absolute heaven of a small dwelling, is the light and easy amount of housework which needs be done, for the simple lack of space makes it almost impossible to cram more furniture and stuff in than is really, and absolutely, essential for your every-day comfort living!

What it's quite impossible to avoid, is the collection of personal memorabilia, paperwork and things, which everyone over the age of six months, tends to accrue.  We are not, unhappily, once past a certain age, so fortunate as the young child with its mother or grandma, constantly clearing up after him and, sporadically, deciding that those clothes, things, toys etc. should be given or thrown out; if not needed for another baby, and instructing the youngster to get a handle on doing the same, just as soon as it possibly can, when such matters should become a life-enriching habit......well, that's the universal hope, anyway!!!

A gatherer of stuff by nature and inclination, books, magazines, paperwork and things attach themselves to my being, wherever I am and, in a small living space this can, and does, add more-than sufficient clutter, which one is almost loath to disturb immediately, because its presence, although unbearable, just adds to your present work-load!  You're already far too busy to contemplate a tidy-up session!  Let it wait its turn another day - wherein lies your disaster:(:(:(

However, now we're on holiday in our lovely Welsh cottage, there is masses of space for me to stack and store my books, notebooks, paperwork and things in, without the mass, at any time, becoming even the tiniest bit oppressive or cluttering.  A tidy pile here and there just makes the space feel home-like and welcoming!

Then the true essence of home-playing comes into its own, when you reach for the polish and duster and buff the dark wood of Welsh-dresser and sideboard, the occasional tables and bookshelves.  Even raking out the wood burning stove of last night's fire is almost fun; and wasn't it good, sitting close to an apple wood log fire these last few evenings, when the sun has gone down and the night enfolds you in its velvet embrace?

Log sawing.....